CHAPTER 2 Practice Quiz — The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: CHAPTER 2
What causes Huck and Tom to freeze at the beginning of Chapter 2?
Huck trips over a root near the kitchen and makes a noise, which causes Jim to come out and investigate.
What does Jim do after he hears the noise outside the kitchen?
He comes out, stands between Huck and Tom listening, then sits down on the ground leaning against a tree until he falls asleep.
What prank does Tom play on Jim?
Tom slips Jim's hat off his head and hangs it on a tree limb right above him while Jim sleeps.
What does Tom leave on the kitchen table after taking candles?
He leaves five cents as payment for the three candles he took.
How does Jim explain what happened to his hat?
Jim says witches bewitched him, put him in a trance, and rode him all over the state, then hung his hat on a limb to show who did it.
What does Jim do with the five-cent piece?
He wears it around his neck on a string, claiming it is a charm given to him by the devil that can cure people and fetch witches.
Where do the boys go to form their gang?
They travel by skiff two and a half miles down the river to a cave hidden in a clump of bushes on a hillside.
What is the name of the gang, and who are its leaders?
It is called Tom Sawyer's Gang. Tom Sawyer is elected first captain and Jo Harper is elected second captain.
Why is Huck almost excluded from the gang?
Ben Rogers points out that Huck has no family who could be killed if he tells secrets, and every boy must have a family or somebody to kill for the oath to be fair.
How does Huck solve the problem of having no family?
He offers Miss Watson as a substitute—the gang can kill her if he reveals secrets.
How does Tom's approach to the gang reveal his character?
Tom bases all the gang's rules on pirate and robber books, showing he is a romantic who follows literary conventions rather than practical thinking.
How does Jim's witch story affect his social standing?
Jim becomes more respected and looked up to than any other enslaved person in the area. People come from miles around to hear his tale and see his five-cent charm.
How does Huck differ from Tom in this chapter?
Huck is practical and cautious—he warns against tying Jim to the tree and worries about getting caught—while Tom is reckless and romantic, driven by fantasy.
What does the gang's debate about ransoming satirize?
It satirizes blind adherence to authority and tradition. Tom insists on ransoming captives because books say so, even though nobody knows what ransoming means.
What is ironic about the boys refusing to rob on Sundays?
They consider robbery and murder acceptable activities but think doing them on Sunday would be wicked, which satirizes religious hypocrisy.
What role does superstition play in this chapter?
Jim's witch-riding tale shows superstition as a source of social power and community identity, introducing a motif that recurs throughout the novel.
What is the dramatic irony in Jim's witch story?
The reader knows Tom simply moved Jim's hat as a prank, but Jim and his community believe it was a supernatural event, giving the five-cent piece magical significance.
How does Twain use vernacular dialogue in this chapter?
Twain captures distinct speech patterns: Jim's dialect, the boys' casual Missouri speech, and Tom's attempts at formal language from books, creating authentic voice and humor.
What does the hilltop view of the river foreshadow?
The description of the river as "a whole mile broad, and awful still and grand" foreshadows the Mississippi's central role as a symbol of freedom and natural beauty in the novel.
What is the significance of the blood oath in Tom's gang?
It parodies the romanticized rituals of adventure fiction. The elaborate oath—with threats of throat-cutting, body-burning, and curses—is absurdly disproportionate to a children's game.