Realism (1860~1890)
 I Realism
 II Features of Realism
 III American Realism
 IV Representatives
Term in Brief
 Broadly defined as “the faithful
representation of reality” or
“verisimilitude,” (逼真)
 realism is a literary technique practiced
by many schools of writing.
 Although strictly speaking, realism is a
technique, it also denotes a particular
kind of subject matter, especially
 the representation of middle-class life.
Definition: Realism
 Realism: a mode of writing that gives
the impression of recording or
“reflecting” faithfully an actual way of
life.
 In addition, in literature, the tendency
to emphasize the limitations that real
life imposes on humanity, and
 to show how those limitations affect
life.
Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism
 The romance is said to present life as we
would have it be—
 more picturesque, fantastic,
adventurous, or heroic than actuality;
 realism, on the other hand, is said to
represent life as it really is.
 Realistic fiction is often opposed to
romantic fiction.
 Naturalism is a metaphysical theory that
holds that all phenomena can be
explained mechanistically in terms of
natural (as opposed to supernatural)
causes and laws.
 Naturalism posits that the universe is a
vast "machine" or "organism,"
 devoid of general purpose and
indifferent to human needs and desires.
 According to William Harmon and Hugh
Holman,
 “Where romanticists transcend the
immediate to find the ideal,
 and naturalists plumb the actual or
superficial to find the scientific laws that
control its actions,
 realists center their attention to a
remarkable degree on the immediate,
the here and now, the specific action,
and the verifiable consequence.”
Realism in American Literature
 In American literature, the term
"realism" encompasses the period of
time from the Civil War to the turn of
the 20th century during which
 William Dean Howells, Henry James,
Mark Twain, and others wrote fiction
 devoted to accurate representation and
an exploration of American lives in
various contexts.
 Background p116-7
Features of American Realism
 1. It renders reality closely and in
comprehensive detail.
 2. Character is more important than action
and plot;
 complex ethical choices are often the subject.
 3. Characters appear in their real complexity
of temperament and motive.
 4. Class is important;
 the novel has traditionally served the
interests and aspirations of middle class.
 5. Events will usually be plausible.
 6. Diction is natural vernacular, not
heightened or poetic;
 tone may be comic, satiric, or matterof-fact.
 7. Objectivity in presentation becomes
increasingly important:
 overt authorial comments or intrusions
diminish as the century progresses.
 8. Interior or psychological realism is a
variant form.
Realistic Techniques
 1. Settings thoroughly familiar to the
writer
 2. Plots emphasizing the norm of daily
experience
 3. Ordinary characters, studied in
depth
 4. Complete authorial objectivity
 5. Responsible morality
Authors of American Realism
 William Dean Howells (1837-1920)
 Henry James (1843-1916)
 Mark Twain (1835-1910)
William Dean Howells (1837-1920)
the father of American Realism
the dean of American letters
William Dean Howells (1837-1920)






I Life p118
II Howells’ Theory of Realism
III Howells’ Subjects
IV Major Works
V The Rise of Silas Lapham
VI Evaluation
II Theory of Realism





P119
Theory in Brief
1. “fidelity to experience”
2. “common feelings of commonplace people”
3. “Realism is nothing more and nothing less than
the truthful treatment of material.”
III Howell’s Subjects
 The middle-class family
 The economic aspects of middle-class
life
IV Major Works






