Honors Junior English
ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
“PROMPTBOOK”
RP/WH/LA
As a way to bring the characters in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to life and to assess their actions and words, we are going to look at several scenes in the book as if they were scripts for a play. I have, for the most part, removed Huck’s narration and turned the dialgue into script form. Very similar to our prompt books for Much Ado, your job here is to assess the characters and situation as explained below and then perform your scene for the class. Prompt books will be collected and will be graded. You may have no more than three people in your group, one of whom may be the director and not have a speaking part.You may also share the speaking parts if you prefer (ie: have one person play Jim for the first half and someone else for the second half). All scripts must be represented; some may be performed by more than one group. You do NOT have to memorize your lines.
1. With your group, read out loud once through the script you were given.
2. As a group, annotate your script. Pay special attention to body language and facial expressions.
Where will the characters be standing or sitting?
How will they be in proximity to one another?
What will they be doing with their bodies? their hands?
Will they be sitting still or moving?
What gestures will they make?
What will their facial expressions be?
What tone of voice do they use?
Is the character serious or silly? genuine or phony? innocent or cunning?
3. Also, perhaps most importantly, make notes about character motivation -- how are the characters feeling in this scene/this moment? Why? How do their feelings manifest themselves in actions? Try to get under the surface to explain their feelings. Consider this in context of the novel’s messages as a whole.
4. Turn in the group’s extensive notes after performing your scene for the class. You may turn in one prompt book for the group. Your prompt book will be assessed on depth of consideration of those elements listed above.
Scripts:
1. Huck and Jim Discuss Wealth
2. Huck meets Mrs. Loftus while dressed as a girl (first half)
3. Huck meets Mrs. Loftus while dressed as a girl (second half)
4. King Solomon
5. Kings and Cats and Dogs
6. Huck Tricks Jim about the fog
SCRIPT #1 -- Huck and Jim discuss wealth
HUCK
All the signs was about bad luck, warn't any good-luck signs?
JIM
Mighty few -- an' dey ain't no use to a body. What you want to know when good luck's a-comin' for? Want to keep it off?" Ef you's got hairy arms en a hairy breas', it's a sign dat you's agwyne to be rich. Well, dey's some use in a sign like dat, 'kase it's so fur ahead. You see, maybe you's got to be po' a long time fust, en so you might git discourage' en kill yo'sef 'f you didn' know by de sign dat you gwyne to be rich by and by.
HUCK
Have you got hairy arms and a hairy breast, Jim?
JIM
What's de use to ax dat question? Don't you see I has?
HUCK
Well, are you rich?
JIM
No, but I ben rich wunst, and gwyne to be rich agin. Wunst I had foteen dollars, but I tuck to specalat'n', en got busted out.
HUCK
What did you speculate in, Jim?
JIM
Well, fust I tackled stock.
HUCK
What kind of stock?
JIM
Why, live stock -- cattle, you know. I put ten dollars in a cow. But I ain' gwyne to resk no mo' money in stock. De cow up 'n' died on my han's.
HUCK
So you lost the ten dollars.
JIM
No, I didn't lose it all. I on'y los' 'bout nine of it. I sole de hide en taller for a dollar en ten cents.
HUCK
You had five dollars and ten cents left. Did you speculate any more?
JIM
Yes. You know that one-laigged nigger dat b'longs to old Misto Bradish? Well, he sot up a bank, en say anybody dat put in a dollar would git fo' dollars mo' at de en' er de year. Well, all de niggers went in, but dey didn't have much. I wuz de on'y one dat had much. So I stuck out for mo' dan fo' dollars, en I said 'f I didn' git it I'd start a bank mysef. Well, o' course dat nigger want' to keep me out er de business, bekase he says dey warn't business 'nough for two banks, so he say I could put in my five dollars en he pay me thirty-five at de en' er de year. So I done it. Den I reck'n'd I'd inves' de thirty-five dollars right off en keep things a-movin'. Dey wuz a nigger name' Bob, dat had ketched a wood-flat, en his marster didn' know it; en I bought it off'n him en told him to take de thirty-five dollars when de en' er de year come; but somebody stole de wood-flat dat night, en nex day de one-laigged nigger say de bank's busted. So dey didn' none uv us git no money.
HUCK
What did you do with the ten cents, Jim?
