Similarities between Twain and Chesnutt

Mark Twain's Huck Finn and Charles Chesnutt's The Goophered Grapevine share similarities in dialect, style, and certain symbols, but the two stories also have differences in setting and content.
In Chesnutt's piece, a black man named Uncle Julius tells the narrator a long, complex story about how the vineyard that the narrator is interested in buying is "goophered" or cursed. Throughout this anecdote, the dialect used is very similar to that which Mark Twain used for Jim in Huck Finn. For example, Jim often utilizes the word "dey" (they) as Uncle Julius also says. In general, the dialects are similar because of how words are chopped off inconsistently at both the beginnings and ends, replaced with an apostrophe to express its shortness. At some points throughout Uncle Julius's story, I found it more difficult to decipher than Twain's style. However, this may just be because Twain's content is more familiar to me than the voodoo practices of the south during this time period.
Another similarity between these two authors, though a small one, is in the ironic symbolism of the unconventional meaning that southern states/towns hold for the main characters in each story. For instance, in Huck Finn, Jim and Huck are actually travelling south down the Mississppi River to the town of Cairo, where Jim can be free. This is ironic because the South during this time period is associated with stricter slave laws. In The Goophered Grapevine, the main protagonish is presented with a similar predicament. His wife is sick and their doctor suggests that they relocate to the South, where the climate is warmer and less harsh. Chesnutt's story takes place after the Civil War, unlike Twain's, but there was still a strong association with the south and stricter black codes, etc. The narrator in Chesnutt's story addresses the concerns of harsh Southern living for blacks when he states, "It was a sufficient amount of time after the war for conditions in the South to have become settled".
While Twain and Chesnutt share these similarities, the time setting is different, as well as the physical setting. They both take place in the South, but Chesnutt writes the couple moving to North Carolina, whereas Huck is bred of Mississippi. Also, Chesnutt makes it a point to express in great detail the practices of Southern voodoo, whereas Twain is satirizing slavery and people in general.

Huck's Attitudes Concerning Jim

Throughout the story of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck faces an inner struggle of whether or not to turn in Jim. This issue is first explored in depth after Huck returns to his raft from the larger raft he had been eavesdropping on. Huck thinks to himself, "I begun to get it through my head that he [Jim] was most free--and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn't get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way." However, in this instance, Jim begins to rant about how good of a friend Huck is, and that he's "de only fren' ole Jim's got now." Huck just cannot take the guilt, so he protects Jim yet again by making up a lie to ward off a couple of nosy sailors.
As the novel progresses, the close bond between Huck and Jim becomes more evident. For example, while Huck is staying with the Grangerfords', his slave, Jack, shows him where Jim has been hiding. When Huck sees Jim, he automatically becomes concerned, asking why he had not told Jack to fetch him sooner. Another example occurs after the big Shepherdson-Grangerford fight that results in the demise of Buck, his brother, and his Pa. Disturbed from what he has just witnessed, Huck screams out, and just then: "It was Jim's voice--nothing ever sounded so good before." Also, Jim calls Huck "honey", a common, affectionate pet name.
While all this reflects Jim and Huck's care for each other, Huck also reveals a condescending attitude towards Jim. Several times Huck corrects Jim on things that he has no knowledge of. For instance, Jim and Huck hear a few men out on the river one night, but they comment that because they were unable to see these men, it appeared as if they were spirits. Huck narrates, "Jim said he believed it was spirits; but I says: 'No, spirits wouldn't say, 'dern the dern fog.'" Huck is not an expert on spirits, but he automatically takes on the role of telling Jim he is wrong. Another example of this occurs when the Duke and Dauphin enter the story. Huck thinks to himself, "It didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn't no kings nor dukes, at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds...and it warn't no use to tell Jim, so I didn't tell him." The fact that Huck feels obliged to hide this fact from Jim shows that he doesn't want to hurt his feelings, but it also shows that he does not think Jim to be very intelligent.
Overall, Huck and Jim have a very affectionate relationship, yet Huck's subconscious arrogance still surfaces throughout the text.

Lilacs for Abraham Lincoln

Walt Whitman's When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd is almost like a stream of consciousness of the narrator reflecting on Abraham Lincoln's death. At several points through the piece, a whole day passes by in one stanza. For instance, lines 93 through 98:
[Lo, the most excellent sun so calm and haughty,
[The violet and purple morn with just-felt breezes,
[The gentle soft-born mesaureless light,
[The miracle spreading bathing all, the fulfill'd noon,
[The coming eve delicious, the welcome night and the stars,
[Over my cities shining all, enveloping man and land."
The first three lines describe the morning, the third line transitions to afternoon, and the last two lines describe the evening and night. This technique gives the reader the impression that the narrator is lost deep in thought and sitting still enough to observe all changes in the daylight.
Though this poem is like a stream of consciousness, it also tells a story. This can be seen in the sprig of lilac that the narrator breaks off. At the funeral, the narrator lays this lilac on Lincoln's grave, which is described in the last line of the sixth section, "I give you my sprig of lilac". When describing Lincoln's funeral, Whitman also writes of the "silent sea of faces", expressing how Lincoln's life touched many people.
Throughout the poem Whitman not only writes about Lincoln's death, but he also includes the death of the soldiers in the civil war, as well as the idea of death itself. In this poem, the narrator speaks of how he "saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers of the war, But I saw they were not as was thought, They themselves were fully at rest, they suffer'd not, The living remain'd and suffer'd." Whitman claims that those who died in the war actually benefitted, and that those who were left alive were the ones who suffered, making Death appear peaceful and appealing. Whitman also does this by personifying death. For example he writes, "Then with the knowledge of death as walking one side of me, And the thought of death close-walking the other side of me, And I in the middle as with companions, and as holding the hands of companions." He speaks of these elements of death as "companions" rather than something to be afraid of.