Literary Devices In Huckleberry Finn

Akash Mishra

English IIH

Ms. Buckley

16 March 2015

Huck Finn and Jim in High Schools Across the Country In The Green Hills of Africa, Ernest Hemmingway stated that “all modern American Literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn’…There has been nothing as good since.” The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, has been praised by various authors since its publication in 1884 because of the quality of the writing. The novel takes place in the 1840s, slightly before the Civil War. Huckleberry Finn (Huck), a fourteen-year-old boy from Missouri, runs away and meets Jim, a runaway slave. Huck and Jim form a strong friendship and have many adventures together as they flee down the Mississippi River. The Adventures

The literary devices Twain uses gives a new dimension to the novel, and allows the reader to fully indulge into the novel and make some assumptions of their own. One of the literary devices that Twain uses is imagery. When Huck is on the boat and is looking for land, Twain writes, “I [Huck] rose up and there was Jackson’s Island, about two mile and a half downstream, heavily timbered and standing up out of the middle of the river, big and dark and solid, like a steamboat without any lights” (45). Throughout the novel, Twain uses vivid imagery like this to interest the reader, and to progress the novel. The imagery Twain uses adds a level of depth into the novel by appealing to the reader’s senses. This enhances the reader’s perception of the novel. In this particular image, the reader pictures an island emerging from the middle of the river, with trees and greenery all over the island. Images like this are very powerful, and Twain’s usage of them throughout his novel is spectacular. Symbolism is another literary device that Twain uses throughout the novel. One example of a symbol is the Mississippi River on which Huck and Jim are fleeing with. On the river, Huck and Jim are free and unrestricted, and they do not have to worry about society and what society thinks. Additionally, on the river, Huck can stay away from his father, and Jim can stay away from the

To achieve this, Twain employs humor to satirize topics in a non-offensive method. Twain uses satire to inspire his readers to change in a certain way. The first element in the novel that Twain satirizes is hypocrisy of the characters in his novel. In the novel, Miss Watson is Huck’s caretaker. She is very sincere and proper, as well as a Christian. However, in her daily life, she deals with buying and selling slaves, which is hypocritical because she is supposed to be a Christian, who are people who tend to want equality and a moral lifestyle. Miss Watson completely goes against these values and still calls herself a Christian. In this case, Twain satirizes hypocrisy to show that slavery is bad and ruins people’s lives. Miss Watson is supposed to be a good Christian woman but she still does bad things, such as trading and buying slaves. Another example of Twain satirizing hypocrisy is when Huck and the two rival families go to church. Select members of the families bring their firearms to church in case there is fighting involved. Church is a place of worship, peace, and love, but these people bring their guns, and intend to do violence with them. In this example, Twain satirizes human morals. As humans, we tend to put our personal matters over religion. Twain saw this and used humor to make the reader realize this fact. Another topic that Twain satirizes in the novel is family