马克吐温的写作风格 英文版本的论文(上)
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An Analysis of the Writing Styles of Mark Twain
His colloquial Language and Satire in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
I. The Background of Mark Twain
1.1 Mark Twain and His Experience
Mark Twain, pseudorym of Samuel langhone Clemens, was brought up in the town of Hannibal, Missouri, near the Mississippi River. He was twelve when his father diod and he had to leave school. He was successively a printer’s apprentice, a tramp printer, a silver miner, a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi, and a frontier journalist in Nevada and California. This knocking about gave him a wide knowledge of humanity. As one of America’s first and foremost realists and humorists, Mark Twain usually wrote about his own personal experiences and things he knew about from firsthand experience. His life spanned the two Americas, the frontier America and the emerging urban, industrial giant of the twenty-century.
As a witness of the civil war, Twain saw clearly the great changes in nation’s economic development and political life. With the final victory over the South the North once again enjoyed its wielding power in the nation’s administration. Now the acute conflict at home was undermined and the American people again focused their full attention on re-construction after the war. Because most majority of the slaves were emancipated, the slave-based economy of the defeated South had its prosperity became rootless. In this case, clusters of groundless southern poor whites and the newly freed slaves headed directly of indirectly for the new-liberated cities to seek opportunities. It may be called the ‘Gold Rush’ rejuvenated, or rather, it was so-called the ‘American Dream’ by some critics. Twain also could not help rushing to the west to will his American dream. He once believed the idea of development and industrialization since it would modernize the young country and encourage the enterprising spirit of the American who had long been famous for it. He was firmly enthralled by such fever, so once again he held an optimistic attitude towards the post-westward expansion. He drew much inspiration from the unparalleled and magnificent event and spoke highly of its decision-makers and its people.
1.2 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The best work that Mark Twain ever produced is, as we noted earlier on, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It tells a story about the United States before the Civil War, around 1850, when the great Mississippi Valley was still being settled. Here lies an America, with its great national faults, full of violence and even cruelty, yet still retaining the virtues of ‘some simplicity, some innocence, and some peace.’ The story takes place along the Mississippi River, on both sides of which there was unpopulated wilderness and a dense forest. It relates the story of the escape of Jim from slavery and, more important, how Huck Finn, floating along with him and h
elping him as best he could, changes his mind, his prejudice about black people, and comes to accept Jim as a man and as a close friend as well.
At the heart of Twain’s achievement is his creation of Huck Finn, who embodies that mythic America, midway between the wilderness and the modern super state.
1.3 A General Introduction to the Mississippi
The Mississippi is not only Mark Twain’s life stage but also American society’s stage. It flows through the middle of America; it’s one of the greatest rivers in the world. In Twain’s early years, the geographic core was the great valley of the Mississippi River, and the Mississippi is the main artery of transportation on the young nation’s heart. In 1857, young Mark Twain entered that world as a cub pilot on a steamboat. Later, when he wented to write something, this land provided him with many plentiful writing materials.
II. Analyzing Two Writing Styles of Mark Twain (in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
Mark Twain was the first important writer to consistently use the American speech rather than England’s English. His honor, whether it was aimed at pure entertainment or at social satire, was irresistible. His realism, and details influenced many later American novelists. That was why Ernest Hemingway once said “all modern American literatures came from one book written by Mark Twain called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” And it became Twain’s masterpiece. Mark Twain’s three years’ life on that returned to the Mississippi left such a fond memory with him that returned to the theme more than once in his writing career.
