preview

Satire In Andrew Levy's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Decent Essays

The Adventure Of Huckleberry Finn, a book recognized to be one of the most remarkable pieces of literature in American History, has been highly accused of being offensive among some critics. Andrew Levy, for example, stated that this book portrays “profound satire” and “racism” in standardized education. He believed that because of these issues, Huckleberry Finn is not an appropriate book for children. However, I believe, that neither the use of satire nor the racist comments has any negative influence on children, and that The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is an ideal novel for use in the classroom. To begin with, the book is not all racist and it is not harmful for primary education. Like Andrew Levy, for Twain's critics, the novel is ridiculously written for children on the face of it, and for the most obvious reason: many characters use the word "nigger" throughout. But since the action of the book takes place in …show more content…

The reason Twain uses satire in The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, is to create casual dialogue ironically. Rather than emphasizing how people see white privilege at the time, Twain uses it as a way to underscore the terrific truth about the South: it was a place where slaveholders did not consider the death of a black person worth their notice, and where a "nigger" was not a human being. For example, in chapter fourteen, Huck exemplified “Well, if ever I struck anything like it, I’m a nigger. It was enough to make a body ashamed of a human race.” (Twain, 123) By using satire, the author was intended to prove that black people should have the equivalent right as the superior white people. And there should be no discrimination, no misunderstanding and no racism. These undertones were hidden in between words in a setting of an adventure story. By choosing to write in such a form, Twain noticed that it would be less literate for children to confirm the underline

Get Access