Huck Finn Realism

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is Mark Twains most prominent piece of writing displaying realism. William Dean Howell, considered to be the father of realism and an inspiration to Twain declared “let fiction cease to lie about life... let it not put on fine literary airs; let it speak the dialect, the language, that most Americans know the language of unaffected people everywhere…”(Wagg). Twain used The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to portray the world as it really was by revealing how a child’s morals and actions clashed with the society around him. Twain tries to show the wrongdoings of society and ignorance and hypocrisy of people through realism and satire. Mark Twain uses realism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through the characters in which he formed throughout the story. His characters are neither good nor bad. The characters are not sugar coated or exaggerated. They are not better or worse then any real life counterparts they might have. He makes Huck easy for the readers to identify because he is a thirteen-year-old boy who is not “book smart” but gains knowledge through living life. This is how many people during that time period had to live so it was easier to relate to Huck then other characters from other books. Making the characters comparable to the readers made it easier for readers to gain a clearer picture of the characters in how they look, talk, and act making the story more interesting. As much as Huck was like every other thirteen-year-old boy of the day, Jim was also portrayed correctly as a typical slave. By giving a real slave emotions and compassion, Twain showed slaves are just like any other people. Along with the characters being as real as possible, the dialects they spoke were also as real as they could get. Uneducated, less important people to the society such as Jim spoke using slang, shortened words, and improper grammar. Where as someone like Mrs. Watson, a more educated character, used proper grammar and spoke properly (Wagg).

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