The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn · Chapter
XXXVII explained
Tom and Huck execute a series of elaborate thefts to supply Jim with items for his escape, including a shirt, sheet, spoon, candles, and a candlestick, while cleverly framing rats and a calf to avoid suspicion.
What happens
Tom and Huck execute a series of elaborate thefts to supply Jim with items for his escape, including a shirt, sheet, spoon, candles, and a candlestick, while cleverly framing rats and a calf to avoid suspicion. They also bake a rope ladder into a pie and stop up rat-holes to help Uncle Silas.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Identity
Tom and Huck engage in elaborate deceptions, stealing items and manipulating Aunt Sally's counting to avoid detection.
Friendship and Loyalty
Huck and Tom work together tirelessly to help Jim escape, demonstrating their loyalty to him.
Characters to notice
- Huckleberry Finn
Narrates the chapter and participates in the thefts and schemes to aid Jim's escape.
- Tom Sawyer
Devises the intricate plans to steal items and confuse Aunt Sally with the spoon-counting trick.
- Jim
The prisoner for whom the items are stolen; receives the spoon and shingle-nail.
- Aunt Sally
Becomes increasingly frustrated as items go missing and is tricked by Tom's counting scheme.
- Silas Phelps
Absent-mindedly finds the spoon in his pocket and later inspects rat-holes, unaware of Tom and Huck's help.
Key passages
“My heart fell down amongst my lungs and livers and things, and a hard piece of corn-crust started down my throat after it and got met on the road with a cough, and was shot across the table, and took one of the children in the eye and curled him up like a fishing-worm”
I was so startled that I choked on my food, and a piece of cornbread flew across the table, hitting a child in the eye and making him cry out.
Huck's vivid description of his panic when Aunt Sally mentions the missing shirt.
“So we put the sheet back on the line that night, and stole one out of her closet; and kept on putting it back and stealing it again for a couple of days till she didn't know how many sheets she had any more, and she didn't care”
We repeatedly swapped the sheet we took with one from her closet, confusing her so much that she gave up trying to keep track.
Tom and Huck's method to disorient Aunt Sally about the sheet count.