Compare Widow Douglas and Mrs. Watson

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a Mark Twain classic, wonderfully demonstrates pre-Civil War attitudes about blacks held by whites. Twain demonstrates these attitudes through the actions and the speech of Huckleberry Finn, the narrator, and Jim, Miss Watson's slave. These two main characters share a relationship that progresses from an acquaintance to a friendship throughout the novel. It is through this relationship that Mark Twain gives his readers the realization of just how different people's attitudes were before the Civil War. Twain also reveals the negative attitudes of whites toward blacks by the cruel manner in which Jim is treated with such inferiority.

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a piece of fiction that is so strongly written it can be conceived as the truth. Mark Twain’s ability to paint a clear and realistic picture of the Southern way of life in 1885 is unparalleled in any author. The story of Huckleberry Finn is one that gives ample opportunity for interesting sights into the South at that time. The story consists of Huck and a runaway slave, along with two men and Huck’s faithful friend Tom Sawyer and some points of the novel, floating down the Mississippi’s shores and encountering different feats of Southern culture, tragedy, and adventure. A nice example of Twain’s ability to turn an event on a river into an analysis of Southern culture is a fun bit of the story where Huck

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

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn satirizes gratuitous violence, excessive greed, and racism. First, Twain illustrates the satire in the gratuitous violence with the backwater families and the rural country people starting with the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons. Huck first meets the Grangerfords when Huck and Jim’s raft breaks apart and Huck ends up on a shore. Huck meets Buck Grangerford who asks if Huck is a part of the Shepherdson family, in which Huck responds that he is not. Buck explains to him that the Grangerfords and the Shepherdson’s have been in a feud with each other for as long as the families can remember, however, no one knows or can even remember how or why these two families are fighting. Twain goes on to explain that the two families even go to church with their rifles while the priest preaches about love and peace. Twain also uses Boggs and Sherburn to further satirize these nonsensical violent habits. Boggs, who is very drunk, keeps causing a ruckus and speaking ill of Sherburn. Sherburn tells him to stop, but Boggs does not listen, so Sherburn shoots and kills Boggs. Soon after a mob forms declaring that they must kill Sherburn in retaliation. Sherburn tells the mob that they do not have the prowess to go through with their plan to kill him. He says that “Because you’re brave enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a man? Why, a man’s safe in the hands of

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a variety of people influence Huck’s ideology. From the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson’s religious rhetoric to Pap’s brutal, uncivilized manner, many contrasting ideas shape Huck’s belief system. However, among these people, Tom Sawyer holds the greatest impact over Huck’s actions and mentality because of Huck’s immense admiration for him. Huck’s initial encounters with Tom Sawyer establish Tom as a major component of the ideology Huck maintains throughout his journey. Despite Huck’s skepticism and confusion about Tom’s imaginative schemes, Huck regards Tom’s judgements as the truth and follows all of Tom’s plans.

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, we are introduced to Huck a boy of about 13 years of age. From a young age Huck grows up in the absence of both his parents. However, Huck is raised by two women who take him in as family, the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson, who make it their goal to “sivilize” (Twain 1) Huck. In the plot of this novel we learn that Huck is beaten repeatedly, and even kidnapped by his overbearing and critical father, Pap. We also learn that Pap, because he is always drunk, is an intimidating figure in Huck's life. Twain also writes about a character named Jim; Jim was Miss Watson's slave, freed after her death. Throughout the novel, Twain creates a strong friendship between Huck

Huck always disliked Miss Watson, but now that this society voice plays a part in Huck?s judgment his views are changed. This society views allows Huck to see Jim, a friend, only as a slave and Miss Watson, almost a foe in his young views, as a dear friend. Twain is showing the reader the gross injustices of slavery in this little incident, as well as his moral opposition to slavery. Twain wants the reader to see how slavery ideology changed people, even those who didn?t understand it fully. Twain wants the reader to see how unfair slavery was in how it could even change Huck?s thinking, whom the reader had never before seen voice ill conceptions about black people. When Huck?s mind can be so radically changed to such opposing ideas and morals, the reader sees these horrors plainly and knows Twain?s opposition to slavery is right.

