MARK TWAIN

He was born the 1835. His father died and he was forced to work in different jobs such as
journalist. He anticipated that he was going to died the same day that the Halley’s comet
appeared in the sky, the same as when he was born. The expression of ‘Mark Twain’ means
that the river is deep enough so we can sail  it is safe to sail. He became a steam boat pilot.
He wrote his first novel in collaboration with another writer. He wrote a very successful novel:
The adventures of Tom Sawyer. He was a kind of modern boy who try to represent the perfect
child. It is a kind of combination of a picaresque novel and a satire. The adventures of
Huckleberry Finn were a kind of a spin-off. After this, he wrote some poetical works. He was a
kind of a happy man but he also had a difficult life, above all, at the end. His first son died and
he also made some pure investments in his life which turned to be wrong inversions. In the last
decade of his life he abandoned his childish mood.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Includes aspects to be a picaresque novel but it is also a Bildungsroman novel. It was

published in 1884. Some critics criticized some violence that appear in the novel. Also the
world ‘nigga’ that appear a few times in the novel, this makes us think if it could be considered
as a racist novel because it follows the stereotypes and prejudices about the black people. He
follows some of the stereotypes in the way he talks, he is sometimes childish, however, in
some way, the black character is the best person in the novel, Jim is the only person who is
worth it in the novel. Beyond of these stereotypes and the fact that he is black, in moral terms
he is better person than the other characters of the story. Mark Twain doesn’t mean to be
offensive but, of course, we can see this just from the point of view of a reader in the 21 st
century. It is very different from the view of Europe.

This novel advocates for the rights of the slave but it is not an against slavery novel. Twain’s
novel was published after the slavery was abolished. Independence was still a conflict and we
see this in the novel. It took Mark Twain 7 years to finish this novel, he rewrote his manuscript
many times.

With the warning notice, he anticipated the attitude of the critics. The novel will be divided
into different parts divided into 43 chapters.

 First section (1-7): Huck’s life with Widow Douglas and Miss Watson + encounter with Pap
+ fake murder of Huck.

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 Second section (8-31): Huck runs away and meets Jim in Jackson Island. Adventures in the
river. Jim is sold to the Phelps.
 Third section (32-43): Huck and Tom meet and try to free Jim. Tom is shot. Arrive of Aunt
Polly, and revelation of the truth.

It is interesting to see how the reader dominates everything. It stablishes a symbolic contrast
with land. It is in the river where Huck feel free and himself with Jim but in the lab they find all
the problems.

Main episodes:

 Life in St. Petersburg

 The floating house and the corpse (we discover whose corpse is at the end)
 Huck dressed as a girl.
 The Grangerfords and the Shepersdsons
 The Duke and the King
 At Phelp’s: Jim’s scape
 Falling action: happy ending.

Narrative aspects

 Point of view: first person narration; child voice. Children always provide innocence in
their perspectives so in a way Huck is very naïve, he is the voice of prejudices. Huck looks
at the reality in a way that bring to life all the injustices, the bad people in life, etc. bad
people who wants to take advantage of Huck and Jim and their vulnerability. This
perspective stablishes a contrast with the hard reality he depicts. This contrast creates a
lot of irony in the way Huck looks at reality and the cruel world.
 Setting: we have three places: St. Petersburg, Mississippi River and the Phelps House. In
terms of time, this novel takes place in before the Civil Way, fifty years before its
publication.

Tone and Style

 Informal tone. Humorous tone sometimes in Mark Twain’s observations of society.

 Southern dialect; nigro dialect; slave’s dialect. Sometimes it is difficult to understand.
 Speech of a boy: simple and with grammar mistakes. He is not been metaphorical, we
don’t find very literary details. This is because his lack of education. This novel falls into
realism or even regionalism in this sense since it represents world as it is.

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 Lot of irony.
 Scarce use of figurative language (some examples of metaphors, similes,
personifications…). But they are simple not complex. He makes a particular use of the
vernacular language, the spoken language. He tries to be accurate in the phonetics. He
represents how it sounds. A few examples of intertextuality too, a few references to others
works.

Characterization

 Complexity:
 Flat characters: they are defined usually by one characteristic.
 Round characters: they use to be more complex.
 Evolution:
 Static: they do not change, they do not evolve.
 Dynamic: they evolve.

Sometimes there are correspondences: flat – static; round – dynamic. However, this doesn’t
happen always.

How do we come to know the characters? There are four ways:

 Description: physical and psychological

 Speech: the way they speak can give us many details about their backgrounds, their
emotional state, etc. This happens in a linguistic level.
 Actions: sometimes we see how a character is by the action he or she makes. They tell us
about their psychology.
 Comment: they are made by the narrator or other characters. The impressions they have,
their opinions about them, etc.

These aspects are the most important to analyse a character and to know how to interpret it.
However, there are some other aspects:

 Name: is their name relevant? Has their name any meaning? Does the name give us a
hint about the characteristics of the character? Does the name anticipate some
elements?
 Autobiography: if the author is representing him or herself in the character is going to tell
us many things about both, the author and the character. And helps to explain many
aspects.

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  Age: their experience in life which can be also a tool to criticize society or other aspects.
 Stereotypes: if the character follows certain stereotypes.

Characters of the story

 Huckleberry Finn  he is a bit influences by Tom but he doesn’t look for adventures in the
same way as him. At some point, he doesn’t agree with Tom. He is very practical but he
keeps being a child so sometimes he has this childish attitude. However, he is very sensible
and intelligent and he likes to get to the conclusion of the things. He knows the actions he
has to do according to society but he’s always true to himself, true to who he is. He may be
the only one who has this moral compass of knowing what is good and what is bad. Even if
he goes against society, he is always going to fight for what he loves, we see how
important is friendship to him. He is more logical and rational which can be related with
the realism.
 Tom Sawyer  Finn and Tom are friends but we see the differences between them. While
Huck is rational and logical, Tom is childish and influenced by the stories he read. It has
been said that Tom represents the Romanticism, the emotional instead of the rational.
 Jim  a paternal figure for Huck. He is superstitious. He has a different way to speak due
to his backgrounds, a different type of dialogue. He looks scary sometimes but he protects
Huck as much as he can. He is a father himself, he is looking for his family, he wants to
rescue them. He is emphatic with the others, with Huck. He is vulnerable because he
believes everything, but he is intelligent.
 Widow Douglas & Miss Watson  they represent civilization, the hypocrisy of this society
in the civilization. They have those values which are criticised.
 Pap  reminder of the background of Huck and the poverty. He is the opposite to the
paternal figure of Jim. He represents the white society.
 The duke and the dauphine  they are selfish, they try to cheat everywhere.
 Silas and Sally Phelps  they are the family of Tom Sawyer.
 Grangerfords

All these characters represent society, the difficulties they have to face, etc.

Themes:

 Racism & Slavery  Mark Twain is against these subjectivity. He was accused of racist but,
however, he tried the opposite in the novel.

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 Education  the failure of education. At the moral level, Huck learns more in his
adventure than in school. Education is wrong sometimes in the way to understand good
and evil.
 Society & civilization (Hypocrisy)  wild means freedom. The hypocrisy is seen in the
inequality of the punishments of some acts.
 Freedom  oppose to civilization. Here appears the opposition between romanticism and
realism. The idealistic doesn’t work anymore. The author advocated for a more practical
and logical way of living.