Comparative Study Of Humor In The Adventures Of Huckelberry Finn And Catch-22

The novel Catch-22 is Heller's representative work which gives him literary prominence. It impresses readers with its fantastic appearance. Heller and his Catch-22 are both well-known as a famous black humorist and a masterpiece of black humor. As techniques of black humor, paradox, caricatures, absurdities, conflicts and juxtaposition of incongruities and absurdities are widely applied to reflect the postwar reality—bureaucracy, corruption, commercialism and the ethnic problems.Mark Twain is a world-renowned literary giant and a gifted humorist. The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is Mark Twain's masterpiece honored as the origin of all modern American literature. The book narrates the journey of a white teenager Huck and a black slave Jim down the Mississippi River. Incongruity theory of humor brings itself full play.Humor contributes much to the success of the two novels. But it still plays different role. Traditional humor and black humor present each in the novels in different techniques and result in different effects. In this thesis, the two forms of humor will be discussed and analyzed with the novels as materials.In Chapter I, the caricature as one of the most prevalent and popular of all "art" forms will be studied. In each novel, several caricatures of characters will be portrayed. Farcical, typical, exaggerated or distorted figures are sculptured. Huck's Pap—an obstinate drunkard and the two impudent frauds in Huck Finn, Milo Minderbinder and Major Major Major Major in Catch-22 are the caricatures of characters.In Chapter II, Logic is the systematic study of valid inference. Mismatch of logic is also an important element in the context of humor as well as logic. Wherever humor is , the second logic(mismatch of logic), hidden or over-logic, functions there. In Huck Finn, the mismatch of logic is displayed in inharmonious relationship between Huck and society, realistic society and "civilized" society and in Catch-22, in the form of numerous paradoxes.In Chapter III, juxtaposition of incongruities and absurdities as another technique of humor is applied in the two novels. The effects of humor/black humor are both strengthened. Mark Twain regarded stringing incongruities and absurdities together as the basis of the American art. So in Huck Finn, this idea is sure to be proved. In Heller's Catch-22, Juxtaposition of Contrary Contents is one of the characteristics in the language. The ridiculous, confusing and even horrifying effects are created.To sum up, through examining the progression and artistic features of the novels and comparing the techniques and effects of humor in the two novels, the paper aims at the role of humor in the two novels and the comparison of the different humor in Huck Finn and Catch-22. It as well hopes that it can deepen the understanding of the humor in American literature.