The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered the quintessential novel of America because Mark Twain creates and portrays America as a melting pot and this is the one characteristic that divides the US from the rest of the world. Twain displays this through his depiction of the southern dialects and the diverse religious and superstitious beliefs. Twain uses a plethora of dialects that perfectly fits the speech of the time. The use of these dialects in such a miniscule section of America exemplifies how heterogeneous America is as a whole. Huck being and uneducated white boy speaks very poorly: “‘What-you-may-call-her---I disremember her name… so we saddle-baggsed…I most wish’t it had been me, I do’” (Twain, 73-74). This quote is one of …show more content…
No other country in the world has as much heterogeneity in religion and ethnicity as America does. In the novel Widow Douglas’ beliefs are told to us through Huck: “Then she told me all about the bad place… she was going to live as to go to the good place” (Twain, 2-3). Widow Douglas is a Christian, one of many in the novel. Huck on the other hand can be considered skeptical of Christianity: “I reckon the widow or the parson or somebody prayed that this bread would find me…there’s something in it…I reckon it don’t work for only just the right kind” (Twain, 37-38). This shows some of Huck’s skepticism on religion and prayers. Huck is also superstitious along with Jim: “‘Ef you’s got hairy arms en a hairy breas’, it’s a sign dat you’s a-gwyne be rich’” (Twain 46). Jim explains to Huck one of his life long beliefs that is ridiculously irrational. There are numerous other examples in the novel where Huck and Jim discuss and experience different superstitions of theirs. This variety of religious beliefs and superstitions is only a portion of the countless religions that were and continue to be scattered around America. America is filled with various branches of Christianity, atheism, Islam, and a large plethora of others. Although these faiths are not all seen in extreme numbers they are still
The Adventure’s of Huckleberry Finn’s unique ability to incorporate moral lessons through satire and simmilar literary techniques prove it to be vital for High school students, especially at Rye, to read. The vast nature of things it teaches is something very rare for one book to do. It not only provides the reader with important life themes like other great novels do but it also shocks the reader to show the power of racism which makes it one of the greatest pieces of literature of all time. Just think of how different things would be if no one had read such an important book.
Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the greatest American novels ever written. The story is about Huck, a young boy who is coming of age and is escaping from his drunken father. Along the way he stumbles across Miss Watson's slave, Jim, who has run away because he overhead that he would be sold. Throughout the story, Huck is faced with the moral dilemma of whether or not to turn Jim in. Mark Twain has purposely placed these two polar opposites together in order to make a satire of the society's institution of slavery. Along the journey, Twain implies his values through Huck on slavery, the two-facedness of society, and represents ideas with the Mississippi River.
The diction is really casual in the chapters where Jim talks. This makes the diction simple and easy to understand with funny differences between this writing style and other more formal ones. Twain also uses a lot of irony. And Twain pays close attention to the diction of the speech of the various people from the various areas down the river. The writing style in this book is not flowery or poetic, just the speech of a young boy. “We stopped talking, and got to thinking. 'Looky her, Huck, what fools we are to not think of it before! I bet I know where Jim is.' 'No! Where?' 'In that hut down by the ash-hopper. Why, looky here. When we was at dinner, didn't you see a...man go in there. (234).” Mark found it really important to use diction for this story to show character growth throughout the
“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint” (Lederer 472). This direct quote from Twain himself highlights an important aspect of his character: his ability to incorporate humor into his own life. He was a prominent leader of the regional realism movement, which came about due to new technologies, postwar racial tensions, and a newfound commitment to realistic representation. Regional realism maintained popularity throughout the years of 1865-1900. Examples of this movement can be seen in many of Twain’s works, such as “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This regional realism is illustrated by the accurate representation of dialect, especially prevalent in both of these works (American Passages). Twain joins Bret Harte and Kate Chopin as authors in the regional realism movement.(Campbell). Twain’s childhood experiences, his traveling experiences as an adult, and his own thoughts and feelings greatly influenced the writings of America’s great humorist.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is considered a classic novel from the realism period of American Literature that accurately depicts social conventions from pre-civil war times. Despite this reputation as a historical lens of life on the Mississippi River, elements of blatant racism overshadow the regionalist and realist depictions. Huck Finn does not promote racism because all derogatory or racist remarks are presented as a window to life during the 1850s, in a satirical context, or to show Mark Twain's moral views on racism.
