Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)

Studies - Gabriella Varró: The Adventures of the Minstrel Sign in Mark Twain 's Huckleberry Finn

'But hang it, Jim, you've clean missed the point

—blame it, you've missed it a thousand mile.' 'Who? Me? Go 'long. Doan' talk to me "bout yo' pints. I reck'n I know sense when I sees it; en dey ain' no sense in sich doin's as dat. De 'spute warn't 'bout a half chile, de 'spute was 'bout a whole child; en de man dat thinks he kin settle a 'spute 'bout a whole child wid half a chile, doan' know enough to come in out'n de rain. Doan' talk to me 'bout Sollermun, Huck, I knows him by de back.' 'But I tell you you don't get the point.' 'Blame de pint! I reck'n I knows what I knows. En mine you, de real pint is down furder

—it's down deeper. It lays in de way Sollermun was raised. You take a man dat's got on'y one or two chillen; is dat man gwyne to be waseful o' chilién? No, he ain't; he can't 'ford it. He know how to value 'em. But you take a man 'dat's got 'bout five million chillen runnin' roun' de house, en it's diffunt. He as soon chop a chile in two as a cat. Dey's plenty mo'. A chile er two, mo' er less, warn't no consekens to Sollermun, dad fetch him!' (86-87) Huck gives up the verbal duel, because he is not able to get the upper hand over Jim's humorously intensive ethical indignation. As he says immediately afterwards: "I never see such a nigger. If he got a notion in his head once, there warn't no getting it out again" (86). Huck then seeks a new theme for discussion, and they start to converse about Louis XVI, the French king who was executed, and his son, the heir, who stayed alive according to the legend and fled to America. But, asks Jim, what would a king do in America, where there are no sovereigns. "Well," says Huck, "I don't know. Some of them gets on tne police, and some of tnem learns people how to talk French" (87). This is the point where Twain begins one of his best dialogues that reflects all the magic of oral improvisation. This section with its fast rhythm, cunning exchanges, and bizarre logic is a masterful verbal simulation of the end-man humor of the minstrel show. 'Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?' 'No

, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said

—not a single word.' 'Well, now. I be ding-busted! How do dat come?' "I don't know; but it's so. I got some of their jabber out of a book. Spose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy

—what would you think?' 268