The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Analysis

Mark Twain despised James Fenimore Cooper and other romantic writers because of the distorted view of life they presented. Cooper’s works such as, The Deerslayer and The Pathfinder, were satirically abused by Mark Twain’s critique, “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences.” Twain analyzes the defects within Cooper’s writing, stating that Cooper violated eighteen out of nineteen rules which govern “literary art in the domain of romantic fiction” (1432). However, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain ironically violates the same offenses he victimizes Cooper for. “Chapter 17” violates a plethora of these rules, a few being allowing miracles or other events to be reasonable and possible, characters having a meaningful presence, and the avoidance of needless information.
Mark Twain states that events, even if miracles, should be predictable and reasonable, through the characters of the book(1433). “Chapter 17” of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn violates this rule, making certain events seem impossible and unreasonable. In the
This is constantly violated in “Chapter 17” of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with the descriptions of the Grangerford’s house to the Emmeline’s paintings. According to Huck, “it was … a mighty nice house too. [He] hadn’t seen no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much style” (102). Huck is awestruck by the Grangerford’s home, repeating details unnecessarily. Each room and its furniture are detailed by Huck, going on for multiple pages, exempt of dialogue. Huck also dissects Emmeline’s multiple paintings, capturing even the minute details, “...and very wee black slippers, like a chisel, and she was leaning pensive on a tombstone on her right elbow... it said ‘Shall I Never See Thee More Alas’,” which can be seen as unnecessary. Huck’s descriptions throughout this chapter seem to be redundant and