The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel written by Mark Twain during the late 1800’s (Mintz). The book brought major controversy over the plot, as well as the fact that it was a spin-off to his previous story, Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This book has remained a success due to Twain’s interesting techniques of keeping the audience’s attention. Chapters eleven and twelve of “Huckleberry Finn,” uses a first person limited point of view to take advantage of the use of dialogue while using many hyperboles to add drama to entertain the reader by creating description within the story without needing to pause and explain.
The story begins in Missouri, where Huck first lived with his father but then was later adopted by Ms. Watson. After being kidnapped and abused by his father, Huck was able to escape these troubles by faking his death and running away. As he heads off he meets a runaway slave, Jim, who just so happened to be one of Ms. Watson’s slaves. They both adventure off to find a better place for them in the North. As they are exploring an island, they break into a house and find a dead body inside. To find out rumors about this house, Huck dresses up as a female and ventures off around the island to talk to people about what they have heard. Upon this, we are lead into chapters eleven and twelve.
Chapters
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eleven and twelve begin the story as Huck meets a woman, Ms. Loftus and she figures out he is not a girl. She does not figure out he is Huck, but she keeps his secret and lets him venture back off. In chapter twelve Huck and Jim encounter three robbers and murderers on an abandoned steamboat but are able to escape before any trouble brews. Throughout the story, Mark Twain uses first person limited to narrate. You only understand and have knowledge of what Huck is experiencing and feeling. Many may not understand the significance as to why Mark Twain decided to use this point of view. This story could have been easier to write as third-person. It’s easier as an author to not have to explain the feelings of a character and just tell the story as a whole. Mark Twain took advantage of grasping the reader’s emotions by getting the reader to become fond of Huck. The storyline makes the reader intrigued by the events this character lived through. Letting the audience know how Huck has been affected by events makes the reader feel as one with the book. “…and I says to myself, Tom Sawyer wouldn’t back out now, and so I won’t either,” is an example where Mark Twain makes the audience feel compassionate about Huck (Twain, 70). That phrase makes the reader feel glad Huck is able to believe in himself because of his role model and friend, Tom Sawyer. The reader then understands the rest of the characters’ emotions through the dialogue. Chapter eleven primarily consists of dialogue of Huck, or Sarah Williams, his female disguise, and Judith Loftus, the woman who takes Huck in for shelter for that day. The story becomes extremely interesting when you find out Mrs. Loftus knew Huck was a boy all along. “’You do a girl tolerable poor, but you might fool men, maybe,’” adds shock and exposes Mrs. Loftus’ thoughts (Twain, 63). Dialogue within this chapter allows suspense to build up. As the reader goes on, the reader gets nervous as Mrs. Loftus talks about Huck’s “death” because she acts suspicious which makes the reader think she knows about faking the murder. Mark Twain does a remarkable job taking advantage of the dialogue to entertain the reader. Mark Twain makes the story more interesting by using funny exaggerations.
Hyperboles in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn turn on the reader’s imagination. When the reader reads these exaggerations they make the story easier to picture. “Well, the woman fell to talking about how hard times was, and how poor they had to live, and how the rats was as free as if they owned the place, and so forth and on…” is an example where you can picture how the rats appeared around the woman’s house with no problem (Twain, 61). It makes the reader imagine such a poor place that rats roamed freely instead of running away or not even being present in the household at
all. Another great hyperbole in this story occurs in chapter eleven, “… but if there was a boat around I couldn’t see it, for stars and shadows ain’t good to see by (Twain, 65).” The reader is able to imagine the darkness Huck and Jim face as they continue down the Mississippi River. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been able to change American novels since 1885. The story has made controversy but has been a great success (Webb). Chapters eleven and twelve portrayed Mark Twain’s writing style very well. These two chapters consisted of first-person writing with dialogue and hyperboles to keep the reader entertained.
The book starts off telling us that you may know Huck from another book called the adventures of Tom Sawyer. Which was also written by Mark Twain. In the first chapter, we figured out the Tom and Huck found a stash of gold that some robbers stole and hid in a cave. They both got $6,000 a piece. After they both got their shares of the money they had Judge Thatcher put it into a trust, in the bank. Once Huck was known for finding the treasure Widow Douglass adopted Huck. Widow Douglass also tried to civilize Huck, but Huck didn't want to be with Douglass so he ran away. Huck took all of his belongings with him, but nothing that Douglass gave him. After Huck ran away he went to join up with Tom Sawyer and his new gang of robbers. The Widow tried to teach Huck about reading and writing before he ran away. But thats the reason why he left because he wasn't interested in any of that stuff. Huck left the Widow’s house when he heard something outside the house, it was Tom waiting for him in the yard. So Huck got up and left.
Life in the late eighteen hundreds was very different from the life we know today. Not only was there more inequality, there were also more health concerns and lapses in education. Mark Twain, in his book “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” has given us a special look into the past through the eyes of a young boy. Though this book is one of, if not the most highly criticized books in the American school system, it is also one of the most highly renowned. Through the criticism, Twain has given us a golden reflective opportunity.
