The Use Of Humor In Mark Twain's Stories

Decent Essays
Both stories are regionalist fiction because they both use dialect in the character’s dialogue. What makes the stories different is how they express their writing style. In Mark Twain's story he uses humor in different ways. One example of it is yarn and the other is hyperbole. Hamlin Garland's story uses local colors.The realism in the story is how Zitkala-Sa and other children were being treated. The situation is like bullying; it makes the children feel unwanted and hated. It gives them self-esteem issues and want to avoid people. It also erases Native American culture. The story affects readers because it makes them feel sympathy for the children. I think what happens in the poem is a war. The message could be what the truth about wars

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Author Vladimir Nabokov once declared, “Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.” In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain teaches his readers about the shortcomings of nineteenth century society, while entertaining them as well. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn focuses on a young, uncivilized boy named Huck Finn and his adventures along the Mississippi River with a slave named Jim. Throughout the novel, Huck learns more about society and himself through his wild experiences. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain satirizes religious hypocrites, political figures, and the Ku Klux Klan, revealing serious flaws of nineteenth century…

    • 102 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Compare and Contrast Essay During the regionalism and naturalism writing movement, authors like Bret Harte and Mark Twain, were able to use regionalistic qualities to create stories that captured imaginations of readers living in the East, Midwest, and South. Many writings during this time period were filled with these qualities, but not all stories used them in all aspects of the story. “The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain, and “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” by Bret Harte, are two stories in which this statement is true. The similarities and differences between the stories’ characters, narrators, and themes will show the characteristics of regionalism writing and how two different authors can use the same foundation to create different yet similar stories.…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Twain uses satire in this excerpt to develope theme by using Huck to misunderstand the meaning of prayer. Huck is misunderstanding what prayer is. He is being to literal and thinks that he will get want he wants if he asks for it. He doesn't realize that prayer is asking and getting what you want in return. Prayer is building a relationship with said god.…

    • 76 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    2. Regionalism is a theme which Zora Hurston incorporates into her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, a plethora of times. Regionalism can be defined as “fiction that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region.” One example of this definition can be observed when you identify the role of the narrator. The narrator is an educated observer who learns something from the characters while maintaining a distance from them.…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Tawin targets American society through his novel Huckleberry Finn, by using satirical events to show why American society is corrupt. In the beginning of the novel we as readers already start to see American society in negative ways. The main satirical event was when Huck Finn experienced the topic of the family feud. A feud is like this, one person kills another, that person's brother kills the person then other family members go against each other until there is no one left(111). The meaning of the satire is that Huck experiences this family that is willing to kill each other and willing to get there family killed over a feud they don't even remember what for.…

    • 212 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mocking the American Society "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" (Twain 1). Mark Twain's use of satire is a prominent vehicle for his criticisms of American society in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He uses satire to show irony, exaggeration, and mockery to expose and poke fun at the American society. Three social institutions throughout the novel that Twain criticizes and satirized were greed, slavery, and family fighting.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    1. What is satire? How is this a work of satire? Satire is a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule. This work employs satire by ridiculing the state of America before the civil war and uses characters such as Huck or Tom to represent ideas or ways of life in order to show the folly of man.…

    • 1828 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An example of religious satire in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn would be the character of the Widow Douglas. In Chapter 1 of this work of literature, Huckleberry Finn, the thirteen/fourteen-year-old neglected son of the town drunk describes her as a deeply religious woman who has tasked herself with the job of “civilizing” him because she believes taking him under her wing is a responsibility she has to fulfill as a follower of Christ. However, as he continues to discuss her, Huckleberry reveals the Widow Douglas engages in practices which are not exactly becoming of a woman as pious as she. For example, she likes to use smokeless tobacco or snuff even though she expresses he should stop smoking because “…it [smoking] is a mean practice and isn’t clean” (Twain 2).…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Huck shows dry humor in this dialogue when he said that he wishes he could have some bad luck like this everyday. Huck found snake skin yesterday and according to Jim, snake snake symbolizes bad luck. Jim tells Huck that because he touched a snake, Huck will soon encounter bad luck. From what Jim said, the opposite thing happened. Instead of bad luck, Huck and Jim both found eight dollars the next day.…

    • 147 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As intriguing and entertaining as this book is, the fiction novel, the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, should be taught towards high school students, but with some limitations. This book has brought the attention and controversy due to the portrayals and racial stereotypes, shown throughout the novel of African Americans and Caucasians through satire that Mark Twain has expressed. As well as the separation between whites and blacks and the social view at that time, which at some points in this novel were similar and others were different. Huck’s morality changes throughout the novel, from being someone who doesn’t want to get in trouble to someone who will defend his promises even with his circumstances of that period of time. Although I do agree…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Mark Twain, originally known as Sam Clemens, is widely recognized as the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel written in the early 1880’s, yet set during the late 1830’s to early 1840’s. Sam Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, wrote many books while especially utilizing satire in his work. Along with satire, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is also infused with many instances of hypocrisy. Mark Twain reflects his knowledge of the insincerity of morals from the South onto the characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to express his distaste for hypocritical principles.…

    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Today we struggle understanding to understand the rights and wrongs. People have very contrasting morals that one may question. It’s not the certain different virtues that people tend to have but the hypocrisy that comes with their actions. As a technological society, we tend to look into media outlets to inform ourselves. What we don’t know is how reliable can our media outlets beour media outlets be can.?…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Huck’s stay at the Grangerfords represents another instance of Twain poking fun at American tastes and at the conceits of romantic literature. For Huck, who has never really had a home aside from the Widow Douglas’s rather spartan house, the Grangerford house looks like a palace. Huck’s admiration is genuine but naïve, for the Grangerfords and their place are somewhat absurd. In the figure of deceased Emmeline Grangerford, Twain pokes fun at Victorian literature’s propensity for mourning and melancholy. Indeed, Emmeline’s hilariously awful artwork and poems mock popular works of the time.…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Also, the Shepardsons and the Grangerfords are all just blindly fighting a large deadly feud, one that nobody can even remember the reason for. This is another example of Twain 's distaste for blind conformity. Twain wants people to think for themselves and have their own free will, rather then just follow the actions of others. In conclusion, Mark Twain uses excellent methods to get his views out into the world. His use of satire in serious situation allows the message to be less intimidating, while still being something that people can learn…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Satire allows satirists to critique society, not through senseless remarks, but through carefully constructed subtle biting remarks. Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, yet it takes place prior to the actual Civil War when slavery was still commonplace. This allows Twain to retroactively satirize pre-Civil War United States with his knowledge of how American society would change in the coming years. In order to satirize the ineffective nature of the Civil War, Twain compares the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons to the North and South’s relationship during the Civil War. Twain uses the instance of the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords in the church to show the…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays