The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Quotations Analyzed
1. Yes; en I’s rich now, come to look at it. I owns mysef, en I’s wuth eight hund’d dollars. I wisht I had de money,
I wouldn’ want no mo’.
In chapter 8 Huck discovers Miss Watson’s slave, Jim, runaway and hiding on Jackson’s Island. Jim discusses his
reasons for fleeing – Miss Watson was going to sell him down the river – and tells Huck about his past financial
misadventures. This humorous dialogue, full of dramatic irony, is punctuated at the end by this tragic yet life-
affirming quotation by Jim. Although he has no material wealth, by running away he has taken possession of his
own freedom, which he values at $800, the price Miss Watson was going to receive for selling him. While Twain’s
novel forces the reader to confront hideous racism again and again, it also surprises with moments of beautiful
humanity, such as this one.
2. Then I jumped in the canoe and dug out for our place, a mile and half below, as hard as I could go. I landed,
and slopped through the timber and up the ridge and into the cavern. There Jim laid, sound asleep on the
ground. I roused him out and says:
“Git up and hump yourself, Jim! There ain’t a minute to lose. They’re after us!”
After returning to shore disguised as a woman, Huck learns that slave hunters will be searching Jackson’s Island
for Jim (chapter 11). Leaving the home of Mrs. Judith Loftus, Huck returns hastily to his camp and awakens Jim.
Huck’s choice of words in this quotation is especially significant: the slave hunters are after Jim, not Huck. At this
critical turning point early in the novel, Huck decides to cast his fate along with a runaway slave instead of
turning him in. Although Huck would struggle with his conscience repeatedly at key moments in the novel, here
at the outset he makes the key decision that sets the plot in motion.
3. “When I got all wore out wid work, en wid de callin’ for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos’ broke
bekase you wuz los’, en I didn’t k’yer no’ mo’ what become er me en de raf’. En when I wake up en fine you back
a’gin, all safe en soun’, de tears come, en I could ‘a’ got down on my knees en kiss yo’ foot, I’s so thankful. En all
you wuz thinkin’ ‘bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie. Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is
what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en make ‘em ashamed.”
Separated in chapter 15 by dense nighttime fog, Huck is reunited with a sleeping Jim and decides to play a
prank on him. Pretending that they were never separated and that Jim has dreamed up the entire incident, Huck
preys upon the guileless and superstitious runaway slave’s trust. But when Jim figures out that he has been
fooled, he shares his hurt feelings with Huck in this quotation. Finally realizing that Jim has feelings like any
other human being, Huck apologizes two paragraphs later, even though his racist values make it difficult for him
to apologize to a slave. Jim’s role as a surrogate father for Huck strengthens as a result of this incident.
4. We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a
raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.
After spending two chapters living amongst the polite but violently feuding Grangerford clan, Huck finally
escapes back to the raft at the end of chapter 18. While the Grangerfords lived a very luxurious lifestyle with
high-class manners, Huck has never enjoyed such things; in fact that is why he was uncomfortable when he
lived with the Widow. Huck’s desire to roam free away from polite society is one of the prevalent themes in the
novel and one of its enduring contributions to American literature.
5. “If any real lynching’s going to be done it will be done in the dark, Southern fashion; and when they come
they’ll bring their masks, and fetch a man along. Now leave – and take your half a man with you” – tossing his
gun across his left arm and cocking it when he says this.
The crowd washed back sudden, and then broke all apart, and went tearing off every which way, and Buck
Harkness he heeled it after them, looking tolerable cheap. I could ‘a’ stayed if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to.
The adventure on shore with Colonel Sherburn is a stand-alone set piece of satire and social commentary of the
type Twain loved (chapters 21-22). At the end of chapter 22, Sherburn humiliates the entire population of his
little Arkansan town when they come to lynch him at his home in broad daylight. The grizzled old Colonel knows
that the ugly mob lacks anyone brave enough to take the first step towards him (and the first bullet from his
rifle). Although the mob acting together could overwhelm and kill Sherburn, no one individual has the spine.
