1、An Analysis of the Writing Styles of Mark TwainAbstract: It is acknowledged that Mark Twain is a great literary giant of America in the late 19th Century . It is him, the first American writer, who fuses folk humor and serious literature into one whole, thus shapes the worlds view of America. It aim

2、s to give people pleasure but it always includes an element of satire. As “the true father of American literature.” Mark Twains arts are distinguished for its humor, use of Colloquial Language, satire Language, which were achieved mainly through the various figures of speech, which will be discussed

3、 in detail with the illustration of some of his famous works in the paper. Key words: Style; humor; Colloquial Language; satire LanguageI. Introduction 1 About the author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name, Mark Twain, was born at a small village in Florida, Missouri, was an Amer

4、ican author and humorist. He is most noted for his novels. He was twelve when his father died and he had to leave school. He was successively a printers apprentice, a tramp printer, a silver miner, a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi, and a frontier journalist in Nevada and California. This knockin

5、g about gave him a wide knowledge of humanity.As one of Americas 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,

6、industrial giant of the twenty-century. II. Characters2.1 Use of Colloquial Language (e.g.The Adventures of Huckleberry) 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 America

7、n 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 words group of speech and the intonations of the speaking voice. Mark Twains coll

8、oquial 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 felic

9、itous 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 mo

10、st memorable characters in all of American fiction. 2.1.1 Vernacular LanguageMark 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 langua

11、ge is a very influential point in Twains style. 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, dial

12、ect 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.2.1.2 Local ColorTwain refers to the elements, which characterize a local culture, elements such as speech, customs, and also a

13、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. 2.1.3 PunIn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we can find man

14、y words and phrases that were used vividly to describe the things that happened, such as I went along slow then, and I wasnt right down certain whether I was glad I started or whether I wasnt. This sentence is very interesting; pun is used to express the authors mood at that moment. We can also use

15、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. 2.2 Satire language (e.g.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) Satire is a way of criticizing people or ideas in a humorous way to show that they have f

16、aults or are wrong, or a piece of writing or play, which uses this style. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain shows satire on southern culture before the civil war, when the Mississippi valley was still being settled. Twain blended two different subjects, the experience of westward expansio

17、n and the experience of southern slavery. And he wrote about both regains of the country. His attitudes toward the south were much less pleasant than his attitudes toward the west, because he confronted the south problem of slave of mistreatment of humans by humans. Through the change of the white b

18、oy Hucks attitude toward Jim, a runaway black slave, Twain condemned racial discrimination. Twain made fun of typical American values, yet underneath he felt a brooding pessimism not only about American valuable but also about life itself. It was a dreadful thing to see Human beings be awful cruel t

19、o one another. Due to Twains own experience, satire is successfully used in this novel. Theres one significant scene which should be remembered, Huck Finn witnesses many instances of cruelty, brutality and hypocrisy in the township along the river Here are four points about his satire in this novel.

20、 2.3 A Combination of Colloquial Language and Satire To sum up, fundamentally, Twain is a great American writer. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an outstanding novel; one of the most successful writing styles is a combination of colloquial language and satire. In fact, most of Twains works are

21、 the combination of both colloquial language and satire, but The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was a case in point. On the other hand, it is his masterpiece as a humorist while the novel also can be eyed as a satire on sentimentality and Romanticism on the other. We have ever seen colloquial langua

22、ge and satire in some works, but no ones writing is so appropriate like Twains. It displays American culture out of the ordinary and the attitude toward the entire society. In this book, the author use the first character to narrate, meanwhile colloquial language as the main writing language has com

23、e into the stage, in order to have the effect on vivid writing, satire is come out. In this situation, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn displays the major achievements of his art: writing in a rich and intricate style that supported his intense scrutiny of complex human experience. . The Significa

24、nce of Mark Twains Writing Styles(e.g.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) Colloquial language and satire are so important in this novel. This image of the quintessential American writing is not really literary goes along with a vision of the great American novel but as a sort of spontaneous telling

25、of unmediated experience. In the same passage Hemingway explains that he has never been able to read. Thoreau for being unable to read literary naturalists, only those who are extremely accurate. There arent nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, remarks Huck at the end of his stor

26、y. The heart of Twains achievement is his creation of Huck Finn, who embodies that mythic America, midway between the wilderness and the modern super state. That was why Ernest Hemingway once said “all modern American literatures came from one book written by Mark Twain called The Adventures of Huck

27、leberry Finn.” And it became Twains masterpiece. In short, neither enlightenment nor retrospection elevates the style or the philosophy of Huckleberry Finns narrator into the high culture that has placed the work itself at its pinnacle. ConclusionAs one of Americas first and foremost realists and hu

28、morists, Mark Twain usually wrote about his own personal experiences and things he knew about from firsthand experience. Mark Twains colloquial style has influenced a large number of American writers. Twain depicted mostly the lower class of society. Meanwhile, local color mixed romantic plots with

29、realistic descriptions of things which were readily observed, i.e. with the customs, dialects, sights, smell and sounds of regional America. Twain shows satire on southern culture before the civil war, when the Mississippi valley was still being settled. Twain blended two different subjects, the experience of westward expansion and the experience of southern slavery. His contribution to the development of realism and to American literature as a whole was partly through h