Contradiction In Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain is often credited with writing “the” American novel. It is a good title for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as the novel contains a myriad of themes that all come together at the end. One theme, however, stands out above the rest. The author uses both civilized life and natural life in varying levels of contradiction in order to represent the two sides of a person; the real side, and the side that other people see. Huckleberry Finn, being an honest young boy, expresses the true side of himself, because he does not feel he needs to hide anything about himself yet. Huck Finn was raised without any rules or discipline, and a strong repulsion toward anything that might “sivilize” him. This conflict is first introduced in the first chapter, where Widow Douglas tries to force Huck to give up smoking, wear new clothes, and learn the Bible. (Twain 13-16) Because Huck is representing the

This can be found in the text, where it states, “...but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways...” (Twain 13) In any other terms, a reader would think that “regular and decent” was a positive thing; however, in this statement by Huck, it is most clearly a negative trait. One of the most prominent literary devices the author uses in the writing of Huck Finn was the writing style; choosing to write it in a dialect was a bold move. It worked, however; by separating the language of Huck, living a natural life, and those living a civilized life, the author further differentiated the two. The setting, however, was also a very important part of the novel. By throwing Huck into the old south, where slavery is legal, drunks are running rampant, and gender roles are a very controversial topic, it becomes even more of a split between those living naturally and those living