JIM
Well, I 'uz gwyne to spen' it, but I had a dream, en de dream tole me to give it to a nigger name' Balum -- Balum's Ass dey call him for short; he's one er dem chuckleheads, you know. But he's lucky, dey say, en I see I warn't lucky. De dream say let Balum inves' de ten cents en he'd make a raise for me. Well, Balum he tuck de money, en when he wuz in church he hear de preacher say dat whoever give to de po' len' to de Lord, en boun' to git his money back a hund'd times. So Balum he tuck en give de ten cents to de po', en laid low to see what wuz gwyne to come of it.
HUCK
Well, what did come of it, Jim?
JIM
Nuffn never come of it. I couldn' manage to k'leck dat money no way; en Balum he couldn'. I ain' gwyne to len' no mo' money 'dout I see de security. Boun' to git yo' money back a hund'd times, de preacher says! Ef I could git de ten cents back, I'd call it squah, en be glad er de chanst.
HUCK
Well, it's all right anyway, Jim, long as you're going to be rich again some time or other.
JIM
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'.
SCRIPT #2: Huck Meets Mrs. Loftus while dressed as a girl (First Half)
(knock)
JUDITH LOFTUS
Come in. Take a cheer. What might your name be?
HUCK
Sarah Williams.
MRS. LOFTUS
Where 'bouts do you live? In this neighborhood?
HUCK
No'm. In Hookerville, seven mile below. I've walked all the way and I'm all tired out.
MRS. LOFTUS
Hungry, too, I reckon. I'll find you something.
HUCK
No'm, I ain't hungry. I was so hungry I had to stop two miles below here at a farm; so I ain't hungry no more. It's what makes me so late. My mother's down sick, and out of money and everything, and I come to tell my uncle Abner Moore. He lives at the upper end of the town, she says. I hain't ever been here before. Do you know him?
MRS. LOFTUS
No; but I don't know everybody yet. I haven't lived here quite two weeks. It's a considerable ways to the upper end of the town. You better stay here all night. Take off your bonnet.
HUCK
No, I'll rest a while, I reckon, and go on. I ain't afeared of the dark.
MRS. LOFTUS
No. My husband’ll be here. He’ll go ‘long with you. Did you hear ‘bout the murder that boy, Huck Finn?
HUCK
Who done it? We've heard considerable about these goings on down in Hookerville, but we don't know who 'twas that killed Huck Finn.
MRS. LOFTUS
Well, I reckon there's a right smart chance of people here that'd like to know who killed him. Some think old Finn done it himself.
HUCK
No -- is that so?
MRS. LOFTUS
Most everybody thought it at first. He'll never know how nigh he come to getting lynched. But before night they changed around and judged it was done by a runaway nigger named Jim.
HUCK
Why he --
MRS. LOFTUS
The nigger run off the very night Huck Finn was killed. So there's a reward out for him -- three hundred dollars. And there's a reward out for old Finn, too -- two hundred dollars. You see, he come to town the morning after the murder, and told about it, and was out with 'em on the ferryboat hunt, and right away after he up and left. Before night they wanted to lynch him, but he was gone, you see. Well, next day they found out the nigger was gone; they found out he hadn't ben seen sence ten o'clock the night the murder was done. So then they put it on him, you see; and while they was full of it, next day, back comes old Finn, and went boo-hooing to Judge Thatcher to get money to hunt for the nigger all over Illinois with. The judge gave him some, and that evening he got drunk, and was around till after midnight with a couple of mighty hard-looking strangers, and then went off with them. Well, he hain't come back sence, and they ain't looking for him back till this thing blows over a little, for people thinks now that he killed his boy and fixed things so folks would think robbers done it, and then he'd get Huck's money without having to bother a long time with a lawsuit. People do say he warn't any too good to do it. Oh, he's sly, I reckon. If he don't come back for a year he'll be all right. You can't prove anything on him, you know; everything will be quieted down then, and he'll walk in Huck's money as easy as nothing.
HUCK
Yes, I reckon so, 'm. I don't see nothing in the way of it. Has everybody guit thinking the nigger done it?
MRS. LOFTUS
Oh, no, not everybody. A good many thinks he done it. But they'll get the nigger pretty soon now, and maybe they can scare it out of him.
HUCK
Why, are they after him yet?
MRS. LOFTUS
Well, you're innocent, ain't you! Does three hundred dollars lay around every day for people to pick up? Some folks think the nigger ain't far from here. I'm one of them -- but I hain't talked it around. A few days ago I was talking with an old couple that lives next door in the log shanty, and they happened to say hardly anybody ever goes to that island over yonder that they call Jackson's Island. Don't anybody live there? says I. No, nobody, says they. I didn't say any more, but I done some thinking. I was pretty near certain I'd seen smoke over there, about the head of the island, a day or two before that, so I says to myself, like as not that nigger's hiding over there; anyway, says I, it's worth the trouble to give the place a hunt. I hain't seen any smoke sence, so I reckon maybe he's gone, if it was him; but husband's going over to see -- him and another man. He was gone up the river; but he got back to-day, and I told him as soon as he got here two hours ago."
