Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn

Readings:

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chs. 1 – 16
• Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume Two, Part III, Ch. 12; Appendix U

Discussion Questions:

1. After introducing Tom, Twain “introduces” two other boys, one by way of indirect comparison, and another directly with a confrontation. Twain states emphatically in Ch. 1 that Tom is not the model boy of the village, but that Tom knows who the model boy is, and we meet him in Ch.5. And at the end of Ch. 1, another boy, a “stranger”, appears and there is an altercation. We learn who the “stranger” is in Ch. 18 (Alfred Temple, who “is aristocracy.”). Discuss the significance of the comparison to the “model boy” and the confrontation with the stranger and the tone it sets for the rest of the novel.
2. Aunt Polly, in her soliloquy in Ch. 1, notes that Tom “hates work more than anything else.” Is she correct about Tom’s aversion to work, considering what Tom did to pull off the “slaughter of…innocents” in the whitewashing episode of Ch. 2? What does the famous whitewashing scene tell us about Tom’s leadership traits? How does the “Tom Sawyer effect,” as it’s called today, exploit labor or, on the other hand, inject needful play, even joy, into liberalism itself?
3. Tom spends Chs. 4-5 in church. Several Biblical references are made, including to David and Goliath, Isaiah 11: 6-9, and Matthew 5: 2-12. Discuss the significance, if any, of these selected passages to the development of Tom’s character within a democratic setting. How does Tom conquer the congregation and what motivates him to do so? What are the parallels to what he accomplishes in church and his “slaughter of innocents” in Ch. 2?
4. Compare and contrast the motivations of Huck and Tom, Dr. Robinson, and Injun Joe for being at the cemetery in the first place.
5. Chs. 13-16 focus on Tom and his friends’ retreat to Jackson Island (“burning the bridge between them and civilization”), which can be viewed in its own way as an escape to a state of nature. How content are Tom Sawyer and his friends when they are away from civilization? What are nature’s charms and drawbacks? How does Tom use this time in the wilderness to emerge as an undisputed leader? What leadership qualities are on display?
6. Tocqueville in Democracy in America highlights the importance of American women as mothers and wives and the role they play in civilizing men. What impact does Aunt Polly have on Tom Sawyer in civilizing him? Who are Tom Sawyer’s male role models in the town? Who is the most “manly man” in the village?

Readings:

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chs. 17 – Conclusion

Discussion Questions:

1. Tom “conquers” the church again in Ch. 17, the climax of the novel, with his return from the dead. He is awarded for another fraudulent victory. Has Tom become that “child who should lead them?” To what extent is the call that “a little child should lead them” the story of Tom Sawyer?
2. How does Tom get glory at school in Chs. 18-20? Are these victories at school earned in more honest ways? Or are they too based on a kind of deception? Does Tom earn his glory legitimately? Does it matter in a democracy?
3. One could say that Injun Joe and Tom share in common a sense of pride that they nurse
   to excess. Discuss the code of honor that Injun Joe lives by and compare it to Tom’s.
4. Discuss the town’s effort to pardon Injun Joe (Ch. 23). Why would the people of St. Petersburg direct their energy in such an undertaking? Is this effort representative of democratic compassion? Is such an effort well-directed?
5. In the Epilogue, Twain writes: “Most of the characters that perform in this book still live and are prosperous and happy.” To what extent is there a “performative” quality to ATS? By “characters” is Twain referring to the actual characters (e.g., Tom, Huck, Aunt Polly, et al.) or something else? If something else, what is it?
6. Judge Thatcher anoints Tom Sawyer as a modern-day George Washington in the final chapter and pledges to see to it that Tom is admitted to West Point and the “best law school in the country.” Is Judge Thatcher correct in his assessment of Tom Sawyer’s
   leadership potential?
7. The novel ends with the founding of Tom’s gang of robbers and Tom’s efforts to make sure Huck qualifies for initiation (by agreeing to be civilized). How is this ending appropriate, especially given the comparison in the final chapter of Tom to George Washington? How significant is it that the novel ends with a founding?

Readings:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Notice, Chs. 1-10

Discussion Questions:

1. Discuss Mark Twain’s “notice.”
2. Note the subtitle of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (AHS) as “Tom Sawyer’s Comrade.” Compare and contrast the opening paragraphs of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with the opening paragraphs of AHF. In what way is Huck Finn more than Tom Sawyer’s comrade? Why is Huckleberry Finn presented as being in the shadow of Tom Sawyer?
3. Huck Finn, like Tom Sawyer, finds a certain Biblical passage of special interest in Ch. 1. Just as Isaiah 11:6 caught Tom’s attention in church, Huck was “in a sweat” to learn more about the story of “Moses and the Bulrushers.” Why? How is the Exodus story especially relevant to Huck, Jim, and Americans?
4. Chapter One tackles two areas that have been of special interest (and obstacles) to the liberal project: religion and superstition. What are Huck’s attitudes towards Christianity and superstition/folklore? Why does folklore exert a greater hold on Huck than religion? How does Huck test both faith and superstition? Which one is more compatible with or at least more salutary for the requirements of living in a natural rights republic?
5. In what way is “freedom” a relative term early in this book? Consider how Huck Finn wrestles with freedom in the opening two chapters of the book from living in Widow Douglas’s house, to joining Tom Sawyer’s Gang, to being kidnapped by Pap. In what setting is Huck most free, and free from what?
6. What are the implications of Jim not telling Huck that the dead man in the abandoned floating house in Ch. 9 is Pap?