A Modern Instance (1882)
The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)
Indian Summer ( 1886 )
A Hazard of New Fortunes ( 1889 )
Criticism and Fiction
Literature and Life
The Rise of Silas Lapham
This novel is a fine
specimen of American
realistic writing.
The world of Silas Lapham is
that of the commonplace
Bostonian of the late
nineteenth century.
There is nothing heroic,
dramatic or extraordinary.
The Rise of Silas Lapham
 Plot P120
 Love Subplot p122
VI Evaluation
 1. Known in his lifetime as the “dean of American
letters,” or "the father of American Realism , "
Howells was the leading spokesman of literary
realism in nineteenth-century America.
 In an age of genteel authors, he was one of a
new breed, raised in humble surroundings in
America’s midlands.
 2. Howells portrayed the American scene.
 He attempted to make his characters not heroic
but “real” with all their virtues and all their
“vacancy and tiresomeness.”
 3. Much of his realism was external, characters
and events viewed from without.
 His works rarely achieved, or sought to achieve,
what modern critics think of as psychological
depth.
 4. The evils of his characters were slight, their
passions restrained, their triumphs few.
 He avoided the excitements and catastrophes
of romanticism just as he avoided sex and
sensuality and what he considered to be the
sordid excesses of naturalism.
Henry James(1843-1916)
•novelist, literary critic,
playwright, essayist
A Citizen of the World
 1. A true
cosmopolite.
 2. His life experience influences his
literary creation greatly.
 3. The confrontation between an
American and a European.
Henry James (1843-1916)
I Life
 II Major Works
 III Major Themes
 IV Subjects
 V Theory of Fiction
 VI The Portrait of a Lady
 VII Influences

I Life




Henry James was born into a
wealthy cultured family of New
England.
His father, Henry James, Sr. was
an eminent philosopher and
reformer, and
his brother, William James, was to
be the famous philosopher and
psychologist.
Henry James was one of the few
authors in American literary
history who did not have to worry
about money.




He was exposed to the cultural
influence of Europe at a very
early age.
Later he met and developed a
life-long friendship with William
Dean Howells.
For a while he attended the
Harvard Law School.
He toured England, France and
Italy, and met Flaubert and
Trugenev who was then staying
in Paris.
He settled down in London in 1876 and spent
the rest of his life there. In 1915, he became
a naturalized British citizen.
 George V awarded him the Order of Merit(荣誉
勋章)on New Year’s Day in 1916.
 He died on 28 February 1916.

II Major Works
p125
1. First period (1865-1881):
(International Novel or International Theme)
 The American (1877)
 The Europeans (1878)
 Daisy Miller (1879)
 The Portrait of a Lady (1881 )
2. Second period (1882-1895)
(Political and Dramatic Writing)


The Bostonians (1886 )
The Princess Casamassima (1886 )
3. Third period (1895-death)
(International Novel) (summit)
 What Maisie Knew (1897)
 The Turn of the Screw (1898)
 The Wings of the Dove (1902 )
 The Ambassadors (1903 )
 The Golden Bowl (1904)

The Art of Fiction (Literary Criticism)
III Major Themes
 International
Theme--- p125
the confrontation between Americans and
Europeans;
 American innocence in contact and contrast with
 European decadence and moral and
psychological complication.

Difference between A &E
American—
 open, optimistic, and democratic, but
 lacking the knowledge, culture, and
sophistication of the Europeans.
 European—
 cultured and elegant, but
 perhaps overly sophisticated, and even on
occasion cruel and evil

Meaning through social contrasts:
the American vs. the European
The American
Innocence
utility
Spontaneity
Sincerity
Action
Nature
Natural
Honesty
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
The European
Knowledge or experience
Form and ceremony
Ritual
Urbanity
Inaction
Art
Artificial
Evil
Subjects
James stressed three subjects that are now
regarded as influential in modern fiction.
He did not originate them, but emphasized them
along with other people of his time:
 1. Children:
 James wrote about children as children, not as
small adult.
 He examined their minds, their psychology
and accepted it as valid.





2. New women:
James’s fiction is filled with female characters,
not as sexual objects, never married, reticent
from sexual passion.
He treated the new woman in America in the
latter half of the 19th century as a
representative of culture and refinement.
While men were engaged in business in
making money at that time,
women maintained culture, who were to be
interested in beauty, culture and refinement.









