*Excuse the odd page numbers; I have The Unabridged Mark Twain, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn doesn’t start until page 748.
Pardon me, could you repeat that? "Say- who is you? Whar 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." I was merely three pages into the classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, and I was completely lost. Huck Finn, being the- mostly- uneducated country boy that he was, along with his pal Tom Sawyer, and slave friend, Jim, understanding speech between the characters of this book was quite difficult.
Nowadays, a popular form of communication is text messaging. Simple acronyms such as, “JK,” (just kidding), “LOL,” (laugh out loud), and “WRYD?” (what are you doing?), are commonly used when communicating via electronics. So, why is it so easy for me to read crazy acronyms, but have to re-read a sentence from this book three times before I understand it? It’s all about the time period. In today’s society you see things like said acronyms on a near daily basis. When do you ever SEE speech such as Huck Finn’s? (Living in the Arkansas, just as Huck lived in Missouri, you HEAR a lot of it, but that’s a whole other ball game.)
Relating to Huck is not an easy process. He’s primarily uneducated, he doesn’t have the luxuries of a good family, or a comfortable home, and he’s a bit mischievous, but all-in-all, his speech is the hardest for me to relate to. You see, I’m the type of person that sincerely detests grammatical errors, although I do tend to make them myself. Reading this book, I just wanted to take it and re-write it myself. Now don’t get me wrong, I think the story itself is excellent, and I understand that Mark Twain used this form of speech to reflect Huck’s southern draw and lack of schooling, but it drove me insane. Yes, Mister Twain did an amazing job of utilizing southern slang, but as a reader, I enjoy making up the character’s voice in my head, without stumbling over the words, or misunderstanding a simple statement. “Jim said he believed it was spirits; but I says: “No, spirits wouldn’t say, ‘dern the dern fog.’” (Page 831.) In my opinion, I could’ve understood just as easily that the previous statement was supposed to be said with an accent if it had been worded as “Jim said he believed it was spirits; but I said: “No, spirits wouldn’t say, ‘darn the darn fog.’” It’s easier to read, but based on the person saying it, you still understand that it should be said in a southern way.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was indeed an excellent story. I guess I just can’t seem to appreciate the intricate ways of Mark Twain’s mind.
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