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The Writing Style of Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnAbstract: Mark Twain, a mastermind of humor and realism, is seen as a giant in the world of literature. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as one of his masterpieces, expounding its artistic charm from many aspects. The protagonist Huck is a veritable creation of several living models. The portrayal of this character achieves intense verisimilitude in details. This essay mainly discusses the writing style of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through the humorous style of Mark Twain, by analyzing rhetorical devices, protagonist choosing, and language; the individualized colloquialism description; the narration way of the first person; and the contrast between realism and romanticism. Pointing out that this book occupies a very important status in Americas literature in the 19th century, and it is a representative of critical realism literature in America.Key words: Mark Twain; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; humor; colloquial language；realism CONTENTS1.Introduction12. Mark Twain and his Art style32.1 Biographical Sketch of Mark Twain32.2 The Art Style of Mark Twain42.2.1 Realism of Mark Twains works42.2.2 Great Humorist as Mark Twain is42.2.3 The Language Feature of Mark Twain53. Creation background of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and its Introduction73.1 Creation Background of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn73.2 Introduction to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn84The Writing Style of Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn104.1 Humor and Irony104.1.1 Humor by Rhetorical Devices Humor by Exaggeration Humor by Malapropism Humor by Irony124.1.2 Humor by Choosing Protagonist, and Language Humor by Choosing Protagonist Humor by Language134.1.3Reflection by Humor in Huckleberry Finn Criticism of Bad Phenomenon in America by Humor Democratic Ideas in Huckleberry Finn154.2 The Colloquial language and First-person Narration154.2.1 The Vernacular Language164.2.2 Use of Colloquial Language174.2.3 The First-person Narration184.3 Realism194.3.1 Romanticism: The Beautiful and Romantic Mississippi River194.3.2 Realism: The Situation along the River214.3.3 The Combination of Realism and Romanticism215. Conclusion23 The Writing Style of Mark Twain inThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn1. IntroductionMark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is the forerunner and reputed realist in the American literature. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the best one of all his well-known works and is described as the book from which all modern American literature comes. He is titled “the Lincoln of American literature”.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as one of Mark Twains masterpieces, expounds its artistic charm form many aspects, for instance, ingenious combination of satire and humor, the spirit of the times, the exquisite psychology describing, the individualized colloquialism description, the narration way of the first person and so on.(Song Yihua, 2005) The protagonist Huck is a veritable creation of several living models. The portrayal of this character achieves intense verisimilitude in details. Novelist Ernest Hemingway remarks that “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” (Li Zhibin, 2008) it is increasingly studied at both the high school and college level, where its literary merit and the insights offers into American society are praised.Mark Twain is known for his humor, Twains humor which Stephen Leacook spoke highly: “The name of Mark Twain stands for American Humor. More than that of many other writers, more than all names together, his name conveys the idea of American humor.” (Simon&Schuster, Inc., 2004)Twains humor with its frequent satiric bitterness at injustice and oppression won him the fame as “the Wild Humorist of the Pacific Slope.” And we find Mark Twains world wide popularity lies “primarily in universality and humanity of his humor. ”(Song Yihua, 2005)Human qualities are the basic of Twains humor; the artist distinguishes the superficial aspects of life and the heart of existence. He recognizes human values, understands human nature, and expresses the incongruities in both.His humor and wisdom helped his lectures to be well received; and these characteristics have continued to make Mark Twain a wildly beloved writer after all these years. And through his theories of localism in American fiction and his colloquial style, Mark Twain contribute a lot to the development of realism and American literature. This paper comments on the writing features and characterization which play a very important role in this novel. The paper can be divided into three chapters, discussing the three aspects of writing traits and characters of the novel.2. Mark Twain and his Art style2.1 Biographical Sketch of Mark TwainMark Twain was born on November 30, 1835, in Florida. His father, John Marshall Clemens, was a restless and unsuccessful lawyer-land speculator, who settled at Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi. Samuel quit school at the age of twelve, after his fathers death, to work as an apprentice-printer, which helped gain exposure to a wide range of writing, and he discovered he had the talent and the ambition to become a writer himself. He followed printers trade in Eastern and Middle-Western cities in1853; and header to New Orleans in 1857, intending to make his fortune in Brazil, but abandoned scheme and became Mississippi river-pilot instead .This first part of his life furnished basis of his best books: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. After a short period as Confederate volunteer, he spent leaving of Civil War years in Nevada and San Francisco, writing