***** (End first half here)
.
SCRIPT #3: Huck Meets Mrs. Loftus while dressed as a girl (Second Half)
HUCK
(threading a needle)
Three hundred dollars is a power of money. I wish my mother could get it. Is your husband going over there to-night?
MRS. LOFTUS
Oh, yes. He went up-town with the man I was telling you of, to get a boat and see if they could borrow another gun. They'll go over after midnight.
HUCK
Couldn't they see better if they was to wait till daytime?
MRS. LOFTUS
Yes. And couldn't the nigger see better, too? After midnight he'll likely be asleep, and they can slip around through the woods and hunt up his camp fire all the better for the dark, if he's got one.
HUCK
I didn't think of that.
MRS. LOFTUS
(looking oddly at Huck)
What did you say your name was, honey?
HUCK
M -- Mary Williams.
MRS. LOFTUS
Honey, I thought you said it was Sarah when you first come in?
HUCK
Oh, yes'm, I did. Sarah Mary Williams. Sarah's my first name. Some calls me Sarah, some calls me Mary.
MRS. LOFTUS
Oh, that's the way of it?
HUCK
Yes'm.
MRS. LOFTUS
Come, now, what's your real name?
HUCK
Wh -- what, mum?
MRS. LOFTUS
What's your real name? Is it Bill, or Tom, or Bob? -- or what is it?
HUCK
Please to don't poke fun at a poor girl like me, mum. If I'm in the way here, I'll --
MRS. LOFTUS
No, you won't. Set down and stay where you are. I ain't going to hurt you, and I ain't going to tell on you, nuther. You just tell me your secret, and trust me. So'll my old man if you want him to. Bless you, child, I wouldn't tell on you. Tell me all about it now, that's a good boy.
HUCK
I struck out for this town of Goshen.
MRS. LOFTUS
Goshen, child? This ain't Goshen. This is St. Petersburg. Goshen's ten mile further up the river. Who told you this was Goshen?
HUCK
Why, a man I met at daybreak this morning, just as I was going to turn into the woods for my regular sleep. He told me when the roads forked I must take the right hand, and five mile would fetch me to Goshen.
MRS. LOFTUS
He was drunk, I reckon. He told you just exactly wrong.
HUCK
Well,,he did act like he was drunk, but it ain't no matter now. I got to be moving along. I'll fetch Goshen before daylight.
MRS. LOFTUS
Hold on a minute. I'll put you up a snack to eat. You might want it. Say, when a cow's laying down, which end of her gets up first? Answer up prompt now -- don't stop to study over it. Which end gets up first?
HUCK
The hind end, mum.
MRS. LOFTUS
Well, then, a horse?
HUCK
The for'rard end, mum.
MRS. LOFTUS
Which side of a tree does the moss grow on?
HUCK
North side.
If fifteen cows is browsing on a hillside, how many of them eats with their heads pointed the same direction?
HUCK
The whole fifteen, mum.
MRS. LOFTUS
Well, I reckon you have lived in the country. I thought maybe you was trying to hocus me again. What's your real name, now?
HUCK
George Peters, mum.
MRS. LOFTUS
Well, try to remember it, George. Don't forget and tell me it's Elexander before you go, and then get out by saying it's George Elexander when I catch you. And don't go about women in that old calico. You do a girl tolerable poor
.
SCRIPT #4: King Solomon
Jim's eyes bugged out
JIM
"I didn' know dey was so many un um. I hain't hearn 'bout none un um, skasely, but ole King Sollermun, onless you counts dem kings dat's in a pack er k'yards. How much do a king git?"
HUCK
"Get?" Why, they get a thousand dollars a month if they want it; they can have just as much as they want; everything belongs to them."
JIM
"Ain'that gay? En what dey got to do, Huck?"
HUCK
"They don't do nothing! Why, how you talk! They just set around."
JIM
"No; is dat so?"
HUCK
"Of course it is. They just set around -- except, maybe, when there's a war; then they go to the war. But other times they just lazy around; or go hawking, and other times, when things is dull, they fuss with the parlyment; and if everybody don't go just so he whacks their heads off. But mostly they hang round the harem."
JIM
"Roun' de which?"
