Dialogue and Juxtaposition

Mark Twain’s style of writing in his novel Tom Sawyer includes a plethora of juxtaposed characters and unusual dialogue. For example, Huckleberry Finn, son of the infamous town drunkard, although very respected by his peers, is juxtaposed in many scenes next to Tom Sawyer himself. An example of this is when the two plan a rescue Jim, an escaped slave. Their two plans are extremely different and the reader gets to see the the differences in their personalities and intelligence levels. While neither may have the greatest IQ or EQ, both characters are evidently different, and placed together to create such an effect.

On the other hand, Dialogue is a very important part to Tom Sawyer.  Twain uses dialogue as his primary way to express the true personalities of the characters. By doing so, characters such as Aunt Polly, Tom’s Aunt, receive an added layer of depth. By using a colloquial tone, Twain is able to bring life to his characters and enrich this book through a bunch of people seemingly brought to life with their own unique personalities.

 

 

2 thoughts on “Dialogue and Juxtaposition

  1. I agree with how you brought the characterization and juxtaposition of Tom and Huck Finn to the forefront. Twain clearly centered the adventures around these two, and it would be interesting to analyze how much of an impact these two characters have on each other and the plot. I also discussed how important the dialogue is in this novel. The dialogue is simple, but crucial, and brings forth opportunities to discover a greater meaning in these verbal interactions.

  2. Thank you for sharing, Matt. Ddi you have trouble uploading a picture? Let me know, and I can show you the process again. What are some elements in the book that convey that colloquial tone? Do you mean that the tone is very realistic… down to earth? You very well could focus on Twain’s use of dialogue for your paper!

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