Sherburn’s description of a nighttime, masked lynching conjures up vision of the KKK; Twain was prophetic in this
vignette. The quotation concludes hilariously as Huck attempts to convince his reader that he had the courage to
stay when we know that he is usually a coward.
6. AT THE COURTHOUSE!
FOR 3 NIGHTS ONLY!
The World-Renowned Tragedians
DAVID GARRICK THE YOUNGER!
AND
EDMUND KEAN THE ELDER!
Of the London and Continental
Theatres,
In their Thrilling Tragedy of
THE KING’S CAMELEOPARD,
OR
THE ROYAL NONESUCH! !
Admission 50 cents.
Then at the bottom was the biggest line of all, which said:
LADIES AND CHILDREN NOT ADMITTED
“There,” says he, “if that line don’t fetch them, I don’t know Arkansas!”
When the Duke and Dauphin’s first attempt at a Shakespearean drama racket is unprofitable, the “king”
changes his strategy to take advantage of the unsophisticated tastes of the country folk (chapter 22). While
advertised to be a highbrow performance, the king salaciously tacks on the final line to imply that the show will
contain adult material. Indeed, the Royal Nonesuch turns out to be a profitable scandal that consists of little
more than king prancing about the stage naked, on all fours, and painted in a rainbow of stripes. The townsfolk
are incensed by the scam, but the king is a step ahead of them and manages to make a tidy profit nonetheless.
Again and again, Twain uses the two con artists to lampoon the gullibility and lack of refinement of the Southern
communities along the Mississippi River in the days of his childhood (c. 1840).
7. It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever,
betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All
right then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up.
This is climax of the novel, when our hero, Huck, must choose between two conflicting paths (chapter 31). Thanks
to his incomplete Christian education, he believes it is his duty to society and to God to return Jim to his rightful
owner. But his conscience objects, and he remembers all of the kind deeds Jim has done for him and all of the
good times they had together. He rips up the letter he had planned to send to Miss Watson informing her of Jim’s
location even though he believes, ridiculously, that he is choosing an evil path. Of course this is dramatic irony
once again, and the reader silently applauds Huck’s fateful decision. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is, at
its core, a buddy story, and Huck remains loyal to his buddy despite the racism that was bred into him by Pap
and the society in which he was raised.
8. He told me what it was, and I see in a minute it was worth fifteen of mine for style, and would make Jim just
as free a man as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides. So I was satisfied, and said we would waltz in
on it.
Many readers feel that the final episode of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ruin the anti-racist, uplifting
message of the book. Here in chapter 34, Huck agrees to go along with Tom’s absurd plan to free Jim. The plan is
inspired by the adventure novels Tom has read (esp. Alexander Dumas), and it requires Jim to needlessly suffer
additional abuse and discomfort. Although his adventures have brought maturity to Huck, he is still in awe of
Tom and easily follows his lead. Even though it turns out well in the end, these final chapters are torture for Jim
and perhaps the reader as well. While Huck may not have a traditional moral compass, the reader admires his
pragmatism and humble common sense, and he usually makes the right decision when push comes to shove. His
decision to let Tom take over Jim’s “rescue,” which turns out to be unnecessary since Jim was already a free man,
seems to undermine the bond that had grown between Huck and Jim.
9. . . . and so there ain’t nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I’d ‘a’ knowed what a
trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t ‘a’ tackled it, and ain’t a-going to no more. But I reckon I got to light
out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t
stand it. I been there before.
In the classic final lines of the novel, Twain reminds us of his brilliant conceit in this novel; namely that the
previously illiterate Huckleberry Finn has been our author. He lampoons the writer’s craft by implying that an
ignorant boy like Huck could write such a book with only one year of education. Finally, he leaves us with a
reaffirmation of Huck’s fierce individualism and refusal to settle down. He rejects polite society once again to
head out for the Indian Territory, much as Twain did himself as a young man. Huck remains the eternal
metaphor for the American spirit: restless, iconoclastic, and above all else freedom-loving.