Readings:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapters 11-19
• Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. II, Book 3, Ch. 8
• States of Nature:
  • Hobbes, Leviathan, Ch. 13;
  • Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality, excerpt

Discussion Questions:

1. Jim engages in a conversation with Huck about kings and the French language in Ch. 14. How is Jim able to see further and more philosophically than Huck in this case?
2. What sort of moral reasoning, if it is moral reasoning, does Huck engage in when he decides not to turn in Jim to the slave catchers (Ch.16)? Is the source of Huck’s compassion similar to what he shows for the drowned gang of robbers on the steamship, The Sir Walter Scott (Ch.13), and ultimately later at the tar and feathering of the Duke and Dauphin? Does Huck’s compassion discriminate at all among human beings?
3. In what way do the Shepherdson’s represent Tocqueville’s aristocratic family? What are its attributes and strengths as well as its shortcomings? How does their aristocratic family bearing clash with artwork on the walls of the Shepherdson’s home (Washington, Lafayette, the Declaration of Independence) and with their books (the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress, Henry Clay’s speeches)? And why do you think Twain chose these works to highlight?
4. Why is life on a raft on the river idyllic for much of the time (see especially the end of Ch.18 and beginning of Ch.19)? What kind of state of nature does it seem to represent: Hobbes’ or Rousseau’s?

Readings:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapters 19-31
• Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. 2, Part 3, Chapter 1

Discussion Questions:

1.  The raft in Ch. 19 gets invaded by the con men, the Duke and Dauphin. At the end of Ch. 19, Huck reveals that he knows all along that they are “low down humbugs and frauds.” Why then does Huck not seek to shake them off or tell Jim? Why is Huck so resigned, and why do such fraudulent characters especially thrive in the American republic as depicted by Twain?
2. Compare the Duke and Dauphin to European aristocracy (see Ch. 23) in respect to their use of force and fraud. What are the differences and similarities? If American democracy allows such fraudsters to thrive and flourish, does Europe give such “fraudsters” legitimacy through the institution of aristocracy?
3. How civil is civil society as depicted in the Arkansas town found in Ch. 21? What makes it an especially cruel place, and how does the human inclination towards cruelty challenge the foundations of the liberal project? How does Twain describe the main street of the town? Is it believable?
4. “Cuss the doctor! What do we k’yer for him? Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain’t that a big enough majority in any town?” (Ch. 26) Comment and consider what role the doctor (Dr. Robinson) and lawyer (Levi Bell) perform at the end of the Wilk’s affair. Is democracy about more than leveraging the wishes “of all the fools in town?” How does the tyranny of the majority loom over this novel? What kind of majority is it?
5. We encounter several incidents of lawlessness and mobocracy, especially towards the end of the novel, with citizens taking the law into their own hands with a lynch mob’s confrontation of Colonel Sherburne (Ch. 22), the “sold” audience to the Royal Nonesuch productions (Ch. 23 & 33), and a group of farmers’ threating to lynch Jim on the Phelps farm (Ch. 40). How do these scenes reflect on the problem of self-government as depicted in the novel? Does the novel offer any “solution” to this problem?
6. Huck tears up his letter in Ch. 31, the climax of the novel. What significant outcome, if any, does tearing up the letter achieve? Why does this moment so powerfully capture the sympathy of the reader? Can America’s political principles themselves be given credit for Huck’s epiphany here? Or would you credit religion or something else?

Readings:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapters 32 to Conclusion

Discussion Questions:

1. Is Tom as likeable and charming in AHF as he was in his own novel? Do you still like Tom? Does Tom represent something especially important to the civilizational requirements of American democracy? Why or why not?
2. Make a case for why Tom Sawyer’s “rescue” of Jim needed to be drawn out as it was by Twain. Could one argue that Tom’s rescue was no more futile than Huck’s attempt on the river? Are Sawyer’s romantic criteria for a rescue (going by those books) any less productive than Huck’s moral conscience? In some ways, are Sawyer’s more politically productive? What does this say about reforming democratic institutions?
3. Frederick Douglass noted in 1849 (just around the time that the AHF takes place in 1840s America) that the Black man will determine whether America lives up to its promises and that “we are here, and that this is our country; and the question for the philosophers and statesmen of the land ought to be: What principles should dictate the policy of the action towards us? We shall neither die out, nor be driven out, but shall go on with this people, either as a testimony against them, or as an evidence in their favor throughout their generations” (Nov 16, 1849). How does Jim bear this burden? Might a case be made that he is the true hero of the novel, especially by the way in which he handles the rescue attempt on the Phelps’ farm but also throughout the many challenges he confronts?
   4. Like the differences between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson that formed the contours of the American political tradition, giving rise to a tension that is indispensable to the flourishing of American political institutions, Tom and Huck similarly are both important to the perpetuation of American democracy. It could be argued that Tom represents important conventions of America – conventions that make America unique, innovative, and strong – while Huck softens those strivings with a moral and egalitarian vision of the democratic citizen. Elaborate on this theme.
4. While Tom Sawyer is the clear and “glittering” hero of his own novel, is Huck Finn the hero of his? To what extent is Huck Finn a failure as his climatic action (tearing up the letter) and his flight down the river did nothing to advance Jim’s freedom? Who or what is the hero of this novel?