According to James cox again “Huckleberry Finn is the book in which Mark Twain discovered the fullest possibilities of his humor.” That is very agreeable with him because to me any of Twain’s books compared to Huck Finn is dead. Huck Finn is the way maker of Twain’s career in literature. Cox also goes on to say that “The humor in Huck Finn is why the book stands out not only chronologically but critically at the center of Mark Twain’s
Ernest Hemingway once said, “All modern American Literature, comes from one book by Mark Twain called “Huckleberry Finn.” Mark Twain was a revolutionary writer during his time, he wrote things that most people would have never even thought of putting on a page. One of the most praised skills that Mark Twain had was his use of dialect. Furthermore, the use of his dialect really submerged the readers in the new territory of the west and really help give the west a place on the map. Twain, is especially praised for the several dialects he uses in “HuckleBerry Finn”. In Twain’s work, he uses strong themes of realism, for example in “Huckleberry Finn” Huck talks about Pap, “Every time he got money he got drunk; and every time he got drunk he raised
Twain’s skeptical take on religion can be elicited because superstition is a theme that both Huck and Jim bring up several times. Although both of these characters tend to be quite rational, they quickly become irrational when anything remotely superstitious happens to them. The role of superstition in this book is two-fold: First, it shows that Huck and Jim are child-like in spite of their otherwise extremely mature characters. Second, it serves to foreshadow the plot at several key junctions. For example, spilling salt leads to Pa returning for Huck, and later Jim gets bitten by a rattlesnake after Huck touches a snakeskin with his hands.
Huck Finn does not fully understand religion. The widow tells him he can ask God for whatever he wants so he thinks of religion as asking God for specific items. Religion is actually a more spiritual concept, and Huck is not mature enough to realize this. This is apparent when he mentions “Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn't any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn't make it out no way.” This tells us that Huck is very confused about religion and takes things very literally. Huck was not brought up in church, so he knows little about God and religion. Another time when Huck took something too literally was when he went to Tom Sawyer's group to "rob and murder" people. Huck fully expected there to be real elephants and “A-rabs” at their destination. Tom Sawyer just wanted to pretend this was the case, when Huck actually was preparing himself to see elephants.
Mark Twain, a famous American writer and satirist, wrote many highly acclaimed books throughout the world. His masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, earned him recognition as one of the greatest writers America would ever produce. The novel follows a teenage boy named Huck Finn, whose father is an alcoholic. Due to his father's violence, Huck runs away and meets a runaway slave named Jim. Instead of turning Jim in, Huck goes against society and decides to help Jim break free from slavery.
encounter. There is one common chain of events that occur- we are born, we live and we die.
“’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.’ Then he got up slow and walked to the wigwam, and went in there without saying anything but that. But that was enough. It made me feel so mean I could almost kissed his foot to get him to take it back. It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a ; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterward, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d ‘a’ knowed it would make him feel that way ” (83-84).
The southern way of speech had yet to have been captured skillfully until Twain’s writing. Twain went into detail in L...
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is an immensely realistic novel, revealing how a child's morals and actions clash with those of the society around him. Twain shows realism in almost every aspect of his writing; the description of the setting, that of the characters, and even the way characters speak. Twain also satirizes many of the foundations of that society. Showing the hypocrisy of people involved in education, religion, and romanticism through absurd, yet very real examples. Most importantly, Twain shows the way Huckleberry's moral beliefs form amidst a time of uncertainty in his life.
Mark Twain is a one of the famous American author who set a milestone in American literature history. He used a humor and ironic elements in his book to portray the lesson to his readers. Also, he liked to satirize the social system and morality to educate the people. Therefore, in his three famous works, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, The Mysterious Stranger, he satirized the human’s selfishness, evilness, and greediness.