MARK TWAIN\u27S USES OF SUFFERING IN THE WRITER-CHARACTER-READER TRIAD

This thesis studies Mark Twain’s uses of suffering in the writer character reader triad. In the book Huckleberry Finn, Twain himself seems to identify more closely with Huck than he does with Tom, as evidenced by the first person narrative in Finn and the more serious, more carefully developed autobiographical incidents in that book. Perhaps because Twain’s later life was so bleak and unhappy, he poured all of his self-defeat and pessimism into his thoughts for Huck’s old age