The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Questions

"Everybody was willing. So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had wrote the oath on, and read it. It swore every boy to stick to the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and his family must do it, nd mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep till he had killed them and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign on the band. And noboddy that didnt belong to the band could use the mark, and if he did he must be sued;and if he done it again he must be killed.And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off the list with blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it and be forgot forever."

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THe diction is that of a boy. The simple straight forward language is prevalent,
" So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had wrote the oath on, and read it..."
Huck also uses a boy's slang diction that lacks grammar skills, "nd mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep." This attests to Huck's lack of formal education or perhaps lack of caring about formal education. The hyperbole in the text is given with the sort of boyhood exuberance that we have come to know in the younger Huck, "he must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off the list with blood and never mentioned again by the gang..." This excerpt describes the exuberance that Huck felt for the imagination of boyhood.

Twain uses a lot of irony in this book to give it a little humor, especially in the second chapter. Most of the ironic situations stem out of Huck’s youth and gullibility. An example of verbal irony is given when Tom tell Huck of his new gang. Huck says, “But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable.” It is obvious to the readers that a band of robbers are not generally considered respectable. (1)

Source(s): (1) http://summarycentral.tripod.com/theadventuresofhuckleberryfinn.htm