3. Artist:
many of James’s novels and short stories deal
with the artist, whether he is a painter, sculptor,
author, or playwright.
The author examined the artist to find out
how the artist thinks about his audience,
what problems the artist has in deciding what to
write about, and
how to write, or
how to paint, and
what to paint.
The is the realist problem.
Literary Theory
James reiterated the importance of the literary
techniques by which psychological
complexities are revealed through the
characters responses to the environment that
enfold them.
 In order to understand easily, his theory of
fiction can be summed up as follows:
 P127-8

1. The novelist must be faithful to life as it
actually appears.
 There must be freedom for the artist to
choose what subject he will deal with.
 The judgment of art is an aesthetic function,
not an ethical one.

2. The novel must be regarded as an
organic whole with every part a functioning
contributor to the achieving of the novel’s
ultimate expression.
 The author must remain outside, not appear
within it to explain or plead or point the
moral.

3. Dramatization: showing rather than telling.
 Rather than summarizing an event, the writers
take the reader to the event as if the reader
were watching it in a movie or watching it on
stage.

4. Central consciousness through whom
events are observed.
 One method adopted is to use a third person
who is not there but knows everything about
what is going on, knows everybody’s thoughts
and can tell you precisely what happens.

5. Psychological realism:
 Henry James believed that the writer should
not simply present the surface of social life
but probe the deepest reaches of the
psychological and moral nature of human
beings.

6. Ambiguity.
 James never let anything react as certain and
held that the best fiction should illuminate life
by revealing it as an immensely complex
process and that a superb literary sensibility
could dignify both life and art.

The Portrait of a Lady
Main Idea
In The Portrait of a Lady , the character, who
represents the American in the best sense of
the word, is Isabel Archer.
 The representative of the European in the
worst sense of the word is Gilbert Osmond,
and to lesser degree Madame Merle.
 Both were actually born in America , but they
have lived their entire lives in Europe and
consider themselves European.
 Plot p126

Character Analysis
Isabel Archer
the central concern of
the novel
Comment on Isabel Archer
 1.
She was innocent, but also intelligent,
not possessing of a great amount of
experience.
 She is attractive enough to win attention,
and she possesses a natural charm and a
sincerity that add to her looks.
 2.
She has an expansive personality.
 This quality allows her to react
spontaneously to any new experience.
 And part of her greatness lies in her
ability to attract all sorts of people to her.
 3.
Most striking qualities: her desire for
independence and her imagination.
 She believes strongly in her own opinion
and cherishes her right to evaluate
independently any person or situation.
 4.
She has a sense of pride and a sense of
responsibility.
 She holds her attitude toward her mistake
in her marriage.
 In
all, she represents the innocent young
American who is deceived by the superior
cunning and deceit of Osmond and
Madame Merle, who are representatives of
the old order of European thinking.
The Features of James’ novel
 His
use of “point of view”---James
used a particular method of telling
the story , i.e., the illumination of the
situation and characters through
one or several minds– it is a kind of
“psychological analysis”
Henry James’s “Refined Realism”



He was interested in depicting a class of
people who would afford to devote
themselves to the the refinements of life.
His realism is his “fidelity to his own
material”and his faithful to his characters.
Exploring the workings of these characters’
minds was the major focus of James’s
fiction, which might be characterized as
“psychological realism.”
Daisy Miller
 Daisy
Miller is the first of
James's writings to deal with
what is generally called the
international theme- the
confrontation between
Americans and Europeans.

The influence of place is enormously
strong. Daisy Miller can be seen as a
clash between places. America- as
represented
by
the
Millers
of
Schenectady, New York- is newly rich and
powerful, energetic, democratic, but rude,
vulgar, and ignorant. Europe- as
represented by Americans who have go
thoroughly accustomed themselves to
living abroad that they've become almost
more European than the Europeans- is
cultured and elegant but perhaps overly
sophisticated, and even on occasion
cruel.


