Custom «Aspects of Realisms Found in Mark Twain’s Works» Essay Paper Sample

Realism is the representation of perceived reality in a manner that is detached from ideal beliefs and artifices that are expressed by several romantic writers. Indeed, Realism arose to react to Romanticism. While Romanticism emphasizes on individuals’ emotional sensitivity, Realism emphasizes on a compromise between these feelings and the society (Pam 5). It attempts to manifest social problems in a manner that enables them to be seen distinctly. Mark Twain uses Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to criticize the society through satire, and in that way, he achieves his goal of indicating the problems he observes through humor. Mark Twain, just like several other realists, represents events in a style that depicts the description of a photograph.

He depicts things exactly as he sees them. In an attempt to have his novel appear photographic and real, he employs a masterful application of colloquial English and dialects. He also describes individuals’ believes, even in instances when most people in the society consider them controversial. Twain commences by notifying the reader that his work resumes at the spot where The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ceased. To achieve this, he describes Huckleberry Finn as being Sawyer’s Comrade, and resume to the final setting of The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, i.e. St. Petersburg, Missouri. The specific locale is along Mississippi River, and period is 40-to-50 years before the finalization of this book. He informs the reader that varying “dialects are used”, which he writes “painstakingly”, on the basis of his “personal familiarity” with various “forms of speech”.

The story in this novel is narrated by its title character, Huckleberry Finn, who commences by summarizing the closure of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, where he and Sawyer discover a huge portion of gold that had been stolen. Currently, Finn puts up in Widow Douglas’ place. Widow Douglas lives with her sister, “Miss Watson” and regards Finn as “her son”. This arrangement follows the disappearance of his father who he fondly calls “Pap”. His father has vanished for at least a year, and Finn has gotten used to live without him. In fact he doesn’t wish to ever see him again as he mistreated him frequently. Window Douglas endeavors to civilize him through religion, though Finn finds it confining. He sees Miss Watson as a nag who forces him to read, “Sit up straight”, and to improve his conduct. He, however, remains superstitious and strives to resist these women’s charm (Pam 7). After they have retired to bed, he escapes through the window so as to join his friend Tom Sawyer so that the two can embark on new adventures. After their meeting with “Miss Watson’s nigger,” Jim, they manage to trick him. Since Jim, like Finn, is superstitious, he tends to believe that the tricks were played on him by witches as he was asleep.

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim is depicted as Miss Watson’s slave who later escapes from her captivity and simultaneously flees from the restraints of the society (Mark 109). In the heroic traverse of Huckleberry Finn and Jim along the Mississippi River, Twain depicts Jim as being loyal and deeply caring. He assumes the fathering role, which helps him open Finn’s eyes to enable him realize the true meaning of slavery. He then view land as the cruelty and bondage of the American society. This view makes him conceive land as symbolizing the bondages of behavior and thought that were apparent in the perspectives of Miss Watson and Widow Douglas. To Jim, the land means captivity in slavery. Finn sees Mississippi River as a symbol of freedom for him and Jim. The river side is the only place that the two find peace and safety as they land into trouble every time they venture on land (Mark 118). This shows Mark Twain was careful to select characters that possessed the qualities of Americans. For instance, Finn represents a typical frontiersman in America: he demonstrates shrewdness, manipulative characteristics, and realism. However, Tom Sawyer, despite his possession of many of these qualities, lacks such levels of realism. He instead romanticizes his life. Finn’s father symbolizes the corrupt in the society. He epitomizes civility of the American women’s religion.

In reference to Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, aspects of regionalism can easily be depicted. On several occasions, Mark Twain language seems like a translation into English language. He admits use of dialects at the beginning of the book. Some of these dialects include; South-Western dialects, Missouri dialect, Pike-Country dialect, and others modified from the last (Mark 118). Twain steers his readers in dialect, making them feel closer to Huckleberry Finn. Poor sentence construction and much grammatical errors, makes readers to have a guess where he may have hailed from. The Mississippi river as well, plays a very unique role as a setting for the region as well as a landscape. Huck’s adventures mainly bring the reader to a panorama of the American life alongside The Mississippi prior to the Civil War. As Mark uses Finn to describe Jim’s superstitions, such as use of magic, and hairballs, gives the reader a better understanding of the particular region that could have been talked about. Huckleberry Finn who seems to be the narrator in this case brings forth another characteristic of regionalism. This is well depicted when Finn tries to explain the widow and her conduct.