Mark Twain uses language to help illustrate the themes in his work. Using examples from Huckleberry Fin, show how the idiolects of the different characters help create meaning in the novel.
.
The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is set in the days of America when African slave trade was at its peak, and was seen as normal between the white American people. Racist language was also used against the slaves by the white Americans, and they often looked down on their slaves almost as if they were not real people. Mark Twain in his book uses two characters who are both from separate backgrounds, one being a young American Caucasian boy and the other an adult African male sold as a slave, and uses their language to help show how slavery, racism and the lack of education to the African slaves helped show the reader what times were like for the characters in the book. In this assignment I will write about how Twain uses language from the two characters to help show the themes listed in his work, which create meaning in the book.
In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn racist language is used by characters such as Huck, because racist language was part of the American language at the time the novel is set in. The racist term that Huck uses to describe the black African slaves is ‘Nigger’, which in the days the book was set was not a racist term, it was commonly used as an everyday term in which Caucasian men and woman described black skinned men and women. This shows that the American idiolect Huck uses is an anti-racial method of speech, which Huck has grown up with. To the character Huck ‘Nigger’ simply translates as ‘black skinned man’, and so he calls Jim his adoptive mother’s slave the name because he connects the term ‘Nigger’ with every dark skinned man or woman he sees. Other characters in the book also use the term ‘Nigger’, showing that people of all statuses’ had this anti-racial term in their idiolect.
Through Huck’s idiolect we learn that he is educated, because he uses clear structured sentences, which was rare for a number of people especially those who could not afford to send their children to school. The Widow that Huck was adopted by sends Huck to school where he would learn how to read and write English, teaches him about God. The Widow also frequently bemoans her failure in her attempt to reform Huck into a civilised human being, but it is clear Huck is becoming civilised because of his educated idiolect in which he speaks in. Huck’s choice of words such as ‘grumble’ which means pray, help show how the Americans would speak in the day of the Slave Trade, and helps show Huck’s characteristics as a typical young boy who believes prayer is a waste of time, because you are ‘grumbling’ words to a invisible being with a fifty-fifty chance your ‘prayers’ would be answered. The character Jim's idiolect is very different to that of Huck's, in that it is full of slang and shortened words which are part of their own version of the English language in their own right. An example of Jim's dialouge which shows the fact he is uneducated is this line: "I laid dah under de shavin's all day. I 'uz hungry, but I warn't afeard; bekase I knowed ole missus en de widder wuz goin' to start to de camp-meet'n' right arter breakfas' en be gone all day, en dey knows I goes off wid de cattle 'bout daylight, so dey wouldn' 'spec to see me roun' de place, en so dey wouldn' miss me tell arter dark in de evenin'. De yuther servants wouldn' miss me, kase dey'd shin out en take holiday soon as de ole folks 'uz out'n de way."
Here the difference between the African slave's English and the American's is clear, because words such as 'after' are changed into 'arter', which shows the poor language skills of the African slaves/
Slavery is talked about in Huck’s idiolect as a normal practise which was common in the days of the African Slave Trade. Huck uses his racist idiolect to describe the slaves as ‘Niggers’, and not human beings. He also calls Jim ‘Miss Watson’s servant’ when he finds him lying by a camp fire on Jackson Island. Slavery in the days Huck was alive was common in many parts of the United States, up until it was banished by a new law and so Huck talks about slavery like he was talking about the latest news. Through Huck calling all the black African slaves ‘Niggers’ it shows that Caucasian people thought of slaves as nothing more than tools, and did not have the heart to regard them as human beings. Characters such as Jim speak about slavery in a oppesite manner to that of the white Americans, and they speak their thought on the fact that it scares them, because they are being forced apart from their family and are being treated as objects which can be sold at any price. One example of slavery being spoken about in a negative way is when Jim tells Huck why he ran away to Jackson Island.
'Well, you see, it 'uz dis way. Ole missus -- dat's Miss Watson -- she pecks on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she wouldn' sell me down to Orleans. But I noticed dey wuz a nigger trader roun' de place considable lately, en I begin to git oneasy. Well, one night I creeps to de do' pooty late, en de do' warn't quite shet, en I hear old missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but she didn' want to, but she could git eight hund'd dollars for me, en it 'uz sich a big stack o' money she couldn' resis'. De widder she try to git her to say she wouldn' do it, but I never waited to hear de res'. I lit out mighty quick, I tell you. "I tuck out en shin down de hill, en 'spec to steal a skift 'long de sho' som'ers 'bove de town, but dey wuz people a-stirring yit, so I hid in de ole tumble-down cooper-shop on de bank to wait for everybody to go 'way. Well, I wuz dah all night. Dey wuz somebody roun' all de time. 'Long 'bout six in de mawnin' skifts begin to go by, en 'bout eight er nine every skift dat went 'long wuz talkin' 'bout how yo' pap come over to de town en say you's killed. Dese las' skifts wuz full o' ladies en genlmen a-goin' over for to see de place. Sometimes dey'd pull up at de sho' en take a res' b'fo' dey started acrost, so by de talk I got to know all 'bout de killin'. I 'uz powerful sorry you's killed, Huck, but I ain't no mo' now. '
Here Jim is telling Huck that his owner Miss Watson was thinking about selling him for a price of $800, a huge fortune in the days of slavery and the thought of being sent away half way down the Missisippi river away from his family scared him, and so he ran away. This shows that the African slaves feel just as much as their owners, but know that seperating families for money is wrong.
