Situational Irony In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

People often hesitate to accept what they do not understand. In the absence of love and compassion, it is no question that fear, ignorance, and hatred, all contribute to a melting pot of negativity in the world. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is about the love and friendship cultivated by a young boy and a black slave on the Mississippi River. Despite the pair’s differences, they are able to endure the struggles and difficulties that the toilsome journey brings. Mark Twain, in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, emphasizes the shift in Huck’s view towards slavery by contrasting Huck’s initial tone of reflectiveness to his assertive tone, both collectively addressing the issue of racism in society.

Through the theme of rebellion against society, Huck demonstrates the importance of thinking for oneself and embodies the idea that adults are not always right. This is highlighted in his noncompliance when it comes to learning the Bible and in the decisions he makes when it comes to Jim, decisions that prove to be both illegal and dangerous. By refusing to conform to standards he does not agree with, Huck relies on his own experiences and inner conscience when it comes to making decisions. As a result, Huck is a powerful vehicle for Mark Twain’s commentary on southern society and

Both authors, Mark Twain and Arthur Miller, use situational irony as a way to evoke emotion. After running away from home, Huckleberry encounters another runaway who is escaping from oppression based on race. Although it is frowned upon, Huckleberry helps a runaway slave escape, "Well, I did. I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it. Honest INJUN, I will. People would call me a low-down despise me for keeping mum—but that don't make no difference. I ain't a-going to tell, and I ain't a-going, anyways.” (Twain 43) Considering Huckleberry was raised in a slave cultured environment, the readers would not have imagined that Huckleberry would have helped the runaway slave. Although the readers were waiting for Huckleberry to turn his back on Jim

One of the most noteworthy aspects of Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the skillful way in which Twain relates Huck’s thoughts. By telling the story from the first person point of view, Twain not only lets the reader into Huck’s mind, but he also allows Huck to characterize himself in terms of dialect—his manner of speaking, as we hear his thoughts in his own uneducated and thoroughly “countrified” voice.

After abandoning a wrecked ship and leaving a gang of murderers stranded, Huck thinks back on what he has done, and how he feels wrong. Mark Twain criticizes the way people think about others only after they have taken care of themselves. Only after saving himself and making sure he was ok, does Huck begin to take others’ well being into consideration. Mark Twain shows the irony in this as Huck went to great lengths to put the gang of criminals in the position they were in, only to feel pity for them afterwards. This has always been apart of human behavior, and Twain sets out to satirize this innate quality in people through the use of irony. By using the phrase, “even for murderers” Twain shows that people are able to feel pity and remorse for anyone, yet, it is often too late when people realize what they have done. This is one of Twain’s more subtle critiques in the way society functions, yet it is still an important critique. Instead of think of other people after the fact, Twain

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain uses Huck’s personal hyperboles, irony and an appeal to pathos as he subtly attempts to alter his Reconstruction's audience view on the African Americans role in society. Towards the end of the novel

Mark Twain’s classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn took place during a tense period in U.S. history. Heated debate over the morality of slavery had sparked and deep divisions were emerging between the northern and southern states. Born in Missouri, a slave state, the novel’s protagonist Huckleberry Finn was raised on values of racism and prejudice. He adhered to these principles as they were all he knew. However, over the course of his journey, Huck’s formerly provincial morality was challenged by his real-world experiences, and he was forced to derive a new set of morals for himself. At the start of the novel, a blind acceptance of slavery was present in Huck’s mind. This was revealed when Huck thought, in reference to Jim’s plan to free his children, “Here was this nigger, which I had as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children – children that belonged to a man I didn’t even know; a man that hadn’t ever done me no harm” (137). Although grateful for Jim’s companionship and reluctant to report him to the authorities, Huck still believed slavery to be a moral practice. As evidenced by this thought process, Huck held on to the values of the slave-owning states in the south, believing that Jim’s children, as slaves, were property. He even felt remorseful at the thought of a man’s slaves being stolen. Regardless of his budding friendship with Jim, Huck was still concretely in favor of slavery. This static view on

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.

Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain there are a lot of uses of satire. Satire is "the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc" (Dictionary.com). With this literary device Twain brought a whole new level to the story. The book was published in 1885 when realism was becoming more popular in literature. Three specific times satire is used in Huckleberry Finn are when there is the on-going fight between the Shepherdson's and the Grangerford's , when they meet the King and the Duke, and how Jim and Huck are going south in order for Jim to escape slavery.

Mohandas Gandhi once said, “Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.” However, it may not hold true in Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the novel, the protagonist Huck Finn’s morality and perception of others is shaped by the society he lives in, demonstrating that an individual’s morality or the epistemological sense of right and wrong can be largely influenced by society and the living environment. Yet despite strong traditions of the 19th century south, Huck is able to live away from the “civilized” world, leaving behind his hometown and travelling down the Mississippi river with Jim, a runaway slave. Huck’s unusual experiences with Jim contrast with his predetermined notions of race and power in the midst of the Jim Crow Era, thrusting Huck into a great crisis of morality dictated by his consciousness instead of his intellect. Through Huck’s journey in the search of morality, Twain conveys the theme that that morality is dictated by society, despite the goodness of an individual’s consciousness, it is difficult for and individual to intellectually challenge societal paradigms.

The Irony Samuel Langhorne Clemens, or “Mark Twain,” lived a life of American pattern for seventy-five years (Perkins 55). From a young country, to a booming world power, Mark Twain was able to live and write through all of the great changes of America-“from frontier community to industrial urbanity, from riverboats to railroads, from an aggressive, bumptious adolescence toward a troubled and powerful maturity (Perkins 55). Mark Twain was quite the observer of this life and after traveling around the world, he returned back to America in October 1900 actively opposing both the United States and Great Britain’s policies (William D. Howells and Mark Twain 723). It became apparent to him that America was not living up to its expectations of

In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the young protagonist Huckleberry Finn runs away from his abusive father with Jim, a black slave. Throughout the novel, Huck encounters people that fail to understand the injustice of slavery and violence, despite their education. Although Huck lacks any substantial education, his moral values and judgment are highly developed. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses uneducated, colloquial diction and deliberate syntax to provide ironic contrast between Huck’s rudimentary level of education and profound use of moral judgment.

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.

Set in the Antebellum South, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn documents a landscape that differs greatly from the poised and picturesque scene associated with the contemporary South. Today’s South is synonymous with with ice cold pitchers of tea, ceaseless etiquette exuded on wraparound porches, and seemingly romantic drawls. However, the South that Huck resides in, tells a different story. Specifically, his South is a place where suitable behavior is associated with the acceptance of slavery, and racist slurs pepper every sentence. As a result, any deviation from these behaviors leaves an individual ironically branded with a connotation of being uncivilized. Due to this distorted view of ethics, any character with even a shred

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain presents the problem of slavery in America in the 19th Century. Twain poses this problem in the form of a character named Huckleberry Finn, a white boy raised in the antebellum South. Huck starts to question his view regarding slavery when he acquaints himself more intimately with a runaway slave while he himself tries to run away. Huck’s development as a character is affected by society’s influence on his experiences while growing up in the South, running away with Jim, and trying to save Jim. Although Huck decides to free Jim, Huck’s deformed conscience convinces him that he is doing the wrong thing.