The distinct difference between the casual and youthful style of Huck’s narration in Huck Finn and the dark and moralistic tone of the novel enables the book to work on two levels. While Huck’s narration is breezy and generally optimistic, the events he describes and witnesses are often violent, depressing, and indicative of the worst of human nature. An astonishing number of bodies pile up as Huck and Jim make their way down the river. Nearly all of these deaths are the result of human flaws, rather than acts of nature. Twain makes it clear that most of the characters died in foolish pursuit of unworthy causes, such as the Grangerfords, who sacrifice most of their children to a pointless feud. Similarly, the speech Colonel Sherburn gives when the mob comes to lynch him is deeply pessimistic about human nature and civilization: “the average man’s a coward…The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is – a mob.” By contrasting this dark, cynical tone with Huck’s innocent optimism, Twain makes Huck’s inevitable loss of innocence feel poignant.
