Huckleberry Finn and “Daisy Miller": A Study
...n the first three pages of the book is already becoming someone different. Not wild, just different than the rest. She is already an individual. This is how Twain sets up his title character of Huck Finn for the audience to read. He is also an individual. Granted, Huckleberry Finn is a full length novel so it takes some more time to get into the subtleties of the text. From the beginning of Huck’s adventures on the river, we are shown his individuality and his free will. However, there is something about him that makes him far from a child. His ingenuity and occasionally his interior monologue sound as if they were those of an adult. When Huck plans his daring escape from his fathers shack in the woods, you would think that James Bond was right there with him with blueprints and a map. While he’s plotting his escape, Huck thinks, “...I got to thinking that if I could fix up some way to keep pap and the widow from trying to follow me, it would be a certainer thing than trusting to luck to get far enough off before they missed me; you see, all kinds of things might happen.” (238). What child who is trapped in their father’s shack for days would honestly be thinking of that? An individual, that’s who. A character that is set apart from the rest, left to deal with his struggles and the world’s problems by himself (or herself). “...a certainer thing...” (238). I digress for a moment to discuss the dialect and language used in both James’ piece and Twain’s piece. The realism factor hits strong when you look at the dialect used in these pieces. Twain’s novel, set in the south during the late 19th century carries all the twang of a broken banjo. From Huck’s “I’m-trying-to-sound-smart-here-dialect” to Jim’s broken-English the language can be a bit confusing in the novel. But that’s what makes it so real. Jim is recalling his dream to Huck in this passage, “’What do dey stan’ for? I’s gwyne to tell you. When I got all wore out wid woek, en wid de callin’ for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos’ broke bekase you wuz los’. En I didn’ k’yer no mo’ what become er me en de raf’.” (272). We also have the sometimes monotonous and boring “proper” dialect of the early 1900s wealthy American in “Daisy Miller”. The funny thing is that Daisy, a supposed proper young American woman, doesn’t fit the bill. As Winterbourne invites Daisy to visit a castle with him, she responds, “ ‘I guess my mother won’t go after all. She don’t like to ride round in the afternoon.’”(475). To hear a young American girl in Europe in the ‘20s use the phrase “She don’t like..” is amazing. It breaks all the standards of the previous “proper” dialect. She speaks from the heart, as does Huck. And no one cares. As mentioned earlier, Winterbourne asks Daisy to visit a castle with him. A brash move that a younger lady might find offensive. Not Daisy however, this free willed American flirt doesn’t care one bit. “She didn’t rise, blushing as a young girl at Geneva would have done; and yet Winterbourne, conscious that he ha...