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Satire In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Decent Essays

Romantic literature with its mournful subject matter in poetry and its ridiculous plots in novels is the next influential form of satire that Twain exhibits. Huck and Jim encounter a shipwreck called The Walter Scott; named after a romantic novelist. The satire here is that more than just a ship is sinking. Inside the ship, Huck finds three robbers, two of whom betray their assumed help in an attempt to have a larger fortune. Twain satirizes how romantic literature centralizes on deceit, cruelty, and theft. Then, Twain figuratively sinks these ideas as Huck and Jim escape the shipwreck. Also, in the ending section of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain satirizes romantic literature by using Tom Sawyer as a representation of romantic ideals. Jim is stored in a shed after being sold by the King while Huck and Tom decide to rescue him. Tom insists on rescuing Jim “the right way”, or by reenacting what he has read in romantic novels such as the Count of Monte Cristo. While Huck and Jim disagree with the ridiculousness of each of Tom’s demands, they follow them no matter what robbery, cruelty or lying they must do to achieve each of Tom’s tasks. …show more content…

During the course of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, this theme was carried through character’s actions. Jim allowed Tom and Huck to treat him cruelly when he could have rescued himself out of slavery. Huck meekly followed Tom’s orders even when he did not agree. A prominent example of the satire for the average man was when Colonel Sherburn shot Boggs, a local drunk to protect his honor. As the crowd gets rowdy and approach his house yelling about lynching him, he is seen on his roof with his pistol and delivers a speech about how the average man is a coward. The satire is that he himself is a coward

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