MarkTwain.doc

南京航空航天大学金城学院学期论文Analysis of Mark Twains The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn姓名程矗学号2006041424专业英语班级20060414 2009年5月IntroductionMark Twain whose original name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens ,and Mark Twain that more widely known by people was his pen name .He was born in Missouri in 1835 and died in 1910.Mark Twains father was an ambitious and respected but unsucceful country lawyer and storekeeper. The family had a hard time that period even experience the bankrupt. He father died when Mark Twain was 12 years old, so he started to work in order to support his family, he used to be a printer , publisher and after that he became a steamboat pilot instead. When Mark Twain looked back to his early experience, he always considered himself as a class of worker.In 1861 the civil war broke out , he went to Nevada and California , where he began his career as a journalist. From then on the name “Mark Twain” had been brought to our sight step by step. “The Lincoln of literature” is what Twain was soon called. His first famous writing was The Celebrated Jumping Frog. Twain would use personal past experiences in his writings from his boyhood, for example in his book Hannibal. Twain soon became the most famous man alive of his time, Twain , of course, gives all credit to his inner source of timing. He went from personal experiences to fiction, using his knowledge of his past as a guide through the story lines. He used his knowledge of the Mississippi also. These two factors are evident in one of his most famous writings, The Adventures of Huck Finn. Twain lived a successful life and learned from his fathers mistakes and his personal experiences throughout his life. He was a great naturalist writer who will always be appreciated for his inner timing. Mark Twain is an outstanding humorist and statists. He wrote many volumes during his long lifetime , the most widely read of his works is what I am going to introduce.Literary ReviewThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a renowned novel by Mark Twain, is the story of a young boy, who, in a desperate attempt to escape his abusive and poverty stricken home, escapes and seeks help with the Mississippi River, where he experiences many different trials. The novel was finally published in 1885, being written on spurts of inspiration interrupted by long periods during which it sat on the authors desk. Now it is published in at least twenty-seven languages.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn outlines the different experiences and developing friendship of the novels two main characters, Huck and Jim. Huck, a young boy trying to escape from his life, and Jim, a black slave, wanting to escape from being sold to a farmer in the deep South, join together to sail on the Mississippi River to the Ohio River, which would lead to their freedom, but they miss it in the dark. Huck faces a moral dilemma in helping a slave, but never finds a good enough reason to turn him in, and as a result, the two develop a special bond. Written with much dialogue from the southern dialect, the story depicts a southern society from the mid-1800s, which is very gullible, and easily manipulated. The tale is full of humor in its accounts of the pair of escapees, but it is full of underlying meaning. The whole story was written by Twain with a cynical view, wanting to show the downfalls of man, and subtly criticizing slavery. It is clear that Twain mocks the absurdity of slavery through various comments of people along the river, Hucks father, and even Huck himself. However, through Hucks internal struggle, Twain expresses what he believes to be the foolishness of slavery and the importance of being a leader in a society comprised of ignorant followers. Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn is an adventure story, a coming of age book, and a satire. Throughout the entire book, Huck tells of his adventures in town, with his pap, and traveling down the river with Jim. Huck wrestles with his conscience on the rights and wrongs of racism and slavery, showing the coming forth of a new generations new way of thinking. Twain satirizes many aspects of society: religion, romanticism, small towns, ideals of the time, and many others. Huck is wrestling with a moral crisis, whether of not to turn Jim in for running away from Miss Watson. This internal conflict is also ironic because Huck knows the “right” thing to do would be to turn Jim in, but he likes him so much that he is forced to go against society and help Jim. Huck and Jim becomes much more than just companions traveling down a river, they become friends. Jim also takes on a fatherly role to Huck, trying to protect him, such as when he prevents Huck from seeing his paps dead body. Huck and Jim also form a bond because both are working towards the same goal: freedom. The raft and the river have very important meanings to both Huck and Jim. To them, this is the only way to escape a society neither fits into. They also represent a certain amount of security for the two runaways. Being on the raft in the river, they feel safe, they are in control of their own destiny, not by another person. The shore, to Huck, means civilization, a thing he so desperately tries to escape. Huck knows that on shore, if he is caught, he will not be in control of his life and live as he pleases. He will have to bathe, dress nice, eat right, go to church and school, and obey adults. To Jim the shore represents captivity in a way differently from Huck. Jim will have to become a slave again and continue being separated from his family. Twain satirizes many aspects of society. The whole idea of blacks being dumb and inferior to whites is being repeatedly pointed out so as to show exactly how people really thought and acted years ago. Twain makes Jim into a very noble and trustworthy person, showing the contrast from what people thought about slaves and how they actually were. The feud between the Grangerfords and Shepardsons is a satirizing the small towns and farming families of the time. The two families bring their guns to church and their own children do not even know what the feud is about. The running away of opposing son and daughter is a play off of Romeo and Juliet, the feud ending with everyone being killed. Though highly controversial to some, I believe it is a wonderful portrayal of the times it was set and that it is necessary to show exactly what blacks went through in a time none of us were a part of. It also goes beyond that to the inner conflicts of a young boy wrestling between society and his own feelings, showing the changes that were beginning to happen in the new generation.I enjoyed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because it has so much humor. It was extremely well-written, but it takes some time to adjust to reading so much dialogue that