By satirizing slavery and the prejudice placed against blacks in Huck's society, Twain takes a stance against these institutions. There are many situations throughout the novel that mock slavery in different ways. Miss Watson's telling Huck to "pray every day," (10) yet she owned a slave "named Jim" (4). Miss Watson is portrayed as a

In the forefront of the novel, Twain forces Huck to grow up under the supervision of Miss Watson, Widow Douglass's sister, a slave owning woman who was extremely religious and "[tried] to live so as to go to the good place."(Twain, 12) Miss Watson spent most of her time trying to educate Huck both religiously and academically, forcing him "to behave" and grow up a moral man. Twain challenges the reader to recognize the hypocrisy of slavery as he utilized Miss Watson as a metaphor for southern ignorance. Miss Watson, a woman whom many

Year after year The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is placed in the top ten banned books in America. People find the novel to be oppressing and racially insensitive due to its frequent use of the n-word and the portrayal of blacks as a Sambo caricature. However, this goes against Mark Twain’s intent of bringing awareness to the racism in America. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is classified under the genre of satire and is narrated by a fictional character named Huckleberry Finn. The novel takes place in the south during the year 1845. With his abusive father, and no mother, Huck is left feeling lonely, and as if he has place to call his home. So he decides to leave town, and on in his journey where he encounters a slave he’s familiar with, Jim, who is also running away. This story captures their relationship and growth as they face many obstacles on their way to freedom. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn satirizes people’s greed and violent behavior by mocking the stereotype of southern hospitality.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a coming of age novel set in the 1840’s in St. Petersburg, MO. Although written 20 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, America, especially in the south, was struggling with racism. The novel contains many thought provoking themes such as racism, social class, morals, and conforming to society’s expectations. Perhaps, one of the most important themes of the book is Huck’s refusal to conform to society’s rules or to be “Sivilized” by Widow Douglas. Throughout the novel Huck proves to the reader that staying true to himself rather than conforming to society’s expectations will allow him to live a more satisfied life.

Widow Douglas forces Huck into white society standards by making him wear new clothes, come when called, pray before dinner, and listen about Mosses after dinner (para. 3 and 4). Widow Douglas wants Huck to be “civilized” as she correlates being well-behaved with being able to enter heaven. She believes Huck not complying with her rules determines if Huck will being go to “the bad place” or heaven. The level of civilization and respectability is based off of religion. Because of Huck’s different beliefs and morals, Widow Douglas feels it is her responsibility to “civilize” him in order to change him into a polite, well-mannered individual. Freedom to Huck can be defined as liberation from the corrupt white society represented by Miss Watson's Home as illustrated in Mark Twain’s satirical novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Widow Douglas chooses to “civilize” Huck in which he responds by getting into his old clothing that makes him feel “free and satisfied” (para. 2). Huck views society standards as idiotic and senseless. He prefers defying society because of the freedom he gets to express his individuality. To Huck, his freedom is the equivalence to his happiness. When Huck is describing the woods, he personifies it to be someone who understands his and accepts him for who he really is (para. 8). Huck feels the most free when he is in the woods which is the antithesis of civilization and

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a novel full of racism and hypocrisy of the society that we know. Huck continually faces the many challenges of what to do in tough situations dealing with racism and what the society wants him to do. With the novel being written in the first person point of view gives us insightful information into the challenges the Huck is facing and gives us a look into Huck’s head. Huck uses many different techniques to deal with his problems and he gets through them with the end result always being what Huck believes is right. Through Huck’s perspective we see how he deals with all of the racism and hypocrisy of society to form him into the character that he is and to serve the themes of the

it got tiresome and lonesome. . . . I felt so lonesome I most wished I

The emphasis of hypocrisy in the novel manifests within the first chapter when the inherent hypocrisy of the Widow Douglass becomes apparent and through logos Huck unveiling the righteous mask that Miss Watson hides her hypocrisy in to the reader, by stating “Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn’t. She said it was a mean practice and wasn’t clean…They get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing about it. Here she was a-bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody…yet finding a power of fault with me for doing a thing that had some good in it. And she took snuff, too; of course that was all right, because she has done it herself.” (Pg. 2) The quotation very much explicates the hypocrisy Huck sees in the Widow Douglass chewing tobacco and not allowing him to smoke, the logic being they both utilize the same product, yet smoking is “dirty” and impure, but chewing tobacco somehow isn’t. This sentiment from the Widow Douglass displays how the Widow Douglass views herself as righteous (further seen in her reference to Moses), when in fact, she, by her own standards, suffers from the same contamination of impurity that she claims Huck accumulates by