Throughout history, authors have been using dialects of different peoples to illuminate principles and themes. By using these dialects, authors are able to create realistic elements and accurately represent time periods and societies. Mark Twain uses dialect and dialogue to create his characters and to add aspects of verisimilitude to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain uses dialect to enhance Huckleberry Finn in many unique ways. Through Huckleberry Finn, Twain created the perfect balance for a “powerful poetic medium,” using character, language, and topics (Budd 78). “Language in the novel more generally seems free-floating, especially as a form of self-definition” (Budd 88). Twain’s use of language illuminates his characters and
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As Twain was growing up, he encountered many different dialects and accents (Barlow 68). These encounters with dialects of different areas may have been included in Huckleberry Finn in many ways. From what he saw and heard, Twain is believed to have replicated some of the dialects from his childhood into the characters in Huckleberry Finn (Barlow 4). Through careful examination of the area in which Twain lived as a child, it can be concluded that multiple dialects of Twain’s childhood home affected the language of Huckleberry …show more content…
Twain wrote two “prefaces” to Huckleberry Finn. The more serious and one that introduces is the “explanatory.” The “notice”, however, is comical and laid-back (Carkeet: American Literature 330). The “explanatory” was believed to be included by Twain before he started writing or after he finished and explains that the dialects are intentionally included (Carkeet: American Literature 329).In the explanatory, Twain only mentions six dialects. Scholars have yet to determine which of the novel’s seven dialects are included in the six that Twain intended. (Carkeet: American Literature 321). Twain is believed to have described all seven main dialects in the “explanatory”. Carkeet determined that these dialects are the Missouri Negro, Southwestern, Ordinary “Pike County”, and four modifications of the “Pike County” dialect (Carkeet: American Literature 330). In this “explanatory” Twain says, “I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding.(2)” By including this he gives reasoning for including the explanatory and
As Twain was growing up, he encountered many different dialects and accents (Barlow 68). These encounters with dialects of different areas may have been included in Huckleberry Finn in many ways. From what he saw and heard, Twain is believed to have replicated some of the dialects from his childhood into the characters in Huckleberry Finn (Barlow 4). Through careful examination of the area in which Twain lived as a child, it can be concluded that multiple dialects of Twain’s childhood home affected the language of Huckleberry …show more content…
Twain wrote two “prefaces” to Huckleberry Finn. The more serious and one that introduces is the “explanatory.” The “notice”, however, is comical and laid-back (Carkeet: American Literature 330). The “explanatory” was believed to be included by Twain before he started writing or after he finished and explains that the dialects are intentionally included (Carkeet: American Literature 329).In the explanatory, Twain only mentions six dialects. Scholars have yet to determine which of the novel’s seven dialects are included in the six that Twain intended. (Carkeet: American Literature 321). Twain is believed to have described all seven main dialects in the “explanatory”. Carkeet determined that these dialects are the Missouri Negro, Southwestern, Ordinary “Pike County”, and four modifications of the “Pike County” dialect (Carkeet: American Literature 330). In this “explanatory” Twain says, “I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding.(2)” By including this he gives reasoning for including the explanatory and