Rhetorical Analysis

Chapter 1-16  Carmen Mascarenhas

Rhetoric is the tool an author uses to drive through a point. It’s especially hard in fiction because they not only have the job of telling an interesting story, but also to persuade their reader of an underlying motive. Twain’s motive is to debunk the justification of slavery, and he does this through the evolution of his main character who is a poor white boy: Huckleberry Finn. However, slavery is not only in it’s obvious form. There is a great deal amount of pathos that is used in the relationship between Huck and his abusive, alcoholic father. The reader understands how Huck is a slave to his father and his horrible tendencies, so just as Jim is a runaway slave, so is Huck. Also, Twain’s diction really highlights the situation we find our characters in. The entire novel is prefaced with the following message:

“The [dialects] have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guess-work; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding” (explanatory).

Twain is an intentional. His rhetoric is intentional. Every word is chosen with the same care as the last because the words are what define his characters. We make our assumptions, catch our fallacies, experience logos, ethos and pathos all through Twain’s diction.

Chapter 17-21 Carolyn Lo Coco

Twain appeals to pathos through every interaction between Huck and Finn. They begin as a slave and a boy, but as they bond over being escapees of two different evils, they develop a unique friendship based off the flaws of society. He displays societal prejudices and judgement, which Huck and Jim also overcome with their friendship.

Twain also uses diction to demonstrate his purpose and societal views on different races and religions. Huck constantly refers to Jim and black people as “niggers”, displaying how Huck doesn’t realize that what he says is racist because that is how he was raised.

Chapter 22-28 Trinity Gomez

Diction

I Could Just Sock You
While at Aunt Sally's Tom introduces himself as a stranger, since Huck is pretending to be him. He tries to kiss her and she says, "You ought to have your jaws boxed; I ain't been so put out since I don't know when."(256) Aunt Sally didn't like that Tom tried to kiss her on the cheek. She uses strong diction saying he should have his jaw boxed. This is also slang of the time period she is living in. She really thinks that Tom deserves a FACE SLAP. (LOL)

Chapter 29-35 Margo Irie

Diction and Pathos

“‘I wouldn’t shake my nigger, would I?—the only nigger I had in the world, and the only property.’ ‘We never thought of that. Fact is, I reckon we’d come to consider him OUR nigger; yes, we did consider him so—goodness knows we had trouble enough for him.’”(241).

The strong diction evokes the pathos, or feelings and emotions, as the reader begins to try and understand the harsh nature of the words. By calling the slave “my nigger...the only property”(241) the distasteful name calling of blacks “nigger” evokes the emotions in the reader. Hearing a human being compared to property evokes not only anger but embarrassment that this kind of horrid behavior took place in America, priding itself on freedom. Over time America has changed as laws and amendments came into play, however there was a time when people could say “OUR nigger”(241). The word itself is enough to evoke emotion in the reader towards the slaves, but the fact they claimed this living breathing person as their own makes the reader feel sympathetic. Author Mark Twain purposefully uses these words together in his diction and use of rhetorical strategies to make the reader have feelings and connections towards the characters in the novel.

Chapter 36-the last Natalie Fung

Diction

“Tom’s most well, now, and got his bullet around his neck on a watch guard for a watch, and is always seeing what  time it is, and so there ain’t nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I’d knowed what trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t a tackled it and ain’t agoing  to no more. But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and civilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before.” (Twain 292)

   For rhetorical analysis this would be considered diction because it is the manner in which Huck speaks naturally. Which over the course of the novel the reader has recognized. Mark Twain has a various writing styles when it comes to depicting each character’s voice. Jim, Miss Watson’s now freed slave, has a voice in the novel that readers cannot fully comprehend while he is speaking. Whereas when Twain depicts the dialogue of characters such as Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, the language may not use proper English phrase yet the reader can fully understand the point they are making.