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1. Yes; en I’s rich now, come to look at it. I owns mysef, en I’s wuth eight hund’d dollars. I wisht I had de money,
I wouldn’ want no mo’.
In chapter 8 Huck discovers Miss Watson’s slave, Jim, runaway and hiding on Jackson’s Island. Jim discusses his
reasons for fleeing – Miss Watson was going to sell him down the river – and tells Huck about his past financial
misadventures. This humorous dialogue, full of dramatic irony, is punctuated at the end by this tragic yet life-
affirming quotation by Jim. Although he has no material wealth, by running away he has taken possession of his
own freedom, which he values at $800, the price Miss Watson was going to receive for selling him. While Twain’s
novel forces the reader to confront hideous racism again and again, it also surprises with moments of beautiful
humanity, such as this one.
2. Then I jumped in the canoe and dug out for our place, a mile and half below, as hard as I could go. I landed,
and slopped through the timber and up the ridge and into the cavern. There Jim laid, sound asleep on the
ground. I roused him out and says:
“Git up and hump yourself, Jim! There ain’t a minute to lose. They’re after us!”
After returning to shore disguised as a woman, Huck learns that slave hunters will be searching Jackson’s Island
for Jim (chapter 11). Leaving the home of Mrs. Judith Loftus, Huck returns hastily to his camp and awakens Jim.
Huck’s choice of words in this quotation is especially significant: the slave hunters are after Jim, not Huck. At this
critical turning point early in the novel, Huck decides to cast his fate along with a runaway slave instead of
turning him in. Although Huck would struggle with his conscience repeatedly at key moments in the novel, here
at the outset he makes the key decision that sets the plot in motion.
3. “When I got all wore out wid work, en wid de callin’ for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos’ broke
bekase you wuz los’, en I didn’t k’yer no’ mo’ what become er me en de raf’. En when I wake up en fine you back
a’gin, all safe en soun’, de tears come, en I could ‘a’ got down on my knees en kiss yo’ foot, I’s so thankful. En all
you wuz thinkin’ ‘bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie. Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is
what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en make ‘em ashamed.”
Separated in chapter 15 by dense nighttime fog, Huck is reunited with a sleeping Jim and decides to play a
prank on him. Pretending that they were never separated and that Jim has dreamed up the entire incident, Huck
preys upon the guileless and superstitious runaway slave’s trust. But when Jim figures out that he has been
fooled, he shares his hurt feelings with Huck in this quotation. Finally realizing that Jim has feelings like any
other human being, Huck apologizes two paragraphs later, even though his racist values make it difficult for him
to apologize to a slave. Jim’s role as a surrogate father for Huck strengthens as a result of this incident.
4. We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a
raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.
After spending two chapters living amongst the polite but violently feuding Grangerford clan, Huck finally
escapes back to the raft at the end of chapter 18. While the Grangerfords lived a very luxurious lifestyle with
high-class manners, Huck has never enjoyed such things; in fact that is why he was uncomfortable when he
lived with the Widow. Huck’s desire to roam free away from polite society is one of the prevalent themes in the
novel and one of its enduring contributions to American literature.
5. “If any real lynching’s going to be done it will be done in the dark, Southern fashion; and when they come
they’ll bring their masks, and fetch a man along. Now leave – and take your half a man with you” – tossing his
gun across his left arm and cocking it when he says this.
The crowd washed back sudden, and then broke all apart, and went tearing off every which way, and Buck
Harkness he heeled it after them, looking tolerable cheap. I could ‘a’ stayed if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to.
The adventure on shore with Colonel Sherburn is a stand-alone set piece of satire and social commentary of the
type Twain loved (chapters 21-22). At the end of chapter 22, Sherburn humiliates the entire population of his
little Arkansan town when they come to lynch him at his home in broad daylight. The grizzled old Colonel knows
that the ugly mob lacks anyone brave enough to take the first step towards him (and the first bullet from his
rifle). Although the mob acting together could overwhelm and kill Sherburn, no one individual has the spine.