humorous newspaper items under pseudonym of “Mark Twain” an expression used by riverboat crewmen to refer to a safe navigating depth of two fathoms. In 1870, Twain married Olivia Langdon, and soon settled in Hartford, Connecticut, and wrote many books, nearly all well-received, including Roughing It, The Gilded Age, A Tramp Abroad, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, The Tragedy of Pudds head Wilson, and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, as well as many stories, sketches, and articles.The 1890s proved tragic for Twain. In 1893, he went bankrupt. Form 1896 to 1909, his wife and two daughters died, left him bitter and lonely. In 1906 he started preparing material for his Autobiography, and in 1907 received an honorary doctorate of Oxford University. He died at Redding, Connecticut, on 21 April, 1910, at the age of seventy-five.2.2 The Art Style of Mark Twain2.2.1 Realism of Mark Twains worksRealism is, in literature, an approach attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. In part, Realism is a reaction against the Romantic emphasis on the strange, idealistic, and long-ago and far-away. It has been chiefly concerned with the commonplace of everyday life among the middle and lower class, where character is a product of social factors and “Mark Twain are all the champion of this school for he made himself very much familiar with all walks of life and each corner of the Society.”(Qin Chenghua, 2006)Mark Twain had the soul, the life, and the speech of the people in mind, which is his aim of writing. Twains prose is graceful and genteel , but his novel is famous for the vernacular diction and rough and ready frontier humor. He sets a good example for others: He is just a frontier humorist at the beginning and when he is working his way into polite society; he does not forget where he comes from. His verisimilitude of detail derives from observation, his effort to approach the norm of experience, his reliance on the representative in plot, setting and character. He tries to observe and write human nature and experience objectively rather than ideally. 2.2.2 Great Humorist as Mark Twain is Among many research on Mark Twains writing style, critics prefer his humor. Twain likes to represent social life through portraits of local colorist. He feels that a novelist must not try to generalize a nation. He says, “The novelist lays before you the ways and speech and life of a few people grouped in a certain placehis own placeand that is one book. In time, he and his brethren will report to you the life and the people of the whole nation.” Thus he forms his “American Humor”. (Simon&Schuster, Inc.,2004)Mark Twain tries to use caricatures, puns, burlesques, hoaxes in his works. Exaggeration is one of his favorite rhetorical devices. Sometimes, as in Chapter XVII of A Tramp Abroad, a series of comic sentences huddle together in a page:a most prodigious fire breathing dragon used to live in that region, and made more trouble than a tax collector. He as long as a railway train comic similes His breath bred pestilence and conflagration, and his appetite bred famine. Exaggeration Heate men and cattle impartially and was exceedingly unpopular. Anticlimax and understatement So the most renowned knights from the four comers of the earth and retired down the dragons throat one after the other. Anticlimax (Mark Twain, 2010)Mark Twain is the first person who adds the tragedy laughter to the American literature. The comedy elements mix with the tragic elements. Like the humorous group of the Southwest, Twain recognizes and developes the comedy of hilarious situation. He writes with such high spirits that most his most successful narratives has an exuberant zestfulness.2.2.3 The Language Feature of Mark TwainTo a great extent, Mark Twains popularity has rested on his humor, but it would be a mistake to think of him simply as a humorist, which overlooks many of his other superior qualities of writing, such as his clarity and extraordinary beauty of style and his uniqueness of hero molding. Mark Twain is also well-known for his local colorism and vernacular language.Local colorism is a type of writing that was popular in the late 19th century, particularly among authors in the South of the America. This style relies heavily on using words, phases, and slang that were native to the particular region in which the story took place. The term has come to mean any device which implies a specific focus, whether it be geographical or temporal.Letting Huck tell the story and reporting concrete happenings in his colloquial language may be the most noteworthy aspect of The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. We cannot find the power of Mark Twain to convey speech among any other American novelists. No other single writer ever used so much colloquial language to create a novel as Mark Twain did. Accordingly, he makes a music of words, beautifully sustained and modulated to the end. Twains language is always flexible and full of change, lively and precise. His language in The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is always succinct, plain and graceful. From Huck Finn the reader always feels Twains casualness, ease or naturalness of managing the language. Commenting on the writing of the book, Sherwood Anderson once comment on Mark Twain “the half savage, tender, god-worshipping, believing boy” that he had once been. “I believe he wrote that book in a little hut on a hill on his farm,” Anderson said, imaginatively. “It poured out of him. I fancy that at night he came down from his hill stepping like a kinga splendid playboy, playing with rivers and men, ending on the Mississippi, on the broad river that is the great artery flowing out of the heart of the land.” (Blair Walter, 1962)3. Creation background of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and its