He uses hyperbole in almost every single detail within this novel. An example would be how superstitious Jim was in the beginning of the novel, when he thought that witches tormented him in his sleep, while it was really just Huckleberry and Tom. This is a great example of hyperbole and satire, as Twain blows the stereotype of slaves being superstitious out of the water, while also showing the reader how ridiculous it is at the same time. Chadwick Hansen explains, “His ignorance protects him from the mental pain of humiliation and enables him to turn the trick into a kind of triumph...” (Hansen 1). Hansen is explaining that because of Twain’s use of hyperbole, it is seen as almost comical to the reader that Jim couldn’t understand the trick that was being played on him, thus showing us that Huck Finn is an anti-racist book. It shows us this by adding humor and showing the reader how ridiculous these thoughts truly
Huckleberry Finn provides the narrative voice of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and his honest voice combined with his personal vulnerabilities reveal the different levels of the Grangerfords’ world.
The introduction to Twain’s essay includes a flashback to create the frame of the essay and establish the themes. He uses imagery to really set the scene and emphasize its importance. Twain makes it obvious from the beginning that his audience is very broad, his tone is calm and reasonable. He is using this essay to show that people rely on public opinion, and that people conform in order to be in the majority. In the introduction, he lays out his plan very clearly and proceeds to plead his case.
The most used literary device I noticed throughout the novel was similes. Twain probably used a lot of similes because it was Huck’s way of expressing what the situation was like. He wasn’t very literate as mentioned before so he couldn’t use big adjectives to describe the situation, instead he’d use similes. The similes added meaning because they allowed for better comprehension from the readers. The readers were able to understand what Huck was trying to depict.
“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.
In his novel, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain applies his thoughts upon societal hypocrisy by using the characters to convey their religious entitlement as a societal norm rather than focusing on the true moral teachings that Christianity implies. Throughout the book, Twain adopts a sentimental yet humorous tone to portray the characters’ ironic behavior towards biblical teachings and their reason for going completely against them.
Throughout literature and novels we can find authors who will reference history, other authors works and most often the Bible. One may ask themselves the reasoning behind allusions and how it can affect our perspective and the authors meaning when reading the novel. In the late sixties, Julia Kristeve, who studied the elements of literature and other communication systems, introduced the word “Intertextuality”. In Kristave’s essay “Word, Dialogue, and Novel” she went into deep analysis of an authors work and its text, “A literary work, then, is not simply the product of a single author, but of its relationship to other texts and to the strucutures of language itself. Any text," she argues, "is constructed of a mosaic of quotations; any text
Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the world’s most acclaimed books. Twain accomplishes this with his extraordinary power of humor, his use of dialect, and by creating complex and unique characters. Developing his characters is one of the greatest assets he has in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A character that exemplifies this most is Huck Finn, first appearing as rouge, but later transforming into a character with high moral values.
Twain, Mark, and Cynthia Johnson. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009. Print.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is set in the pre-civil war era and begins with the narrator, Huck Finn, introducing himself, the Widow Douglas, and her sister, Miss Watson, who have taken Huck into their home in order to try and teach him religion and proper manners. One day his father, Pap, kidnaps him and takes him across the Mississippi River to a small cabin on the Illinois shore. Although Huck becomes somewhat comfortable with his life free from religion and school, Pap's beatings become too severe, and Huck fakes his own murder and escapes down the Mississippi. Huck lands a few miles down, and there he stumbles across Miss Watson's slave, Jim, who has run away out of fear he will be sold down the river. Huck himself buys
Mark Twain’s picaresque novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (hereafter Huck Finn) gives a realistic portrayal of Southern life before the American Civil War and depicts the way companionship enables the journeyers to learn from diverse perspectives enriching the journeys power to prompt inner growth and development. This is clearly depicted through the use of first person persona, where Twain employs the uneducated vernacular voice of Huck Finn. This technique contributes to the authenticity of Huck Finn’s Southern characterisation emphasising his transformation from racial prejudice and small mindedness to a more moral and tolerant perspective. Together Huck and Jim embark on their personal quests for freedom; Huck for freedom from “sivilisation” and Jim for freedom from slavery. Together they travel down the river a motif that symbolises their desire for liberation and security. “ I never felt easy till the raft was…out in the middle of the Mississippi…we was free and safe once more”. As they travel they are not merely moving down the river but discovering who they are as they learn and grow along the way.
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.
Both Mark Twain an Thomas Pynchon went about displaying the errors of society in their books The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Entropy. However they displayed the errors of society differently. Both of them writes in realistic style, which is a literary style that gives audience the impression of recording or reflecting faithfully an actual way of life. In realistic works, authors always describe characters’ actions, emotions and speech and surroundings characters live by in a “verisimilitude” of detail derived from observation. Characters in realistic works can not be perfectly good or completely evil, since