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Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 469 Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Art Studies: Science, Experience, Education (ICASSEE 2020)

Entertainment and Reflect: Mark Twain's Humor in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Ning Li1,* 1 *

School of Foreign Languages, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China Corresponding author. Email: glorialeesmile@163.com

ABSTRACT As a famous American realistic novelist, Mark Twain's masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn presents the vivid picture of American society in the 19th century. The novel takes it as a clue to describe the adventures along Mississippi of Huck and Jim. In this study, it has analyzed different characters of various heroes at the beginning, which can help readers understand what kind of heroes would be like in the novel. Moreover, it also contributes to reveal the major theme of the whole story. Besides, it also analyzed the characteristics of the language use, which included methods of realizing humorous effect used by Twain, such as exaggeration and irony. Just as entertainment and reflection, he has expressed his own thoughts and expectations by means of this kind of "absurd" ending. Keywords: Mark Twain's humor, spirit of rebellion, consciousness, conflict I.

INTRODUCTION

Mark Twain, formerly known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, honored as "the American literary giant" [1], is a noted writer of American realism literature. He grew up in Mississippi and once he worked as a pilot of a Mississippi riverboat. His pen name "Mark Twain" just came from those riverboat days when measuring the depth of the water, which was called "marking the twain" [2]. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a famous work of Twain and is regarded as one of the greatest literary works of the late 19th and early 20th century. Besides, the work was also honored as "all modern American literature comes from one book: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" noted by American famous writer Ernest Hemingway. The plots of this story described in the novel happened before the American Civil War. There were numerous social problems in America of that time such as the corrupt political life, the deepening labor conflicts, the hypocritical churches and the deteriorating conditions of people's lives day by day. However, the most urgent and serious problem was the existence of slavery and racial discrimination. Although slavery had been abolished from the law, black slaves were just free nominally and were still slaved, even persecuted as before prevalently in the society. The blacks still tried hard to survive with an extremely low social status. Facing all of these unfair and annoying phenomena, Twain showed a tough attitude and meantime expressed a warm sympathy and support for the large groups of blacks. Based on these social backgrounds, he wrote the novel about Huck and Jim

sharing the touching adventure down the Mississippi on a raft. II.

ANALYSIS OF THE HEROES' CHARACTERS

A. Huck Huck is the central character in the novel. He is just a little boy aged thirteen or fourteen years old. But he impressed us deeply with his outstanding characters such as bravery, rebellion, honesty and kindness. Those are among the qualities that makes Huck one of the great characters in American fiction. At that time, whoever escaping with a runaway slave calls for great courage, let alone helping a slave to obtain freedom. But as it shows in the novel, Huck does it bravery. He helps Jim in every way along their escape and treats Jim as a friend. What's more, Huck shows great courage in the acknowledgement of his mistake. One day, with the darkness approaching and the intense fog covering the surface of the lake, Huck and Jim get separated and float in different directions. Huck tries hard to row back to look for Jim but he loses the sense of direction. After a spell time of floating alone, Huck finally met Jim who has fallen asleep on the raft. Jim gets so excited as soon as he meets Huck alive that he speaks to Huck with a trembled voiced. We can see that Jim is very concerned about Huck. But Huck figures out a plan and means to make fun of Jim. He is to talk Jim into the belief that their separation is just a dream made by him. Huck convinces Jim but soon Jim realizes that he has been fooled at the sight of the gathered chips and branches. At the thought of his worry about Huck after their separation, Jim gets mad. There is no doubt that Huck has hurt Jim. Nevertheless, Huck is kind and brave,

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