Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1.Period:

The period that is most evident in this novel is that of realism. Realism is a style of writing, developed in the nineteenth century, that attempts to depict life accurately without idealizing or romanticizing it. Mark Twain depicts the adventures and life of Huck Finn in a realistic, straight-forward way. He did not try to |idealizeX or |romanticizeX his characters or their surroundings; instead he described them exactly how they would be in real life. Realists did not write about the long ago or far away, the realists concentrate often on contemporary life and on middle- and lower-class lives in particular (such as Huck Finns). Evidence of the Romantic period is also found in this novel in that romantics tend to seek nature as a solace from problems caused by society and the big city. In this novel Huck turns to the Mississippi River (nature) as an escape from society, as does Jim for an escape from his slavery. Huck Finn also shows evidence of romanticism with its instances with the supernatural.

2.Style

One of Mark Twain+s most effective uses of style in this novel is his first person point of view. In a first person point of view one of the characters tells the story, using first-person pronouns such as I and we. With this point of view the reader knows only what the narrator knows. The Adventure+s of Huckleberry Finn is told by the novel+s main character, Huck Finn. This point of view allows us to hear Huck+s distinct voice and dialect, further familiarizing the reader with Huck+s culture and surroundings. The skill with witch Twain elevates the dialect of an illiterate village boy to the highest levels of poetry established the spoken American idiom as a literary language. Twain also uses metaphors to illustrate his themes such as slavery as a metaphor for all social bondage and injustice. Twain also uses irony in order to attack the |civilized worldX and institutionalized religion. Southern Romanticism, which Twain blamed for the fall of the South, is allegorized by the sinking of the Walter Scott and the feud between Sheperdsons and the Grangerfords, which was traditionally glamorized by the romantic authors.