Perhaps the most important fact
about Daisy is that she is Americanand is therefore open, optimistic,
and democratic but lacking the
knowledge, culture, and
sophistication of the Europeans
among whom she travels.
Equally important is the fact that
Winterbourne, though born in
America, was educated in Europe.
As a result, he shares the European
concerns for fine manners and for a
rigid code of social behavior.
Major Themes




The incongruity between reality
and appearance
Knowledge as evil versus
inexperience as innocence
Outward action versus inward
meditation
Nature versus urbanity
Questions for Discussion



In his whole career James is concerned with
“point of view”. Comment on the “point of
view” in this story.
Daisy defies European convention and falls
a victim to her own innocence. Discuss the
character of Daisy.
In this story Winterbourne shows
contradictory attitudes towards Daisy. He
tries to decide whether she is a flirt or a
naïve girl . Illustrate his attitudes by citing
some examples from the reading.


In this selected reading, when Daisy is
taking a walk with Winterbourne, Mrs.
Walker gets there and tries to “rescue” her
from her indiscretions. But Daisy refuses
her . As an American living in Europe , what
do you think Mrs. Walker represents?
James’ fame largely rested on his handling
“the international theme”- American
innocence in contrast with European
sophistication. What is James’ attitude
towards the difference in morality of Daisy
Miller from that of the old World?
Suggestive Answers

The method of “point of view” as James
termed means observing events and
people through the consciousness of his
characters. In Daisy Miller Winterbourne
is the objective spectator , through
whose eyes James reveals the conflicts
between Mrs. Walker and Daisy, through
whose mind James illustrates the
situation and characters clearly.

She is fresh , pure , brave , honest
and enthusiastic. She represents
American independent spirit. She
likes freedom and dares to
challenge old European convention
and tradition. But somehow she is
not well-cultured or well-refined.
“They’re very ignorant-very innocent
only, and utterly uncivilized . Depend
on it they’re not ‘bad’.”
 “The poor girl’s only fault is her
complete lack of education.”


She represents European conventional
opinions. As an American living too long
in Europe, she is overwhelmed by
European over-refined, degenerated,
and artificial sophistication.

James enjoys juxtaposing American
moral innocence with the somber
decadence of Europe and presenting the
superiority of at least some of American
values to those of the Old World.
However , the final death of Daisy in
Rome indicates that European values
are strong and overwhelming.
Influence
1. Henry James was the first American writer
who developed his literary career mostly in
Europe.
 He not only bridged the 19th and 20th centuries,
but also connected America and Europe.
 His principal interest was the confrontation of
American and European cultures.
 He was also concerned with the clash between
the old and the new, between the dying century
and the one just beginning.





2. As a novelist of manners, he was concerned
with the minutiae of social behavior both for
comic purposes and for the light they shed on
individual character.
In his slow-moving graceful fiction, he showed
what happens when characters from different
cultures meet.
His keen observation of human beings and
deep understanding of them have made him
one of the founding fathers of the
psychological fiction.
Stream of consciousness
 3.
In twenty-two novels and over a
hundred short stories, and in his critical
commentaries,
 he made major contributions to the art of
fiction itself, helping to transform the
novel from its alliances with journalism
and romantic storytelling into an art form
of penetrating analysis of individuals
confronting society.

