Chapter+23


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Huck Finn Chapter 23** **Sparknotes** **Project** **1. Characters List** **2. Summary** The Duke and the King are setting up the stage while the whole place is filling up with people. The Duke is telling us about the tragedy as he is speaking the King comes out on the stage. The King is wearing no clothing and is on all fours, he is painted all over. The people think it is so funny they kill themselves laughing. The people are in a uproar because the show is so short, a man from the crowd gets on the stage and tells the people that they should boast about the show to their friends and family so that they don’t look like the fool’s of the town. The second night they did the same thing, later that night they took the raft and floated down the river to hide. The third night there were no new comers and the people had bulging pockets which held rotting food. The Duke gave a man a quarter to hold so that they could escape. They get away with four hundred and sixty-five dollars for three nights work. As they are talking Huck tells Jim about how all Kings our sneaky scoundrels. As they sit there and talk Jim tells Huck about this child being deaf and dumb. **3. Analysis** What we think is really going on in this chapter is the King and Duke scammed the whole city for their money by putting on this show. As we all know the people from the first nights show weren’t pleased at all, and they thought it wasn’t fair that it was only them who got scammed, so they went and spread the word that the show was great so the rest of the townspeople would go spend their money on it. So instead of the people letting out there anger on the King and Duke for an overpriced show, they go and tell the whole town it was good, and thus the King and Duke made a huge success with the show. So instead of the townspeople ruining the King and Duke for their scheme they help them out big time. While analyzing this chapter we have found many examples of southern life and discrimination. One major occurrence is how Huck sees Jim. Although, Huck often considers Jim one of his closest friends, Jim’s skin color frequently sways Huck’s feelings. One of the instances in which this occurred was when Huck said “He was thinking about is wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does their’n. It don’t seem natural.”(117) He was raised in this way that teaches him that blacks are so low, to the point that they don’t even care about their own families. Life in the south was tough on people like Jim. “Oh, Huck, I bust out a-cryin’ en grab her up in my arms, en say, ‘Oh, de po’ little thing! De Lord God almighty fogive po’ ole Jim, kaze he never gwyne to fogive hisself as long’s he live!”(118) This quote takes place right after Jim tells Huck the story about when he hits his daughter for not listening to what his order, but it turned out she couldn’t hear him because she was left deaf from a fever she had. I think this is the story that really hurts Jim the most when he is gone with his family. “He was often moaning and mourning that way, nights, when he judged I was asleep saying, and saying, ‘Po’ little Lizabeth! Po little Johnny! It’s mighty hard; I spec’ I aint ever gwyne to see you no mo’, no mo’!”(117) I think this is showing that Jim thinks a lot about what he did to his daughter and regrets it a lot. **4. Extra Elements** A constant theme throughout Mark Twain’s __Adventures of Huckleberry Fin__ is racism, and the lack of education. Huck is surprised when he finds out that Jim actually has feelings for his family, which is really crazy. This chapter occurs during the pre-civil war south. It is set at a small river town along the Mississippi river. Because of the time and the setting there is a great deal of figurative language. For example Huck uses the Hyperbole “Most people killed themselves laughing” (114) to describe how funny the play was. Huck uses another Hyperbole when he says “The King and the Duke fairly laughed their bones loose over the way they served those people” (115) Here he describes the way the King and the Duke found the way they cheated and evaded the crowd quite humorous.
 * **Huck**
 * **Jim**
 * **Duke**
 * **King**
 * **Townspeople**