Huckleberry Finn is a veritable recreation of living models, and is Huck’s book, not Jim’s. The two major characters, Huck and Jim, represent the two sides of the dilemma: Huck strikes out for an absolute freedom, while Jim requires, in order to gain his own freedom, that Huck qualify his freedom by entering into the pursuit of Jim’s. It starts out as a comedy , an ‘As You Like It’ with a hero drawn from the bottom of society rather than the top. Huck and his father, Jim, the swindlers(the Duke and the Dauphin), colonel sherburn and the drunkard Boggy-all these characters prototypes in real life. The portrayal of individual incidents and characters achieved intense verisimilitude of detail. Serious problems are being discussed through the narration of a little illiterate boy. The fact that the wilderness juxtaposed with civilization, the people half wild and half civilized, many of whom are worse, vulgar, are brutal. As for the style of the book, the form is based on the simplest of all novel-forms, the so-called picaresque novel, or novel of the road, which strings its incidents on the line of the hero’s travels. But, in this novel, rivers are roads that move, and the movement of the road in its own mysterious life transmutes the primitive simplicity of the from: the road itself is the greatest character in this novel of the road, and
the hero’s departures from the river and his returns to it compose a subtle and significant pattern. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn shows us the major achievements of his art: the masterful use of dialects; humor and pathos, innocence and evil. 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.
2.1 Use of Colloquial Language
The book is written in a colloquial style, in the general standard speech of uneducated Americans. Moreover, the prose of Huckleberry Finn established the prose virtues of American colloquial speech. It has something to do with ease and freedom in the use of language. Most of all, it has to do with the structure of the sentence, which is simple, direct, and fluent, maintaining the rhythm of the word’s group of speech and the intonations of the speaking voice. Mark Twain’s colloquial style has influenced a large number of American writers.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn displays the major achievements of his art: the carefully controlled point of view, with its implicit ironies expressed through the voice of a semiliterate boy: the masterful use of dialects: the felicitous balancing of nostalgic humorist and realism, humor and pathos, innocence and evil, all united for a journey down the Mississippi that serves as the mythic center of the novel. 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.
2.1.1 Vernacular Language
Mark Twain wrote in his unpretentious, colloquial, and poetic style. He used vernacular language, dialect with spelling representing pronunciation. Part of this comes from his interest in humor. The directness of the language is a very influential point in Twain’s style. Ernest Hemingway in the 20th century said that he had learnt his craft from Mark Twain because if the direct speech and the direct narration that Twain was able to achieve. The hoax and tall tale are also part of twain’s style. Hoax is writing something fantastic and pretending that it were true, much like the tall tale. It tolls as if it were true, and so the reader would laugh that any body could believe such preposterous things, the burlesque making fun of establishes ways of writing.
Mark Twain said, “I amend dialect stuff by talking and talking it till it sounds right.” He wanted his writing to have the sound of easy-going speech. In Huckleberry Finn the fountainhead of the American colloquial prose, he wrote seven different dialects and each can be distinguished. If the reader is a linguist, he can examine the different pronunciations that Twain has shown. In his own time, dialect writing was considered humorous. People got a big laugh out of reading these misspell words. Another feature of the book, which helps to make it famous is its language. The book is written in the col
loquial style in the general standard speech of uneducated Americans.. Mark Twain’s introductory note on accents is an indication of his conscious attempt to achieve accurate detail. “In this book,” he says, “a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri Negro dialect; the extreme forms of the backwoods southwestern dialect; the ordinary ‘pike country’ dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity, with these several forms of speech.” “Painstaking ” and “not haphazard,” though they possess a humorous ring, denote the conscientious effort on the part of the author, and trustworthiness and familiarity and the author’s awareness of dialects in using which reveal his attempt to reproduce actual daily speech with a degree of accuracy. A recent and very influential recasting of Huck’s vernacular voice has identified.
We may quote a passage from this masterpiece as an illustration:
“I took the sack of corn meal and took it to where the canoe was hid, and shoved the vines and branches apart and put it in; then I done the same with the side of bacon; then the whisky-jug. I took all the coffee and sugar there was, and all the ammunition; I took the wadding; I took the bucket and gourd; took a dipper and a tin cup, and my old son and two blankets, and the skillet and the coffee-pot/ I took fish lines and matches and other things- everything that was worth a cent. I cleaned out the place I wanted an ax, but there wasn’t any, only the one out at woodpile, and I know why I was going to leave that. I fetched out the gun, and now I was done.”