4. His subtleties of literary form, his extremely
complex and refined prose, his minute
explorations of his characters’ perceptions,
and his profound psychological insight are all
characteristic of the subtle, mature, and urbane
Jamesian style which exerts lasting influence
on modern American literature.
Local Color Fiction
1.
2.
3.
4.
Background
Definition
Features of Local Color Fiction
Representatives of the School
Background
• The second half of the 19th c. saw America becoming
increasingly self-conscious at the very time regional
writers began to write about its various aspects.
• American wanted to know what their country looked like,
and how the varied races which made up their growing
population lived and talked.
• It was the age of the first mappings and surveying of the
West;
• it was the age in which the rails of the first
transcontinental railroad had bound East and West.
• P130 socially/ intellectually
Term: Local Color
•
•
•
•
Definition: P130 by Hamlin Garland
“texture”
“background”
aim
• The Trend has some equivalents in European fiction,
notably in the attention given by Zola and Hardy to
the settings of their stories.
Term: American Local Color
Writing
•
•
•
•
•
•
Time:
between the Civil War and the end of the
nineteenth century this mode of writing
became dominant in American literature.
Sources:
frontier humorists, “tall tales”
Forms:
usually in humorous short stories
•
•
•
•
Subjects:
devoted to capturing the unique
customs, manners, speech, folklore, and
other qualities of a particular regional
community,
• Starting point:
• “The Luck of Roaring Camp” by Bret
Hart
•
•
•
•
•
•
Themes:
P131
Features:
P131 “veritism”(写真主义)
Representatives:
The most famous of the local colorists was
Mark Twain; others included
Representatives p131-2
• Francis Bret Harte
(1836~1902)
• “The Luck of Roaring
Camp” (1868)
• The Luck of Roaring Camp
and Other Stories (1870)
• Harrit Beecher Stowe
(1811~1896)
• Oldtown Folks
• Sarah Orne Jewett (1849~1909)
•
A White Heron (1886)
• Kate Chopin (1851~ 1904)
•
The Awakening (1889)
• Hamlin Garland (1860~1940)
•
Main-Traveled Roads (1887)
•
Crumbling Idols (1894)
• Significance:
• P132
• Much of the 19th century local color fiction
was not of high literary quality, but it did
convince people that
• the common life of the common people in
the backwoods and on the frontiers of
American society was worthy of serious
literary treatment.
• However, the Midwest local colorist Mark
Twain was a great exception.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Born
November 30, 1835
Florida, Missouri, U.S.
Pen name
Genres
Mark Twain
Fiction, historical fiction,
children's literature, nonfiction, travel literature,
satire, essay,
philosophical literature,
social commentary,
literary criticism
Spouse Olivia Langdon Clemens (1868-1904)
•Mirror of America
•Representative of
American realism;
•excellent local
colorist
Life: Mark Twain Questions
• 1. What does "Mark Twain" mean?
•
12 feet deep or 3.66 meters deep
• 2. How old was Twain when he began writing
stories?
•
about 30 years old
• 3. How do you know that he loved Mississippi
River very much?
• His penname is about the river.
• Three of his most famous books describe people on
this great river:
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and
• Life on the Mississippi.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
4. What was he famous for?
description of common people and
the way they talked, especially for
his humor.
5. How was his last years of life?
His last years of life was filled with sad events, loneliness
and the loss of much money.
6. What do you know about the three stages of his
thought and works?
The first one is active and lively;
the second is full of acid and satirical sense;
the third one is pessimistic and cynic.
P132-3
Mark Twain’s House
Oxford University awarded Twain a
Doctorate in Letters in 1907(72).
• Twain is buried in his wife's family plot at Woodlawn
Cemetery in Elmira, New York.
• His grave is marked by a 12-foot (i.e., two fathoms[噚], or
"mark twain") monument, placed there by his surviving
daughter, Clara.
The inscription :
“His religion was
humanity, and
the whole world
mourned for him
when he died”
A writer
A humorist
A social critic
Major Works
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County”(1865)
The Gilded Age (1873)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer(1876)
The Prince and the Pauper (1881)
Life on the Mississippi(1883)
The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn(1884)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s
Count (1889)
Pud’nhead Wilson (1896)
Following the Equator (1897)
The Man That Corrupted
Hadleyburg(1900)
The Mysterious Stranger(1916)
Autobiography(1924)
Mark Twain’s Views as a Social Critic
• Changing his views
• Although Twain remained neutral during the Civil War,
his views became more radical as he grew older.
• Anti-imperialism
• From 1901 until his death in 1910, Twain was vicepresident of the American Anti-Imperialist League, wrote
many political pamphlets for the organization.
• A friend of the Chinese
• P139-40
• Pacifist or revolutionary
• I am said to be a revolutionist in my
sympathies, by birth, by breeding and by