HUCK
"Harem."
JIM
"What's de harem?"
HUCK
"The place where he keeps his wives. Don't you know about the harem? Solomon had one; he had about a million wives."
JIM
"Why, yes, dat's so; I -- I'd done forgot it. A harem's a bo'd'n-house, I reck'n. Mos' likely dey has rackety times in de nussery. En I reck'n de wives quarrels considable; en dat 'crease de racket. Yit dey say Sollermun de wises' man dat ever live'. I doan' take no stock in dat. Bekase why: would a wise man want to live in de mids' er sich a blim-blammin' all de time? No -- 'deed he wouldn't. A wise man 'ud take en buil' a biler-factry; en den he could shet down de biler-factry when he want to res'."
HUCK
"Well, but he was the wisest man, anyway; because the widow she told me so, her own self."
JIM
"I doan k'yer what de widder say, he warn't no wise man nuther. He had some er de dad-fetchedes'
ways I ever see. Does you know 'bout dat chile dat he 'uz gwyne to chop in two?"
HUCK
"Yes, the widow told me all about it."
JIM
"Well den! Warn' dat de beatenes' notion in de worl'? You jes' take en look at it a minute. Dah's de stump, dah -- dat's one er de women; heah's you -- dat's de yuther one; I's Sollermun; en dish yer dollar bill's de chile. Bofe un you claims it. What does I do? Does I shin aroun' mongs' de neighbors en fine out which un you de bill do b'long to, en han' it over to de right one, all safe en soun', de way dat anybody dat had any gumption would? No; I take en whack de bill in two, en give half un it to you, en de yuther half to de yuther woman. Dat's de way Sollermun was gwyne to do wid de chile. Now I want to ast you: what's de use er dat half a bill? -- can't buy noth'n wid it. En what use is a half a chile? I wouldn' give a dern for a million un um."
HUCK
"But hang it, Jim, you've clean missed the point -- blame it, you've missed it a thousand mile."
JIM
"Who? Me? Go 'long. Doan' talk to me 'bout yo' pints. I reck'n I knows sense when I sees it; en
dey ain' no sense in sich doin's as dat. De 'spute warn't 'bout a half a chile, de 'spute was 'bout a whole chile; en de man dat think he kin settle a 'spute 'bout a whole chile wid a half a chile doan' know enough to come in out'n de rain. Doan' talk to me 'bout Sollermun, Huck, I knows him by de back."
HUCK
"But I tell you you don't get the point."
"Blame de point! I reck'n I knows what I knows. En mine you, de real pint is down furder -- it's down deeper. It lays in de way Sollermun was raised. You take a man dat's got on'y one or two chillen; is dat man gwyne to be waseful o' chillen? No, he ain't; he can't 'ford it. He know how to value 'em. But you take a man dat's got 'bout five million chillen runnin' roun' de house, en it's diffunt. He as soon chop a chile in two as a cat. Dey's plenty mo'. A chile er two, mo' er less, warn't no consekens to Sollermun, dad fatch him!"
HUCK
“I never see such a nigger.”
SCRIPT #5: Kings and Cats and Dogs
JIM
Dat's good! But he'll be pooty lonesome -- dey ain' no kings here, is dey, Huck?
HUCK
No.
JIM
Den he cain't git no situation. What he gwyne to do?
HUCK
Well, I don't know. Some of them gets on the police, and some of them learns people how to talk French.
JIM
Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?
HUCK
No, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said -- not a single word.
JIM
Well, now, I be ding-busted! How do dat come?
HUCK
I don't know; but it's so. I got some of their jabber out of a book. S'pose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy -- what would you think
JIM
I wouldn' think nuff'n; I'd take en bust him over de head -- dat is, if he warn't white. I wouldn't 'low no nigger to call me dat.
HUCK
Shucks, it ain't calling you anything. It's only saying, do you know how to talk French?
JIM
Well, den, why couldn't he say it?
HUCK
Why, he is a-saying it. That's a Frenchman's way of saying it.
JIM
Well, it's a blame ridicklous way, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout it. Dey ain' no sense in it.
HUCK
Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?
JIM
No, a cat don't.
HUCK
Well, does a cow?
JIM
No, a cow don't, nuther.
HUCK
Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?
JIM
No, dey don't.
HUCK
It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't it?
JIM
Course.
HUCK
And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different from us?
JIM
Why, mos' sholy it is.
HUCK
Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us? You answer me that.
JIM
Is a cat a man, Huck?
HUCK
No.
JIM
Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man. Is a cow a man? -- er is a cow a cat?
