The point of view of this novel is first person with a central narrator. At the beginning of the novel, Huck introduces himself to the reader and also refers to “Mr. Mark Twain”. This immediately shows the reader than he, not Mark Twain will be narrating the novel. By having Huck as the narrator, it puts the story into his perspective, his interpretation, and his voice. The narrator voice of Huck is very effective in this novel because we really get a sense of his thought process in very black and white situations (deciding to rat out Jim or not, whether to help Jim or not, etc). One scene I thought really exemplified the fact that Huck is personally narrating it is this quote: “I went to sleep, and Jim didn't call me when it was my turn.
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Twain imitates how Huck’s pronunciation of words by truncating words or replacing letters. This poor grammar in his speech pattern makes the character more realistic but more importantly reflects his lack of a proper education. Huck’s speech is very animated with very simple sentences, reflecting his active, youthful nature. However, there are also many instances where it becomes very smooth, especially during moments of moral quandary to resemble Huck’s thought process. By incorporating Huck’s character in the style of the novel, it truly adds his essence and it really enforces that Huck is the narrator of the novel- his voice and his …show more content…
Thus, the theme that this novel takes on is that independence and freedom are required for a child to rightfully develop. Huck does not trust the teachings of the society that treated him as an outcast and failed to protect him from abuse (his Pap). This is because of who he is-an uneducated boy in poverty. This fear of society, and his friendship with Jim (who is supposedly even less than human and yet is the most mature and moral character in the novel), lead Huck to question many things that he has been taught, the most prominent being race and slavery. Huck makes decisions on what he has experienced, his own sense of morals, and what his conscience tells him rather than mindlessly follow what society would tell him to do. On the raft, he is free from “silivation” and it’s rules. He can make his own decisions and come to his own conclusions, not influenced by the backwards rules and values of Southern culture. At the beginning of the novel, Huck has barely learned to read a novel in a civilized home but by the end, Huck has learned to “read” the world around him instead. He developed an moral compass that enables him to distinguish good and bad based on his own values rather than those of society. Nearly opposite to Huck’s moral development was Tom’s. Mark Twain contrasts the result of Huck’s development outside of society with that of Tom’s who has been raised in relative comfort his whole
Twain imitates how Huck’s pronunciation of words by truncating words or replacing letters. This poor grammar in his speech pattern makes the character more realistic but more importantly reflects his lack of a proper education. Huck’s speech is very animated with very simple sentences, reflecting his active, youthful nature. However, there are also many instances where it becomes very smooth, especially during moments of moral quandary to resemble Huck’s thought process. By incorporating Huck’s character in the style of the novel, it truly adds his essence and it really enforces that Huck is the narrator of the novel- his voice and his …show more content…
Thus, the theme that this novel takes on is that independence and freedom are required for a child to rightfully develop. Huck does not trust the teachings of the society that treated him as an outcast and failed to protect him from abuse (his Pap). This is because of who he is-an uneducated boy in poverty. This fear of society, and his friendship with Jim (who is supposedly even less than human and yet is the most mature and moral character in the novel), lead Huck to question many things that he has been taught, the most prominent being race and slavery. Huck makes decisions on what he has experienced, his own sense of morals, and what his conscience tells him rather than mindlessly follow what society would tell him to do. On the raft, he is free from “silivation” and it’s rules. He can make his own decisions and come to his own conclusions, not influenced by the backwards rules and values of Southern culture. At the beginning of the novel, Huck has barely learned to read a novel in a civilized home but by the end, Huck has learned to “read” the world around him instead. He developed an moral compass that enables him to distinguish good and bad based on his own values rather than those of society. Nearly opposite to Huck’s moral development was Tom’s. Mark Twain contrasts the result of Huck’s development outside of society with that of Tom’s who has been raised in relative comfort his whole