principle.
• I am always on the side of the revolutionists,
because there never was a revolution unless
there were some oppressive and intolerable
conditions against which to revolt.
• Abolition, emancipation, and anti-racism
• Twain was an adamant supporter of abolition and
emancipation, even going so far to say
• “Lincoln‘s Proclamation ... not only set the black
slaves free, but set the white man free also.”
• He argued that non-whites did not receive justice
in the United States.
• He paid for at least one black person to attend Yale
University Law School and for another black
person to attend a southern university to become a
minister.
• Women's rights
• Mark Twain was a staunch supporter of women's rights
and an active campaigner for women's suffrage.
• His "Votes for Women" speech, in which he pressed for
the granting of voting rights to women, is considered one
of the most famous in history.
• Labor unions
• He wrote glowingly about unions in the riverboating
industry in Life on the Mississippi, which was read in
union halls decades later.
• He supported the labor movement in general
• Religion
• Twain was critical of organized religion and certain
elements of Christianity through most of his later life.
• "Faith is believing what you know ain't so“
• "If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be
---a Christian".
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer(1876)
• Tom is an intelligent and
imaginative boy, who is
nevertheless careless and
mischievous.
• Tom lives in the respectable home
of his Aunt Polly in the Mississippi
River town of St Petersburg,
Missouri.
• His preferred world, however, is the
outdoor and parentless life of his
friend Huck Finn.
Features
•
•
•
•
1. biographical elements
2. a children’s book/”a boy’s book”
vivid portrait of psychology of children
One of the best popular of all novels
about children
• 3. successful characters
• Tom: a living example/embodiment of
an anarchy:
• love of freedom and fun
• Tom’s characteristic is divided into
business-like, common sense and an
incurable streak of Romanticism
• Chapter 2: The Glorious Whitewasher
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1884)
• The book tells a story about the
United States before the Civil War,
around 1850.
• It is a sequel to the The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer, but it is a more
accomplished and serious work
of art as well as
• a keener realistic portrayal of
regional character and
• frontier experience on the
Mississippi.
• p135
•"All modern American
literature comes from one
book by Mark Twain called
Huckleberry Finn.
•…But it's the best book
we've had.
•All American writing comes
from that.
•There was nothing before.
•There has been nothing as
good since."
•
----Ernest Hemingway,
Green Hills of Africa
The Story P135
• The drifting journey of
Huck and his friend Nigger
Jim, a runaway slave, down
the Mississippi River on
their raft may be one of the
most enduring images of
escape and freedom in all
of American literature.
Main Characters
Huck Finn
Widow Douglas
Miss Watson
Pap
Jim
Duke
King
Tom Sawyer
Tom
(Huck’s friend who delights
in fantastic schemes)
Widow Douglas
(Huck’s unofficial guardian
Who wants to civilize him)
Pap
(Huck’s brutal,
drunken father)
Huckleberry Finn
Miss Watson
(narrator of the novel and
Son of the town drunkard)
The duke & the king
(the widow’s sister)
Jim
(The two scoundrels who take
over the raft for a while)
(Miss Watson’s slave whom she
plans to sell down the river)
Character Analysis
• Huck Finn:
1. He is almost totally literal minded--with no sense of humor.
2. He possesses most of the qualities
which are necessary for life of the
frontier--practical, natural, adaptable, with good
common sense.
3. He is shrewd and possesses a good
inventive ability.
4. He is a person who responds
sympathetically to other human beings.
P135-6
Jim
 1. He is a person filled with superstitions, but
many of his superstitions are based upon good
commonsense, practicality, and a knowledge
of natural surroundings.
 2. He is unselfish and is willing to sacrifice
himself for others .
 3. He is devoted to the love for friends and
family.
Chapter IX — The House of Death Floats By
Tom’s wound
Tom Sawyer
 On a superficial level, it would appear that Tom is the
more imaginative of the two, but Tom’s oaths, his
schemes are based on books about romantic adventure
which he has read.
 Tom’s plans are extravagant, absurd or ridiculous.
• Chapter XL — A Mixed-up and Splendid Rescue
Comparison between Huck and Tom
 Similarity: They are allies against the adult
world of convention and responsibility.
 Difference: Huck belongs neither to Tom’s world of
romantic illusion nor to the social world of
convention .
 He belongs to a world of simple nature which is
against both the unreality of Tom’s world and the
artificiality of the adult world.
• The creation of the difference is the difference
between early and late Mark Twain.
• He envisioned Tom as a lover of life filled with its
mysteries, attracted by its romance;
• while the creator of Huck is essentially a skeptic
who had turned against mankind and society
because of its inhumanity to man .
Themes