HUCK
No, she ain't either of them.
JIM
Well, den, she ain't got no business to talk like either one er the yuther of 'em. Is a Frenchman a man?
HUCK
Yes.
JIM
WELL, den! Dad blame it, why doan' he talk like a man? You answer me dat!
HUCK
(aside)
I see it warn't no use wasting words -- you can't learn a nigger to argue. So I quit.
.
SCRIPT #6: Huck Tricks Jim about the fog
HUCK: "Hello, Jim, have I been asleep? Why didn't you stir me up?"
JIM: "Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck? En you ain' dead -- you ain' drownded -- you's back agin? It's too good for true, honey, it's too good for true. Lemme look at you chile, lemme feel o' you. No, you ain' dead! you's back agin, 'live en soun', jis de same ole Huck -- de same ole Huck, thanks to goodness!"
HUCK: "What's the matter with you, Jim? You been a-drinking?"
JIM: "Drinkin'? Has I ben a-drinkin'? Has I had a chance to be a-drinkin'?"
HUCK: "Well, then, what makes you talk so wild?"
JIM: "How does I talk wild?"
HUCK: "How? Why, hain't you been talking about my coming back, and all that stuff, as if I'd been gone away?"
JIM: "Huck -- Huck Finn, you look me in de eye; look me in de eye. Hain't you ben gone away?"
HUCK: "Gone away? Why, what in the nation do you mean? I hain't been gone anywheres. Where would I go to?"
JIM: "Well, looky here, boss, dey's sumf'n wrong, dey is. Is I me, or who is I? Is I heah, or whah is I? Now dat's what I wants to know."
HUCK: "Well, I think you're here, plain enough, but I think you're a tangle-headed old fool, Jim."
JIM: "I is, is I? Well, you answer me dis: Didn't you tote out de line in de canoe fer to make fas' to de tow-head?"
HUCK: "No, I didn't. What tow-head? I hain't see no tow-head."
JIM: "You hain't seen no towhead? Looky here, didn't de line pull loose en de raf' go a-hummin' down de river, en leave you en de canoe behine in de fog?"
HUCK: "What fog?"
JIM: "Why, de fog! -- de fog dat's been aroun' all night. En didn't you whoop, en didn't I whoop, tell we got mix' up in de islands en one un us got los' en t'other one was jis' as good as los', 'kase he didn' know whah he wuz? En didn't I bust up agin a lot er dem islands en have a turrible time en mos' git drownded? Now ain' dat so, boss -- ain't it so? You answer me dat."
HUCK: "Well, this is too many for me, Jim. I hain't seen no fog, nor no islands, nor no troubles, nor nothing. I been setting here talking with you all night till you went to sleep about ten minutes ago, and I reckon I done the same. You couldn't a got drunk in that time, so of course you've been dreaming."
JIM: "Dad fetch it, how is I gwyne to dream all dat in ten minutes?"
HUCK: "Well, hang it all, you did dream it, because there didn't any of it happen."
JIM: "But, Huck, it's all jis' as plain to me as -- "
HUCK: "It don't make no difference how plain it is; there ain't nothing in it. I know, because I've been here all the time."
JIM: "Well, den, I reck'n I did dream it, Huck; but dog my cats ef it ain't de powerfullest dream I ever see. En I hain't ever had no dream b'fo' dat's tired me like dis one."
HUCK: "Oh, well, that's all right, because a dream does tire a body like everything sometimes. But this one was a staving dream; tell me all about it, Jim."
(So Jim went to work and told me the whole thing right through, just as it happened, only he painted it up considerable. Then he said he must start in and "'terpret" it, because it was sent for a warning.... He said the first towhead stood for a man that would try to do us some good, but the current was another man that would get us away from him. The whoops was warnings that would come to us every now and then, and if we didn't try hard to make out to understand them they'd just take us into bad luck, 'stead of keeping us out of it. The lot of towheads was troubles we was going to get into with quarrelsome people and all kinds of mean folks, but if we minded our business and didn't talk back and aggravate them, we would pull through and get out of the fog and into the big clear river, which was the free States, and wouldn't have no more trouble.)
HUCK: "Oh, well, that's all interpreted well enough as far as it goes, Jim," I says; "but what does these things stand for?"
JIM: "What do dey stan' for? I'se gwyne to tell you. 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' k'yer no' mo' what become er me en de raf'. En when I wake up en fine you back agin, 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 makes 'em ashamed."
(Jim gets up and goes into the Wigwam. Huck thinks, then apologizes to Jim)