One of the most striking elements of this passage, and indeed throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is the conversational nature of the narrative.

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Mark Cavanagh                Languages of Literature Essay – Spring Term 2004

        One of the most striking elements of this passage, and indeed throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is the conversational nature of the narrative. The opening words of this extract, “Miss Watson she kept pecking at me”, seem to establish a link between the reader and Huck. This is a very significant factor in the novel’s uniqueness. Another theme that is apparent from this extract is nature, or rather Huck’s observations and reactions to the natural world around him. In addition, as opposed to the natural world, the supernatural and superstitious world is a theme that becomes apparent from this extract, and also turns out to be a major theme in the novel.

        Mark Twain’s use of Huck as the narrator as well as the protagonist is very significant. One aspect that makes this particularly effective is that the dialect used by Huck is continuous throughout the novel, which not only develops authenticity, but also allows for further insight and background to be relayed to the reader through Huck and not a character-less narrator. For example, chapter 18 opens with Huck informing the reader about Colonel Grangerford and his family, and this I feel certainly benefits from Huck’s own choice of words. The description given appears so much more genuine, as we are told not only of physical appearances, but also of Huck’s personal opinions of the characters:

Col. Grangerford was a gentleman, you see. He was a gentleman all over; and so was his family. He was well born, as the saying is, and that’s worth as much in a man as it is in a horse…

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Through Huck’s acceptance of characters in this way, the reader can safely assume that these characters can be trusted. The opposite effect can be seen near the end of chapter 19, where it is clear that Huck does not trust the duke and the dauphin, sating that “it didn’t take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn’t no kings nor dukes at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds.” It seems quite possible that the company Huck is with affects his language. When with Colonel Grangerford, Huck uses much more of what he would consider ...

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