10: Imagery

 We as readers are made to visualize a dark scene from Twain's words at the end of chapter seven. This is after Huck has escaped from pap and the shanty and is now finding refuge on a different shore. "The moon was so bright I could 'a' counted the drift logs that went a-slipping along, black and still, hundreds of yards out from shore. Everything was dead quiet, and it looked late, and smelt late." (Twain, pg. 42) This is the first example of imagery Twain used to describe the darkness and late  hour Huck is living in. He also illustrates the pitch-black of the night when he explains that Huck cannot make out the figure of pap sailing down the water in a canoe. Other examples of this imagery would be when Huck, as the narrator, thinks, "The sky looks ever so deep when you lay down on your back in the moonshine..." (Twain, pg. 43) and he also depicts the sight of Jackson's Island as "...big and dark and solid, like a steamboat without any lights." (Twain, pg. 43) Gradually the setting becomes slightly brighter though, as a few lights can be seen from the distant town and lanterns down the stream are visible. The sky also becomes "a little gray" as Huck decides it is time for breakfast, which contains the dark intense imagery, but begins to lighten the mood a bit.