Introduction 3.1 Creation Background of The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnIn 1876, Mark Twain published The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, and in the same year he began what he called another boys book, that is, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. When at last Huckleberry Finn was completed and published in 1884, it was widely loved.The writing of the book was evidently not easy for Twain, for he wrote some of it, then put it away and worked on other things, then wrote some more of ithe kept this up for a number of years. The novel that reached a high standard both in thought and art is an important masterpiece in American literature.The book reflects democracy of Mark Twain. “It is certainly not a simple adventure story. It is a tragicomic book that delves deeply into several complicated, emotionally charged subjects. The theme of novel is Anti-racial discrimination and anti-genocide.” (Simon&Schuster, Inc., 2004) Huckleberry Finn is a very personal novel for its author. Unlike Mark Twains other best works, it writes scenes, characters, and events in the authors boyhood and youth. The settings of Huckleberry Finn happened in Samuel Clemens boyhood home. He visited the farm and the Mississippi River during vacations which become the main pilot in Huckleberry Finn. Twain once wrote:“I confine myself to life with which I am familiar, when pretending to portray life. But I confine myself to the boylife out on the Mississippi River because that had a peculiar charm for me and not because I was not familiar with other phases of life Now then: as the most valuable capital, or culture, or education usable in the building of novels is personal experience, I ought to be well equipped And yet I cannot get away from the boyhood period and write novels because capital is not sufficient by itself and I lack the other essential: interest in handing the men and experiences of later times.” (Blair Walter, 1962)The novels merit and power was given by Twains delicate familiarity of American and American society. So Huckleberry Finn succeeds as a boys book. One can read it at ten and then each year read it again, each time find that it is as fresh as the year before.The novels two heroes Huck and Jim stand for two different classes. In the winding and adventurous journey, Huck and Jim have built up an everlasting friendship that has broken down the barrier between the white and black. The writers word is full of humor, sarcasm and contempt. 3.2 Introduction to The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnHuckleberry Finn is a 13 year-old boy. He who is looked down upon by the people of the village where he lives, is essentially a naive, enthusiasm, kind-hearted boy. His mother is dead, and his father is a town-drunken.Huck escapes to Jacksons Island and meets Jim when his father is drunken one night. Jim is a runaway “nigger” of Miss Watson. (Miss Watson and her sister Widow Douglas have protected Huck motherly) They head down the Mississippi River on a raft. During the long journey, Huck and Jim help and depend on each other. Their friendship undergoes a lot of trials. We have a deep understanding of human nature and friendship because of these trials. Mark Twain describes Jim as an honest, loyal black. While Huck has a strong conflict in his heart in the process of Huck helping Jim escape from slavery. He never divests himself completely of the prejudice towards Negro slaves by his society. The process of Hucks transfer from conventional prejudice is what some critics called “the sound heart defeat the deformed conscience.”(Qin Weimin, 2006) After a long travel, both of their dreams come true. Jim is set free by his owner, Miss Watson and Huck gets away from his drunken fathers control. The eternal and faithful friendship is built up between them. 4The Writing Style of Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn4.1 Humor and Irony 4.1.1 Humor by Rhetorical DevicesThe Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is a great novel because of its humor. Twain is a great public speaker and story teller, who is a master of all sorts of humor. Malapropisms, puns, misquotations, understatement, exaggeration, incongruities, caricatures, burlesques, hoaxes, Twain tried them all. Humor by ExaggerationMark Twains talent humor can be fully expressed by the exaggeration. In order to let the description stand out, the humor should affect the plot and the issues. In the opening of this novel, the humor by exaggeration can be easily found: “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.” (Mark Twain, 2004)When we glimpse these letters at the beginning, they seem to be unconcerned. But if we think over it, we may find that Mark Twain has satirized human and religious weakness many times in most of his works.(Yao Wenzhen, 2003) And we can also understand the deep meaning in the humor from the description in Charpter18 of Huckleberry Finn. Huck went to the church, he wrote like this: “So I slid out and slipped off up the road, and there warnt anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there warnt any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in summer-time because its cool. If you notice, most folks dont go to church only when theyve got to; but a hog is different.” (Mark Twain, 2004)“If we say exaggeration is a mirror, than it can reflect the human nature and social reality. Mark Twain use it to show his disdain towards the social injustice.”(Wang Xiaoxia, 2010) Humor by MalapropismMalapropism is an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, esp. by the confusion of words that are similar in sound. Misusing words to create a comic effect or characterize the speaker as being too confused, ignorant, or flustered to use correct diction. Typically, the malapropism involves the confusion of two polysyllabic words that sound some