Mark
Twain (1835-l910)
Life He was born in a small village in Missouri. Then he moved
to Hannibal on the Mississippi River (symbol
of American changing life). He worked as a printer and at 18 he
began to travel so he did the steamboat
pilot, the volunteer in the Confederate army and the miner. In 1862 he became
an editor, married a girl and
dedicated himself to his family and
writing. In 1886 when he travelled in Hawaii
he understood that civilisation was destroying the island's inhabitants; he was
active in Anti-Imperialist League.In
his last years he knew the bankrupt and his wife and 2of his 3 sons died.
"The adventures of Huckleberry
Finn" STORY: Huck is a teenage boy adopted. He
doesn't like staying at home very much but prefer going out in search of
adventures; his father was a drunken and often he gets him. So, with a runaway
slave (Jim) he sails down the Mississippi
on a raft. During the journey they meet interesting and cruel characters who
sell Jim back to slavery.
Huck meets his friend Tom Sawyer and with him, they how to free Jim but he
has already been given his freedom by his owner.
The novel is set along the Mississippi river where Twain
grew up. It is a picaresque novel in
witch there are 2main characters Jim and Huck, symbols of lost America
with true values). Themes are slavery (Twain
was against), the prejudices of
people toward black, attack on traditional civilised society (represented by Huck's drunken father).
One of the principal features is the naively
humorous way in which Huck narrates his adventures. Naïve or innocent
narrator used to add humour and irony to the work. He uses a vernacular English that add realism
using regional accents and idioms and for this he was criticized.
He also wrote "The innocents abroad"
(1869) ant "The adventures of Tom Sawyer"
(1876).
Mark Twain is considered one of the fathers of American literature.
