Word: huck
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...opening chapters Huck’s ignorance humorously undermines accepted social conventions. When a religious widow, after attempting to convince Huck of the benefits of Christianity, asserts that Tom Sawyer won’t be going to Heaven, Huck quips that he is glad he won’t go to Heaven “because I wanted [Tom Sawyer] and me to be together.” Twain extends Huck’s naiveté even further when Huck fails to understand that Tom’s fantasy games are not real. In one scene Huck believes that...
...critical acclaim makes the literary reputation of an acknowledged masterpiece such as Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” seem impregnable. Twain’s classic book elevates the form of the picaresque novel into a story of individual freedom as Huck Finn and the escaped slave Jim row down the Mississippi River liberated from the constraints and judgments of society. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is undoubtedly a classic of American literature, but too often literary scholarship tries to defend every aspect of a masterpiece...
Twain’s classic offers a medley of colorful characters, memorably presented by his irreverent narrator. Although Huck presents each new figure with a keen eye for the ridiculous, Huck himself is a shifting comedic persona rather than a genuine, grounded character. His personality and world view changes to fit each scene, allowing him to effectively satirize any given situation. Although Huck often seems implausibly ignorant of the world’s conventions, he at times possesses astounding insight into how society operates. The temptation of the comedian is to conveniently modify his characters for a few extra laughs...
Although it takes Huck three days to establish that Tom’s fantasies aren’t true, later in the novel Huck can immediately figure out how to convincingly lie to other characters. In one instance, Huck fabricates an entire story to convince a ferryman to lead a rescue party to save several people trapped in a sinking riverboat. Yet later, Huck is not able to figure out that the criminals called The Duke and The King are not real royalty. Huck’s capacity to understand and speak the truth seems to change in every scene...
...Little Egypt for the resemblance it bears to the flat, loamy landscape of the Nile River Delta. Charles Dickens, after a visit in 1842, dubbed Cairo a "dismal swamp ... uncheered by any gleam of promise," although Mark Twain rehabilitated its image 40 years later, making it the destination of Huck and Jim's river voyage in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At its 1920s peak, Cairo was a boomtown of 15,000 people. But as river trade declined, so did Cairo. In the 1960s and '70s, the town was engulfed in racial turmoil: white residents formed vigilante groups, while Cairo...