Chapter 1
The conflict between civilization and "natural life."
“she would sivilize me”
“But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead
of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt
me and sivilize me and I can't stand it. I been there
before.”
 The mockery of religion.
 Slavery forms.
 Loneliness and isolation.
Style of the Book
The book is written in the unpretentious,
colloquial and poetic style.
Different dialects are spoken in it, which makes
the novel have local color and more vivid.
.
Dialects Used in This Novel
1. The Missouri Negro dialect
2. The Southwestern dialect
3. Pike County dialect
Jim says:
"Say- who is you? What is you? Dog my cats
ef I didn' hear sumf'n. Well, I knows what I's
gwyne to do. I's gwyne to set down here and
listen tell I hears it agin."
Functions of Dialects
P137
1. Twain was so careful and yet so accurate that
his dialect lends piquancy to the novel and
does not interfere with reading.
2.Twain’s use of dialect has also contributed to
the reputation of the novel, helping to evoke
comments that this novel is the beginning of
American literature.
Artistic Features of the Novel
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn displays
the major achievements of Twain’s art:
• P136-7
• 1. The carefully controlled point of view,
• 1st person, a sense of autobiography--believable
• 2. With its implicit ironies expressed through
the voice of a semiliterate boy;
•
•
•
•
•
4. The felicitous balancing of
nostalgic romanticism and realism,
humor and pathos,
innocence and evil,
all united for a journey down the river that serves as
the mythic center of the novel.
• 5. This novel demonstrates his ability to capture the
enduring, archetypal, mythic images of America and
to create the most memorable characters in all of
American fiction.
• Chapter XI Finn disguised as a girl
• 6. Through The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, Twain shaped the
world’s view of America and had a
profound impact on the development of
American writing.
Conclusion
Uniquely American Work of Art
1.Subject matter of slavery and freedom
2.Unique array of frontier people
3. Precise location
4. Definite time
Topics for discussion
1. Do you find Mark Twain’s description of the friendship
between Huck and Jim appealing? Why?
2. How does Huck, a boy with rebellious spirit, come to be a
real hero in the reader’s mind? Is his moral travail
reasonable? Why?
3. Elaborate on Mark Twain’s use of language
in the story.
4. Why do we say The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn is a realistic novel? What does Mark Twain
convey through the adventures of Huck and Jim
on the Mississippi?
Life on the Mississippi
• Life on the Mississippi was published in 1883,
part history, part geography, part memoir and
part travelogue.
• It opens with a brief history of the Mississippi
River from its discovery by Hernando de Soto
in 1541 to the early 19th century.
The Mississippi River
Influences
• 1. Mark Twain wrote fiction which has
become part of the American cultural
tradition.
• His writing gives readers a clear sense of
life in the pre-war Mississippi Valley and he
initiated the vernacular tradition of
American fiction.
• 2. Twain maintained his magical power with
language.
• His love of words and command over their
arrangement, his mastery at distilling the
rhythms and metaphors of oral speech into
written prose, his vivid personality, his
identification with the deepest centers of his
fellow man’s emotional and moral condition—
all of these made Twain unique.
Differences between Howells ,
James and Twain
• P133-4
• 1. Subjects
 James — Upper Class
 Howell— Middle-class
 Twain — lower strata of society
• 2. Techniques
 Howell—genteel realism
 James— refined realism and
psychological realism
 Twain— local colorism