Question:
What is Twain's comment about mob mentality in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
Dialect in Writing
Merriam Webster explains dialects as the following: ''a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other regional varieties and constituting together with them a single language''.
Several authors noted for their use of dialect include Mark Twain—for his use of several different American dialects and regional accents as evidenced in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"—and the poet Robert Burns, known for writing in the Scots dialect.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dialect
Answer and Explanation:
In "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Chapter 22, Mark Twain comments on mob mentality, cowardice and courage as the character Sherburn speaks to the lynch mob that has come to his yard for him. While Sherburn speaks eloquently on matters of morality, fear and justice, he himself is guilty of coldblooded murder just before in Chapter 21. Mark Twain utilizes this speech to comment on lawlessness, and to reiterate the confusing moral ambiguity of many of his characters in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".
''The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's what an army is - a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any MAN at the head of it, is BENEATH pitifulness.''
- Sherburn. Chapter 22
