Huckleberry Finn Syntax Analysis

“The story is told from Huck’s point of view, and his narrative voice is a remarkable mixture of bad grammar, slang, homespun wisdom, and lyrical attentiveness to nature” (Bloom 22). In the novel, Twain uses southern dialect to reflect the time period and location in which it was written (James).

One of the most noteworthy aspects of Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the skillful way in which Twain relates Huck’s thoughts. By telling the story from the first person point of view, Twain not only lets the reader into Huck’s mind, but he also allows Huck to characterize himself in terms of dialect—his manner of speaking, as we hear his thoughts in his own uneducated and thoroughly “countrified” voice.

The titles of the chapters are in third person, while the text itself is in the first person voice of Huck Finn. What does this literary device suggest about the argument that Huck and Twain are one and the same?

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel written by Mark Twain, is an important literary work because of it's use of satire. It is a story written about a boy, Huck, in search of freedom and adventure. In the beginning of the story you learn what has happened since The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huck and Tom found a hidden treasure that was later invested for them. Huck was taken in by Mrs. Watson, who attempted to teach him religion and proper manners, but was taken away when his father returned. Pap, being a drunk and abusive father, imprisons Huck because he wants the money Huck has invested for him. Huck fakes his own death and hides out on Jackson's Island, where he discovers Jim, Mrs. Watson's former slave, is also hiding. Jim

Anyone living in the time period Huckleberry Finn was alive for would be taught that black people should seen as slaves, not people. They were treated like objects and property instead of humans with feelings. Very few people were able see black people for who they really were. Huck eventually met Jim and got to know him as a person, instead of a slave. Huck was able to view Jim as a friend, a father figure, and a slave.

The style used in both “Huckleberry Finn” and “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” are reminiscent of the late 80’s. They go in a roundabout way by adding a couple of commas, alliterations, repetitive phrases, and SWABIs. According to the first paragraph in The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, ”if i asked old Wheeler about him, it would remind him of his infamous Jim Smiley, and he would go to work… If that was the design, it certainly succeeded.”. This passage uses commas, and SWABIs to get their point across to the readers by making the pace that the reader’s would have to read change and give some thought provoking ideas along the way. Also in chapter 12, second paragraph of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, “If the men went to the island, I just expect they found the camp fire i built, and watched it all night for Jim to come… and if my building the fire never fooled them it warn’t no fault of mine.” the author uses the same style but in a different pictured environment and setting.

Language matters. More specifically, the words we use change the way we perceive the world around us. This theory, known as linguistic relativism, gives us a way of analyzing the motivations and worldviews of characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through the way they discuss the problems presented to them. This is especially important when discussing reform, as a character’s changes in speech can help us asses the affect their environment has on their ability to ameliorate the situation. In Chapter 36, Trying to Help Jim, Twain presents a cynical picture of reformation, arguing that regression pervades

Twain’s syntax is related to both sources through his way of developing a topic, with having his

Satire can be found everywhere around us, not just in our English classes. For instance, satire can be found in many television shows, newspaper articles, comics and many other places. Satire is used to criticize people`s stupidity or foolishness among many different issues through the use of irony, humor, and other rhetorical strategies. In other words, its main purpose is to mock a certain subject or person to expose the main issue to the audience. For instance, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain demonstrates the use of various rhetorical strategies, such as ironic and humorous language to satirize southern society`s hypocrisy toward education, religion and racism.

In the 1884 novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain uses hyperboles coupled with irony and an appeal to pathos to gently and subtly attempt to alter his Reconstruction audience’s view on African American’s equal role in society; on the other hand in “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X, X similarly attempts to inspire change in his literate audience using an appeal to pathos,on African American’s equal role in society, but contrarily uses an accusatory tone to convey this message.

Mark Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with sardonic references to acknowledge the errors in his society. During Twain’s time period, the U.S. government and the media slowly began to convince their citizens that they were veracious, however he sought to reveal that they were actually deceptive. Twain was determined to inform the American people about how apathetic the government leaders were, how the judicial system served injustice and how the media would indoctrinate anyone that listened to them.

In the story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” Mark Twain incorporates the use of informal, slang, and uneducated diction. Twain uses this type of diction to describe the character, Jim Smiley; furthermore, it also give the reader a conclusion of when and where the story takes place. This also helps develop a persona of Jim Smiley and gives the reader an insight of the western setting.

.” (Twain, ix) He openly and firstly acknowledges the irregularities in this story and explains that it is not on a whim that he uses this specific type of language but with the purpose to expose the world to a new and original form of literary design. The main character in this story is Huckleberry Finn, the complete opposite of a traditional European hero; he is not the typical king or nobleman that traditional stories tell of. He is an everyday boy uneducated and seemingly unworthy, Huckleberry Finn is the epitome of a real American every day hero. Mr. Twain writes this book as a way to show that just by simply maturing and growing up so that Huckleberry Finn can make the right decisions in all aspects of his life; it makes him a noble character. “We are asked to trust this not as a sport, but rather as a well-considered and well-honed document. . . We are invited to experience and to appreciate this narrative in terms of its thought, its thoughtfulness, and its craft.” (Fertel, 159 –Free and Easy”)

Comparatively, the two pieces The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” have similarities in the style , long run on sentence structures with polysyndetons, and his use of common day dialect instead of the usual proper diction expected from writers during this time.

In the explanatory text before the story, Twain explains the dialect of the characters, “the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the form of the backwood South-Western dialect; the ordinary “Pike-County” dialect; and four modified varieties of this last.” The dialect is accurate to each role the character plays, making the text as real and relatable as possible. The use of diction that fits each character, time period, and location is another way in which The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn becomes a novel to fit the idea of realism.