Realism and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Definition of “Realism” A mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or ‘reflecting’ faithfully an actual way of life. The term refers, sometimes confusingly, both to a literary method based on detailed accuracy of description (i.e. verisimilitude) and to a more general attitude that rejects idealization, escapism, and other extravagant qualities of romance in favor of recognizing soberly the actual problems of life.

“You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly—Tom’s Aunt Polly, she is—and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before” (Twain 3). Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Random House, Print.

Question to Keep in Mind: How do each of the following characteristics of realism apply to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

Characteristics of Realism Renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail Character is more important than action and plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject. Characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive; they are explicable in relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own past. (Campbell)

Characteristics of Realism (continued) Class is important; the novel has traditionally served the interests and aspirations of an insurgent middle class. Events will usually be plausible. Realistic novels avoid the sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances. Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of- fact. (Campbell)

Characteristics of Realism (continued) Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important: overt authorial comments or intrusions diminish as the century progresses. (Campbell)

Use of Dialects in Huck Finn Twain lists four dialects used in his Explanatory note at the beginning of the novel: – Missouri Negro: Jim and the other slaves. Twain learned this on his Uncle John’s farm which had slaves including the storyteller Uncle Dan’l – Backwoods South-Western Dialect: the Grangerfords and Arkansas townspeople – Ordinary Pike County: Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Ben Rogers, Pap Finn, Judith Loftus, Aunt Polly – Variations of Pike County dialect: Robbers on the Walter Scott, the king, the Bricksville loafers, Aunt Sally, Uncle Silas Phelps

Twain’s Use of Dialect Twain practiced dialogue by saying it aloud to make sure it matched the speech he was hearing from others. One of the problems Twain reported is that people are not always consistent in how they say words; for example, sometimes “goin” and other times “gwyne.” People praised Twain for faithfully rendering the dialects (Hearn)

Twain on Dialect In “Fennimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses,” Twain wrote: When the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of subject in hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. (qtd. in Hearn)

Twain’s Success with Dialect “Authentic and subtle shadings of class, race, and personality” “Innovation, a new discovery in the English language” (T. S. Eliot) Dialect one of the aspects Heming way admired when he said that “all modern America literature comes Huckleberry Finn from one book by Mark Twain called” (Guerin et al. 43)

Use of the word nigger Coarse, vulgar word for slaves and other people of African descent, derived from the Latin niger (black) or an English or Irish dialectical pronunciation of the French negre or the Spanish and Portuguese negro. It is a relatively recent epithet. The Oxford English Dictionary located it no earlier that the eighteenth century. Even in the slave South, only the lowest of the low used the word. Hannibal papers including that run by Orion Clemens rarely printed “nigger.” It was not part of the vocabulary of properly brought up Southern belles. (Hearn 22)

Use of the word nigger (continued) Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born and raised in a slave state, and his use of the word at least 211 times in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn reflects his upbringing. To replace the word with “African- American” or “Black” instead of nigger is anachronistic and untrue to Huck’s upbringing, class, rhetoric, and it is not enough to merely replace the epithet with “slave,” which would have been used in government, religious, and legal publications. Huck says the word out of habit, not malice. (Hearn 22)

Plot: Picaresque A genre of usually satiric prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic, often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his or her wits in a corrupt society.

Works Cited Campbell, Donna M. “Realism in American Literature, ” Washington State University. Web. 13 April Guerin, Wilfred L., et al. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 4 th ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, Print. Hearn, Michael Patrick. “Introduction and Notes.” The Annotated Huckleberry Finn. New York: Norton, Print. “Picaresque.” The FreeDictionary Houghton Mifflin. Web. 13 April “Realism.” Answers.com. Web. 13 April 2009.