Humor In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn
How does a story about an abused child who runs away from society and helps a slave escape become one of the best known works of humor in American literary history? It is able to become a famous work of humor because Mark Twain is a literary genius. He weaves an intriguing story with many events that would normally seem rather grime. For instance, Huck sees an entire family brutally killed in a blood feud. He also is forced to wait and work with two con men who basically hold his best friend Jim as a hostage. However, Mark Twain is able to spin and twist these event in such a way that the entire plot is quite humorous. Mark Twain uses a variety of techniques and events to generate humor throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. One technique Mark Twain uses effectively in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to create
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One of the earlier examples of this is the Shepherdsons and the Grangerfords blood feud to defend their honor. Mark Twain lambasts this idea by pointing out many of the ridiculous elements involved such as not even knowing what the feud is about, and then has them perish in a meaningless fight. Twain also adds humor and levity by mocking the ideas found in adventure novels. He does this through Tom Sawyer's ridiculous plan to rescue Jim. By having Tom say, “You can get up the infant-schooliest ways of going at a thing. Why, hain’t you ever read any books at all?—Baron Trenck, nor Casanova, nor Benvenuto Chelleeny, nor Henri IV., nor none of them heroes? Who ever heard of getting a prisoner loose in such an old-maidy way as that?” Mark Twain shows just how ridiculous some of the ideas found in such stories are (Twain 238). By mocking the concepts found in adventure stories and other literature of the time, Twain adds some excellent levity to what could be a much bleaker
One of the earlier examples of this is the Shepherdsons and the Grangerfords blood feud to defend their honor. Mark Twain lambasts this idea by pointing out many of the ridiculous elements involved such as not even knowing what the feud is about, and then has them perish in a meaningless fight. Twain also adds humor and levity by mocking the ideas found in adventure novels. He does this through Tom Sawyer's ridiculous plan to rescue Jim. By having Tom say, “You can get up the infant-schooliest ways of going at a thing. Why, hain’t you ever read any books at all?—Baron Trenck, nor Casanova, nor Benvenuto Chelleeny, nor Henri IV., nor none of them heroes? Who ever heard of getting a prisoner loose in such an old-maidy way as that?” Mark Twain shows just how ridiculous some of the ideas found in such stories are (Twain 238). By mocking the concepts found in adventure stories and other literature of the time, Twain adds some excellent levity to what could be a much bleaker