According to Ernest Hemingway, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn." Along with Hemingway, many others believe that Huckleberry Finn is a great book, but few take the time to notice the abundant satire that Twain has interwoven throughout the novel. The most notable topic of his irony is society. Mark Twain uses humor and effective writing to make The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a satire of the American upper-middle class society in the mid-nineteenth century.
The first aspect of society Twain ridicules is its attempt at respectability. Huck Finn, a boy referred to as "white trash," has grown up totally believing what society has taught him. Society attempts to teach the
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The Grangerfords were a very nice family, but obsessed with a 30-year old feud with another family, the Sheperdsons. The pretense of virtue that the families present is soon seen. "Next Sunday we all went to church
The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Sheperdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination." (page 109) Although the Grangerfords and Sheperdsons are willing to attend church and learn about "brotherly love," they never question the principle of a feud. They are not even sure why they are having a feud, how it started, or who started it. The irony in this is quite evident when both families seem completely comfortable with their quick changes from displays of pious behavior to the continuation of killing of each other.
Twain also exposes the deplorable concept of slavery by allowing Huck to view Jim as an equal person. As the novel proceeds, Huck and Jim continue their voyage down the Mississippi River and become close friends. Huck eventually has to decide whether or not to turn Jim in to Miss Watson. "
And I got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and
In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain satirizes and points out common human weaknesses. Within the content, readers are shown the flaws in most all characters including the unreliable narrator, Huckleberry Finn. Some of the most obvious human weaknesses satirized by Twain are ignorance, racism, and self conflict. Twain’s intention of satirizing is to point out common and ironic flaws within their society, considering the time period.
Many view Huckleberry Finn as a racist book for the portrayal of the runaway slave, Jim, but Twain writes from Huck’s point of view, who was a product of his society. In the book, while using dialect and actions accurate for the time and location, Twain never portrays Jim in a negative light. In contrast to Huck’s father, Jim cares about Huck. For example, when Jim and Huck are reunited after getting lost in the fog, Jim tells Huck, “my heart wuz mos’ broke bekase you wuz los’, en I didn’ k’yer no mo’ what become er me en de raf” (p. 157), as opposed to Huck’s father who only wants him around to prove he has control over Huck. This shows the difference between his white father who should be a strong male figure in his life, and a black man who actually looks out for Huck. Throughout the book, Huck comes to realize more and more that Jim is human just like
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain is a great example of a satire that Twain uses to mock different aspects of the society. The novel is filled with wild adventures encountered by the two main character, Huckleberry Finn, an unruly young boy, and Jim, a black runaway slave. Throughout the novel, Twain uses Huck to satirize the religious hypocrisy, white society's stereotypes, and superstitions both to amuse the reader and to make the reader aware of the social ills of that present time.
Molly Ivins once said, "Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful". This quote explains how the use of satire, which is the use of humor or irony to point out or mock someone's stupidity, could be used as an insult to point out the obvious in any situation. The use of this figurative language technique is portrayed perfectly in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The three most prominent examples would be the way African Americans are viewed in that time period, the situation when Huckleberry pretended to be a girl, and the way Huckleberry talks about Pap verse how he actually acts. Twain's use of satire is used perfectly in this novel; these are only three examples out of the millions in the story.
Huck Finn’s Hilarious Adventure It is 11:30 pm on a Saturday night. Is has been a long and tiresome evening. All anybody wants to do is lie down and watch Saturday Night Live on NBC. What most people don’t realize is what makes the show so funny.
The use of Satire in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn In his novel the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published in 1884, Mark Twain uses satire frequently as a medium to display his feelings on a range of issues related to society at that time. Throughout the book he ridicules many aspects of society, including the prevalent views on slaves and religion, and their social structure. Even though the novel was set fifty years before it was published, the themes still held true for contemporary society. This led to the novel being criticised widely as a result of it condemning the very society it was presented to.
