Linguistic features of Life on the Mississippi

英语2101张媛媛

Life on the Mississippi is an autobiographical account by Mark Twain dealing with his experiences as a boy and a cub pilot on the Mississippi River before and after the American Civil War. This work is an epitome of critical realism, humor, satire and local folk characteristics. Among them, the most prominent highlight of language is the extensive use of local dialects and idioms, which has the characteristics of regional literature and can reflect the theme of the novel more accurately. Mark Twain always paid great attention to the living conditions and suffering of American people in the bottom strata, which was mainly reflected in his concerns for black people and the poor. In the process of literary creation, he insisted on the use of dialect form, with special letter combinations, unique local idioms and his practical life experience, to show the real life of the seamen on Mississippi River, which made the fiction very pictorial, vivid, full of interestingness and literariness.