preview

Satire In Huckleberry Finn Essay example

Decent Essays

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 …show more content…

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

Get Access