Literary heritage is a term for literature which has been passed down to us from the best authors in the past.
Mark Twain was not part of any literary movement at all.
He wrote during the romantic and realist periods in American literature, but his novels don’t fall into either categories.
Mark Twain is known for his colloquial speech & social criticism.
He is considered a realist /regionalist .
He is held in high esteem by other writers.
Huckleberry Finn was a Great American novel.
The Great American novel recognises a writers ability to capture an American’s experience in a different period of time in American history.
Huckleberry Finn was one of the first books to receive the award in 1884.
It acknowledged Mark Twain's writing skills in regards to 'local colour regionalism' which focussed on specific features such as:
Character Dialect
Customs/Tradition
History
Landscape of a particular region
Mark Twain was a Southern regional writer, for example he wrote about African Americans who were victims of racism in the book.
Huckleberry Finn was recognised as a Great American novel because Mark Twain was a southerner himself which helped him to capture real themes which he had experienced first hand.
Socio-economic
The book also expresses the attitude and living of Americans during that period of time in which the book was set, so they were expected to do work and work in coal mines and improve the economy.
Inflation during the 1950's.
The end of World War 2 and the second at the onset of the Korean war in 1950.
The recession came in the third quarter of 1948 and lasted until the second quarter of 1950.
Biographical/geographical
The Mississippi river was a big influence on Mark Twain's life and furnished his literary imaginations.
His job as a journalist was vital as it meant he constantly met new people which meant he learnt more about them which helped him to write the novel. Meeting new people allowed him to capture people's dialect which is one main feature of the book which recognises his ability to portray the characters realistically.
Mississippi had a high demand for slaves.
Hannibal was the creating for St. Petersburg.
Mark Twain himself worked as a river pilot in 1859 and was paid $250 a month.
He always had to make stops on his journey which enabled him to meet different people.
He worked in LA after being a pilot, as a writer he earning a lot from his books and went around different places doing lectures and charging money for them.
He writes about Mississippi before the Civil War.
He felt life was simple before.
By the time he wrote Huckleberry Finn, he lost his romantic belief about America in comparison to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
America was dealing with racism, slavery and oppression.
As in his novel, Mark Twain writes about slavery and how aristocratic families owned slaves.
Slavery ended but racism still existed.
The novel is set in pre-civil war years.
Mark Twain believed slavery was wrong.
People from Africa knew a variety of languages and had to speak whatever language their owner spoke.
They communicated with each other in a new language which they invented themselves called 'Pigeon'
Huckleberry Finn explores different accents.
The Civil War 1861-1865, was between the North & South, and was fought over slavery as the North wanted to abolish slavery whereas the South opposed this as they benefited largely from this for example due to cotton fields.
Language - Huckleberry Finn uses 7 dialects as Mark Twain wants to make the novel more realistic.
Slavery was a huge part of the American culture at that time because this is when White people were culturally the more dominant race and took over.