Week 1 Dean Wong Period 1 Book Title: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Quote From Book 1.They call that a govment that can't sell a free nigger till he's been in the State six months. Here's a govment that calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free nigger, and " (6.11).

Author: Mark Twain

Strategy Character foil; parallelism

Explanation: Twain describes the free nigger very well and uses a variety of language to make him sound like an interesting person. This all comes from the mouth of Pap, the novels epitome of ignorance and evil. The Ohio man sounds classy and educated, while Pap is drunk and openly hostile. The man stands proud against Paps belligerent actions.This is an effective character foil by Mark Twain where the contrasting personalities accent the innate evil of Pap. At the same time, conveying the extreme racism that was indicative of the period. Twain also writes government many times to create the rhetorical rhythm and emphasize Paps point. 2."But mind, you said you wouldn' tell you know you said you wouldn' tell, Huck." "Well, I did. I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it. Honest INJUN, I will. People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum but that don't make no difference. I ain't a-going to tell, and I ain't a-going back there, anyways. So, now, le's know all about it." (8.52, 8.53). Allusion; Anaphora

Explanation: Although he enjoys making up tales, Huck places a great deal of value on keeping his word. In fact, it appears that keeping his word to Jim is more important to Huck than the fate of his own reputation, or abiding the law. Here, Twain alludes to the current social ramifications that lie within aiding a slave and uses this to accentuate Hucks moral values. At the end, the use of I aint reconfirms his values and convictions towards his promise. 3.The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. (1.2) Diction;

Explanation: The use of civilize spelled with an s instead of a c shows the lack of education Huck exhibits and also the dialect of the South. Twain describes a simpler lifestyle, one not of scholarly pursuit, but of the necessities of life. Perhaps an allusion to the gap that separated and caused tensions between the rich and the poor, he makes Huck initially resent her ways. Huck represents a childs innocence and moral conviction in an environment of prescribed norms that may be considered wrong today. Twain may describe him as ignorant in some ways, but he later uses Hucks candidness to expose the more sinister perspectives of his time.