In Mark Twains novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnhe talks about small town life in Southern Mississippi. Heportrays it as gossipy, a place where everyone knowseveryone and knows everyone elses business and doesnt careto tell it. It is confining to Huck and Jim because thereis too much conforming to society. This is why they escapeIn Chapter 18 when Huck goes into town dressed as agirl to get information he talks to a woman who has onlylived there two weeks. She is able to tell him everythingthat is going on despite this.
This shows how in smalltowns people arent afraid to talk. Not only did the womanfreely give all the information to someone she didnt know,someone had to tell her all about it in a two week tomespan. Twain is depicting small towns in a gossipy manner,Twain is also characterizing small towns as confiningwith a lot of conformation to society. When Huck goes tolive with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, they try toturn him into someone hes not. They dress him up in fancyclothes, try to teach him religion and try to take away allof his individuality. They do this because this is what thesociety in their small town accepts, and they dont want himto be different than anyone else, because how would thatmake them look.
Huck however, escapes their attempts toTwain shows that he has some contempt for small townlife and its behaviors. Miss Watson is one of the mainpeople to show this because of her trying to change Huck. Twain attempts to demonstrate this by portraying small townlife and gossipy and confining. His dislike is seenespecially through Huck who escapes the conformity to liveBibliography:
