Excerpt from: The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnMark Twain1 You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly--Tom's Aunt Polly, she is--and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before. Which repeated word in the first paragraph is an intensifier, emphasizing the fact that the story of Huck Finn is more fiction than fact?A) ain't B) mainly C) matter D) without
The word "mainly" shows that the story of Huck Finn is more fiction than fact. He repeats this word many times when he is talking about the story being one of truth. This intensifier introduces the idea of the story being a bit exaggerated and fictional. The other words add to the characterization of Huck. He uses ain't simply to mean isn't. When he says "that ain't no matter" he means that it is no big deal. Without is used to mean exactly that and is not meant as an opposite.
