Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

There are many times in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain where the readers must go back and reread a sentence or even a whole paragraph of the novel to be sure that they did read what they thought they read. Yet, what can one expect from a novel written in the antebellum south from the perspective of an underprivileged, undereducated, adolescent boy? The author’s style is often what sets the novel apart from other novels like it. Mark Twain really goes above and beyond in making Huckleberry Finn stand out. Twain’s writing style reflects the major differences in the south’s social ladder through the varying dialects of the time period as well as utilizes reversed deadpan humor to address his feelings about serious social issues

Mark Twain uses a style of comedy called deadpan, a type of humor that is spoken without using expressions. However, Twain’s use of deadpan humor in Huckleberry Finn is actually inverted because usually, the narrator is the humorist; in this case, Huck is the narrator, and Twain is the humorist (Bercovitch 5). This is also a way for Twain to incorporate himself and his own personal feelings into the novel. In fact, “Each of the raft episodes elaborates Twain’s view of society as filtered through Huck’s sensibility and spoken in Huck’s voice” (Sloane 3). From a basic understanding of Twain’s early life, it is understood that Twain was a riverboat captain on the Mississippi River, which proves how Huck understands so much about the river and how to handle the raft on it. Huck speaks in a serious tone throughout the book; he never even makes a joke. The reader is expected to find this diction funny at first glance, but should reread for a clearer understanding of the meaning behind the humor. For example, Huck explains that “you couldn't go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals” (Twain 2). The reader finds this funny at first because of the way it is worded but soon realizes that Huck was not joking. He really does not understand that the widow is praying over the food before the family eats, and she does not think that

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain exercises symbolism to further supplement his opinion that the fundamental ideas for each of the rungs on the antebellum southern social ladder are dependent upon race, financial status, and education. The Mississippi River, for example, is highly symbolic of freedom for both Huck and Jim. Jim is running away to escape being sold somewhere else. Huck flees down the river to escape society and civilization altogether, which is symbolized by the widow’s home. In her house, Huck was expected to eat, speak, and act like a person in the widow’s social class would act, and Huck’s true character was not even close to where the widow’s expectations sat. The only time in the whole novel where Huck and Jim were on the same social level was on the raft, which is a symbol for social equality. In America (especially the south) during this time period, finding a place where white people and African Americans were equal was few and far between, and the raft that Huck and JIm floated on was that rare place of equality. They helped each other out as needed and always found their way back to it if they got separated, and race, education, or money never came into question when one was helping the other. Not only does the symbolism describe social status during the time period the novel was written in, but some parts are symbolic examples of another