The words used here are, perhaps “ammunition” which is etymologically French, mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin, and are short, concrete and direct in effect. Sentence structures are most of them simple or compound, with a series of “then” and “ands” and semi-colons serving as connectives. The repetition of the word “took” and the stringing together of things leave the impression that Mark Twain depend solely on the concrete object and action for the body and movement of his prose. What is more, there is an ungrammatical element, which gives the final finish to his style. The whole book approximates the actual speech habit of an uneducated boy from south American of the mid-nineteenth century.
The vernacular language in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn initiated the new style of language in American novels, and has had significant influence upon American writers of later generations.
2.1.2 Local Color
Local color as a trend first made its presence in the late 1860s and early seventies. The vogue of local color fiction was, the logical combination of a long, progressive development. It was the outgrowth of historical and aesthetic forces that been gathering energy since early nineteenth century. Twa
in refers to the elements, which characterize a local culture, elements such as speech, customs, and also a particular place. Local colorists concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions. They tended to identify and glorify, but they never forgot to keep an eye on the truthful color of local life.
Twain depicted social life through descriptions of local places and people he knew best and believed that “the most valuable capital, or culture, or education usable in the building of novels is personal experience.” Yet, sometimes Twain wrote a sentimental story, not because he was sentimental, but because he wanted to show the reader how stupid such a story really was. The reader has to be very careful when he or she reads Mark Twain. Twain often played trick on the reader. He often said things when he meant just the opposite. This is the irony that he got the humor from the Far West. He would do things that he did just to make fun , but the reader might think that he really meant it. Then the reader was the tender-foot who taken in .
Mark twain preferred to respect social life through portraits of local places which he knew best and drew heavily from his own rich fund of knowledge of people and places. The Adventures of huckleberry Finn is one such example. Finn is living breathing personality. It is through his use of language and his activities that Twain creates character and sets down objective truth: Finn is uneducated; he dislikes civilized ways because they are restrictive and hypocritical he likes.
Meanwhile, local color mixed romantic plots with realistic descriptions of things which were readily observed, with the customs , dialects, sights, smell and sounds of regional America. After the Civil war, local color had further developed, In this book, this kind of literature mainly describes the local life, the keynote was optimistic, and the language was narrative humorous. The characters he created were humorous and full of wittiness. Mark Twin’s work was regarded the witness of America’s pure local life. According to Calkins, “Few American writers have written the same after reading telling.” From my point of view, American literature is so charming for this kind of works.
Local color became dominate in American Literature(1860-1870). One of the most important writing features of Mark Twain is the use of Local colorism. It is also impossible in the Mississippi River towns through which Huck and Jim journey to imagine being a hero .This in turn makes Sherborn a cold-blooded killer and Huck a saint (and Tom a good). Let me repeat it as a saint，however, Huck is no more bent on social reform, no more optimistic about it, than is sherburn. So local colorism is a variation of American realism, and also a description of a small refined region. Twain, breaking out of the narrow limits of local-color fiction, described the breadth of American experience as no one had ever done before, o
r since, and he created The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a masterpiece of American realism that proverbs to be one of the great books of world literature.
2.1.3 Pun
In English paronomasia called pun, means call by a different name. The exact definition is: Humorous use of word to suggest different meanings, or of words of same or similar sound has different meanings. There are five forms of pun: homophonic pun, paranomasic, antalaclasis, sylletic pun, asteismus. In a certain context, pun has several pragmatic functions. Throughout all of Twain’s writing, we see the conflict between the ideals of Americans and their desire for money. But Twain never tried to solve the conflict. He is like a newspaperman who reports what he sees. In this situation, his humor was often rather childish. This may bespeak why the critic P. Abel said:” Twain was a boy and an old man, but never was he a man.”
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we can find many words and phrases that were used vividly to describe the things that happened, such as ‘I went along slow then, and I wasn’t right down certain whether I was glad I started or whether I wasn’t. This sentence is very interesting; pun is used to express the author’s mood at that moment. We can also use another kind of language to replace the original, but the effect is so different. So we can conclude that pun played an important role in this novel.x00