From the races people can label others, but people cannot know others’ humanity. Since the racism came about society, people look people based on their own morality codes, and even the people who have good morals are overlooked because of the word “racism” that makes people to depict and judge one’s character. In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain introduces a coming of age character named Huck who sees his surrounding with a logical thinking, and Jim who plays a controversial role in the novel as a slave. Mark Twain uses satire to criticize racism that gives negative aspect of society and create an unalterable realities on one’s worldview, indicating society’s moral code veils one’s hidden personality and confuses natural
There are many forms of satire in Mark Twain’s book The Adventures Huckleberry Finn, one of which is racism satire. Twain uses this satire to show many different things in the book such as showing the way that African-Americans were treated back in the 1800’s or showing how they were viewed as in superior to the other races of the time. Racism satire was not as major a topic in the 1800’s than it is in the modern world, which is a good example of how these worlds differ so much. This topic in general is a major issue in today’s world which could make The Adventures Huckleberry Finn controversial.
Many authors use satire to discuss issues in society that they have opinions on. These authors express their opinions by mocking the issues in a subtle way in their writing. Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain satirizes many societal elements. Three of these issues include the institution of slavery, organized religion, and education.
Mark Twain uses his novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to point out the flaws of society. Huck Finn meets a runaway slave, Jim, and together Twain uses them to walk the readers through a society that is based on slavery and dishonesty. There were many defects within the Southern society because of the conflict between christianity and slavery. Mark Twain uses Huck, Jim, and other characters as well as humor and satire to point out religious hypocrisy.
Although people disagree over what makes someone morally “good” or morally “bad,” most people can agree that caring and compassion are good qualities while intolerance and selfishness are bad qualities. Mark Twain uses satire in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to amplify the good and bad qualities of people. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn exposes Twain’s thoughts on human nature by showing undesirable qualities of people in the racist white people and showing preferable qualities in the African-American slave, who is a victim of racism. The racist white people are portrayed by Twain as prejudice and egotistic while Jim portrays compassion.
Twain uses Huck to make decisions based on this hypocritical slave-owning, Christian lifestyle. Huck must choose to either aid a runaway slave named Jim or return him to Miss Watson, while the white society of the South would expect Huck to return Jim to Miss Watson. Huck and Jim 's friendship makes this a significant decision because Huck is morally conflicted. Jim is his friend, but he is also the property of Miss Watson. An excerpt from Magill 's Survey of American Literature puts the situation in a right perspective exclaiming “Jim is property before he is man, and Huck is deeply troubled, surprisingly, by the thought that he is going to help Jim, not only because he sees it, in part, as a robbery, but more interestingly, because he sees his cooperation as a betrayal of his obligation to the
Almost all novels depict morals or the author's view on any given subject. Although many people start to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn thinking that it is a simple novel on a boy's childhood, they soon come to realize that the author, Mark Twain, expresses his opinions on multiple important, political issues. Twain touches on subjects such as slavery, money and greed, society and civilization, and freedom. From the time of its publication, Huckleberry Finn has been distinguished as a novel with prodigious political positions and messages. Throughout the novel, Twain continuously shows the hypocrisy and absurdity of civilized society.
Mark Twain's use of satire within his novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is to promote his criticism of American society. Twain uses humor, irony, and excessive exaggeration as a way to criticize. In this case, Twain is taking serious issues in America and exaggerating them to make them easier to read about. Targeting these specific problems with irony is what Twain did best. Within the novel, Twain uses satire to show greed, family issues, and civilization within the American Society.
Twain utilizes the novel to poke fun at the society and social class of his time. “The object behind the fun was to expose pretentious, phony, and stupid people, and to bring down the mighty, whether it be con men or rich men, exalted authors of great reputation or the royalty they adored” (Johnson 225). He descriptively portrays a representation of each class within the social hierarchy during the era in which the novel was written (Weiner 73). Jim symbolizes the slaves, while Huck and his father represent the lower class. Mrs. Watson, Tom Sawyer, and Tom’s aunt represent the middle class. The Shepherdsons and the Grangerfords characterize the wealthy, upper class. Throughout the novel, society rejects Huck because of his economic status and upbringing. Huck was the son of the