Sherburn’s description of a nighttime, masked lynching conjures up vision of the KKK; Twain was prophetic in this
vignette. The quotation concludes hilariously as Huck attempts to convince his reader that he had the courage to
stay when we know that he is usually a coward.
6. AT THE COURTHOUSE!
FOR 3 NIGHTS ONLY!
The World-Renowned Tragedians
DAVID GARRICK THE YOUNGER!
AND
EDMUND KEAN THE ELDER!
Of the London and Continental
Theatres,
In their Thrilling Tragedy of
THE KING’S CAMELEOPARD,
OR
THE ROYAL NONESUCH! !
Admission 50 cents.
Then at the bottom was the biggest line of all, which said:
LADIES AND CHILDREN NOT ADMITTED
“There,” says he, “if that line don’t fetch them, I don’t know Arkansas!”
When the Duke and Dauphin’s first attempt at a Shakespearean drama racket is unprofitable, the “king”
changes his strategy to take advantage of the unsophisticated tastes of the country folk (chapter 22). While
advertised to be a highbrow performance, the king salaciously tacks on the final line to imply that the show will
contain adult material. Indeed, the Royal Nonesuch turns out to be a profitable scandal that consists of little
more than king prancing about the stage naked, on all fours, and painted in a rainbow of stripes. The townsfolk
are incensed by the scam, but the king is a step ahead of them and manages to make a tidy profit nonetheless.
Again and again, Twain uses the two con artists to lampoon the gullibility and lack of refinement of the Southern
communities along the Mississippi River in the days of his childhood (c. 1840).
7. It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever,
betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All
right then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up.
This is climax of the novel, when our hero, Huck, must choose between two conflicting paths (chapter 31). Thanks
to his incomplete Christian education, he believes it is his duty to society and to God to return Jim to his rightful
owner. But his conscience objects, and he remembers all of the kind deeds Jim has done for him and all of the
good times they had together. He rips up the letter he had planned to send to Miss Watson informing her of Jim’s
location even though he believes, ridiculously, that he is choosing an evil path. Of course this is dramatic irony
once again, and the reader silently applauds Huck’s fateful decision. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is, at
its core, a buddy story, and Huck remains loyal to his buddy despite the racism that was bred into him by Pap
and the society in which he was raised.
8. He told me what it was, and I see in a minute it was worth fifteen of mine for style, and would make Jim just
as free a man as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides. So I was satisfied, and said we would waltz in
on it.
Many readers feel that the final episode of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ruin the anti-racist, uplifting
message of the book. Here in chapter 34, Huck agrees to go along with Tom’s absurd plan to free Jim. The plan is
inspired by the adventure novels Tom has read (esp. Alexander Dumas), and it requires Jim to needlessly suffer
additional abuse and discomfort. Although his adventures have brought maturity to Huck, he is still in awe of
Tom and easily follows his lead. Even though it turns out well in the end, these final chapters are torture for Jim
and perhaps the reader as well. While Huck may not have a traditional moral compass, the reader admires his
pragmatism and humble common sense, and he usually makes the right decision when push comes to shove. His
decision to let Tom take over Jim’s “rescue,” which turns out to be unnecessary since Jim was already a free man,
seems to undermine the bond that had grown between Huck and Jim.
9. . . . and so there ain’t nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I’d ‘a’ knowed what a
trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t ‘a’ tackled it, and ain’t a-going to no more. But I reckon I got to light
out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t
stand it. I been there before.
In the classic final lines of the novel, Twain reminds us of his brilliant conceit in this novel; namely that the
previously illiterate Huckleberry Finn has been our author. He lampoons the writer’s craft by implying that an
ignorant boy like Huck could write such a book with only one year of education. Finally, he leaves us with a
reaffirmation of Huck’s fierce individualism and refusal to settle down. He rejects polite society once again to
head out for the Indian Territory, much as Twain did himself as a young man. Huck remains the eternal
metaphor for the American spirit: restless, iconoclastic, and above all else freedom-loving.
Back to Main Page