Family is talked about by Huck in an unloving manner, he describes his family in a manner which tells the reader that he finds them hard to live with and wishes he could get away from them. An example of this is seen in the sentence: “Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back.” This shows that Huck feels that living with the Widow he know has to call family, is so hard that he had to run away to be happy. This contrasts with Jim's view on family as he talks about them as if they are the most precious blessing one can recieve in their lifetime. Jim in the book tells Huck about the time he asked his daughter 'shet de do' which translates from Jim's idiolect as 'Shut the door'. However his daughter does not hear him, and thinking that his daughter is ignoring him, hits the young girl across the face. Jim's tone of language after he explains why she could not hear him, due to a illness which was affecting her hearing states to the reader that he feels very ashamed for what he has done, and feels extremley guilty for hitting his daughter.
Huck’s use of language compared to the slave Jim's as I have stated in an earlier paragraph is very educated, as he uses proper sentences and words in his speech. But unlike most teenage boys his age Huck uses adult like curse words in his dialect, with words such as ‘bastard’ occurring frequently in his speech. He shows a deep sense of independence in the way he speaks, stating that he does not need the Widow or his father to live his life. This is proven when Huck describes how he creates his ‘death’ by slaughtering a wild boar and using its blood to appear as his own. Huck also shows he is educated through his speech, in that he uses proper words and not slang or shortened versions of the words he is speaking. One example of this is shown when Huck is speaking to his adoptive carer’s slave Jim.
"Get?" I says; "why, they get a thousand dollars a month if they want it; they can have just as much as they want; everything belongs to them."
"AIN' dat gay? En what dey got to do, Huck?"
Here you can see the difference in the speech of someone who is educated under the American Educational System, and someone who has not been granted an education and so talks in their own version of the English language. This showed the difference between white Americans and their slaves, as the slaves were not treated as equal as their owners.
In conclusion Mark Twain uses the character's idiolects to show the story of the slave and the young boy who befriends him, by creating sympathy for the characters through the words they use. Twain has the slaves talk in a poor emotional manner which shows how the slaves were sad in the days they were being sold, and has the Americans talk in a manner which shows they do not understand or care how the slaves feel. The slave trade is explained through the use of language Twain uses, through combining the African version of English with the American English which shows how the two cultures were equal but at the same time were distant from each other.
The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is set in the days of America when African slave trade was at its peak, and was seen as normal between the white American people. Racist language was also used against the slaves by the white Americans, and they often looked down on their slaves almost as if they were not real people. Mark Twain in his book uses two characters who are both from separate backgrounds, one being a young American Caucasian boy and the other an adult African male sold as a slave, and uses their language to help show how slavery, racism and the lack of education to the African slaves helped show the reader what times were like for the characters in the book. In this assignment I will write about how Twain uses language from the two characters to help show the themes listed in his work, which create meaning in the book.
In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn racist language is used by characters such as Huck, because racist language was part of the American language at the time the novel is set in. The racist term that Huck uses to describe the black African slaves is ‘Nigger’, which in the days the book was set was not a racist term, it was commonly used as an everyday term in which Caucasian men and woman described black skinned men and women. This shows that the American idiolect Huck uses is an anti-racial method of speech, which Huck has grown up with. To the character Huck ‘Nigger’ simply translates as ‘black skinned man’, and so he calls Jim his adoptive mother’s slave the name because he connects the term ‘Nigger’ with every dark skinned man or woman he sees. Other characters in the book also use the term ‘Nigger’, showing that people of all statuses’ had this anti-racial term in their idiolect.
Through Huck’s idiolect we learn that he is educated, because he uses clear structured sentences, which was rare for a number of people especially those who could not afford to send their children to school. The Widow that Huck was adopted by sends Huck to school where he would learn how to read and write English, teaches him about God. The Widow also frequently bemoans her failure in her attempt to reform Huck into a civilised human being, but it is clear Huck is becoming civilised because of his educated idiolect in which he speaks in. Huck’s choice of words such as ‘grumble’ which means pray, help show how the Americans would speak in the day of the Slave Trade, and helps show Huck’s characteristics as a typical young boy who believes prayer is a waste of time, because you are ‘grumbling’ words to a invisible being with a fifty-fifty chance your ‘prayers’ would be answered. The character Jim's idiolect is very different to that of Huck's, in that it is full of slang and shortened words which are part of their own version of the English language in their own right. An example of Jim's dialouge which shows the fact he is uneducated is this line: "I laid dah under de shavin's all day. I 'uz hungry, but I warn't afeard; bekase I knowed ole missus en de widder wuz goin' to start to de camp-meet'n' right arter breakfas' en be gone all day, en dey knows I goes off wid de cattle 'bout daylight, so dey wouldn' 'spec to see me roun' de place, en so dey wouldn' miss me tell arter dark in de evenin'. De yuther servants wouldn' miss me, kase dey'd shin out en take holiday soon as de ole folks 'uz out'n de way."
Here the difference between the African slave's English and the American's is clear, because words such as 'after' are changed into 'arter', which shows the poor language skills of the African slaves/
Slavery is talked about in Huck’s idiolect as a normal practise which was common in the days of the African Slave Trade. Huck uses his racist idiolect to describe the slaves as ‘Niggers’, and not human beings. He also calls Jim ‘Miss Watson’s servant’ when he finds him lying by a camp fire on Jackson Island. Slavery in the days Huck was alive was common in many parts of the United States, up until it was banished by a new law and so Huck talks about slavery like he was talking about the latest news. Through Huck calling all the black African slaves ‘Niggers’ it shows that Caucasian people thought of slaves as nothing more than tools, and did not have the heart to regard them as human beings. Characters such as Jim speak about slavery in a oppesite manner to that of the white Americans, and they speak their thought on the fact that it scares them, because they are being forced apart from their family and are being treated as objects which can be sold at any price. One example of slavery being spoken about in a negative way is when Jim tells Huck why he ran away to Jackson Island.
'Well, you see, it 'uz dis way. Ole missus -- dat's Miss Watson -- she pecks on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she wouldn' sell me down to Orleans. But I noticed dey wuz a nigger trader roun' de place considable lately, en I begin to git oneasy. Well, one night I creeps to de do' pooty late, en de do' warn't quite shet, en I hear old missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but she didn' want to, but she could git eight hund'd dollars for me, en it 'uz sich a big stack o' money she couldn' resis'. De widder she try to git her to say she wouldn' do it, but I never waited to hear de res'. I lit out mighty quick, I tell you. "I tuck out en shin down de hill, en 'spec to steal a skift 'long de sho' som'ers 'bove de town, but dey wuz people a-stirring yit, so I hid in de ole tumble-down cooper-shop on de bank to wait for everybody to go 'way. Well, I wuz dah all night. Dey wuz somebody roun' all de time. 'Long 'bout six in de mawnin' skifts begin to go by, en 'bout eight er nine every skift dat went 'long wuz talkin' 'bout how yo' pap come over to de town en say you's killed. Dese las' skifts wuz full o' ladies en genlmen a-goin' over for to see de place. Sometimes dey'd pull up at de sho' en take a res' b'fo' dey started acrost, so by de talk I got to know all 'bout de killin'. I 'uz powerful sorry you's killed, Huck, but I ain't no mo' now. '
Here Jim is telling Huck that his owner Miss Watson was thinking about selling him for a price of $800, a huge fortune in the days of slavery and the thought of being sent away half way down the Missisippi river away from his family scared him, and so he ran away. This shows that the African slaves feel just as much as their owners, but know that seperating families for money is wrong.
Family is talked about by Huck in an unloving manner, he describes his family in a manner which tells the reader that he finds them hard to live with and wishes he could get away from them. An example of this is seen in the sentence: “Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back.” This shows that Huck feels that living with the Widow he know has to call family, is so hard that he had to run away to be happy. This contrasts with Jim's view on family as he talks about them as if they are the most precious blessing one can recieve in their lifetime. Jim in the book tells Huck about the time he asked his daughter 'shet de do' which translates from Jim's idiolect as 'Shut the door'. However his daughter does not hear him, and thinking that his daughter is ignoring him, hits the young girl across the face. Jim's tone of language after he explains why she could not hear him, due to a illness which was affecting her hearing states to the reader that he feels very ashamed for what he has done, and feels extremley guilty for hitting his daughter.
Huck’s use of language compared to the slave Jim's as I have stated in an earlier paragraph is very educated, as he uses proper sentences and words in his speech. But unlike most teenage boys his age Huck uses adult like curse words in his dialect, with words such as ‘bastard’ occurring frequently in his speech. He shows a deep sense of independence in the way he speaks, stating that he does not need the Widow or his father to live his life. This is proven when Huck describes how he creates his ‘death’ by slaughtering a wild boar and using its blood to appear as his own. Huck also shows he is educated through his speech, in that he uses proper words and not slang or shortened versions of the words he is speaking. One example of this is shown when Huck is speaking to his adoptive carer’s slave Jim.
"Get?" I says; "why, they get a thousand dollars a month if they want it; they can have just as much as they want; everything belongs to them."
"AIN' dat gay? En what dey got to do, Huck?"
Here you can see the difference in the speech of someone who is educated under the American Educational System, and someone who has not been granted an education and so talks in their own version of the English language. This showed the difference between white Americans and their slaves, as the slaves were not treated as equal as their owners.
In conclusion Mark Twain uses the character's idiolects to show the story of the slave and the young boy who befriends him, by creating sympathy for the characters through the words they use. Twain has the slaves talk in a poor emotional manner which shows how the slaves were sad in the days they were being sold, and has the Americans talk in a manner which shows they do not understand or care how the slaves feel. The slave trade is explained through the use of language Twain uses, through combining the African version of English with the American English which shows how the two cultures were equal but at the same time were distant from each other.