Examples Of Satire In Huckleberry Finn

In chapters 1-4 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain's characters tend to get worked up over the silliest of superstitions. In the second chapter, when Huck accidentally flicks a spider into a flame, he, “Was so scared and most shook the clothes off [him]” (Twain 3). He counters the burden that the dead spider will bring by performing plenty of even more odd acts like turning around while crossing his breast and tying up a lock of his hair to ward off the witches. Huck is still anxious because he hadn't been told that any of those counter charms were good for removing the penance of killing a spider. Most superstitions throughout these chapters stem from one person telling another of an

satire. Satire is the use of irony, humor and exaggeration to criticize and show the foolishness in

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.

Provide supporting evidence from the texts to support your responses to these questions. All answers should be in the form of complete sentences.

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a book about a boy who travels down the river with a runaway slave. Twain uses these two characters to poke fun at society. They go through many trials, tribulations, and tests of their friendship and loyalty. Huck Finn, the protagonist, uses his instinct to get himself and his slave friend Jim through many a pickle. In the book, there are examples of civilized, primitive, and natural man.

Devices like mockery, irony, parody, and sarcasm make the use of satire effective . Satirists typically use these devices when hoping to expose, or even humiliate an individual or a society. Writers also use satire when creating social change as well as preventing it. Well known satirists include Mark Twain, Jonathan swift, and many other extarident authors. Every satirists uses different methods or devices to get their point across and effectively at that . Satirists use many different methods and devices like mockery, mock-heroic, and others to use satire effectively and gain an audience's attention.

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.

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.

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.

Religion is one of the most constant targets of Twain's satirical pen. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain portrays contemporary religion as shallow and hypocritical. He criticizes the hypocrisy of conventional religion by comparing it with the true religion of Huck.

A satire, by definition, is a way of using humor that shows the weakness or bad qualities of person, government, or society (Merriam-Webster). Satires are used in everyday life to make fun of someone or a society. We see it used in newspapers, magazines, and on television shows. This element is used in literature, as well. Many authors have used this element in their books, such as Mark Twain in his classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Additionally, One of the most significant satires used in Huckleberry Finn was slavery. The novel is set somewhere around The Civil Era when slavery was very prominent. Jim one of the main characters was a slave who eventually became free. “And it was the niggers- I just expected (Twain 180(.” Twain demonstrates how unfair slavery is by using this quote. Twain demonstrates how slaves were treated poorly and used as scapegoats for things they didn’t do. “Well I Reckon! There’s two hundred dollars reward on him. It’s like picking up money out’n the road (Twain 202).” Twain shows how people will do anything for money. People at the time saw slaves as money instead of actual people. People treated slaves like property as if they didn’t have any rights.

What techniques does Twain use to create satire in the description you selected? Provide supporting evidence from the text.

One writing that Mark Twain is not as famous for, but is still a well known piece of work for showing the use of humor in his writings is, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. This work starts off slow without much humor until later on in the writing. The humor picks up as Twain includes bits of sarcasm to the mix. The humor in this short work is not so hidden or subtle as it may have been in some of Twain’s other writings. One example of this sort of dry humor is, “And Smiley says, sorter indifferent like, ‘It might be a parrot, or it might be a canary, may be, but it an't it's only just a frog.’” (Jumping Frog). This shows a side and type of writing that is not usually seen with Twain. Usually the humor in his writings was always sort of hidden away and harder to pick out, but in this work, it is more obvious that he is trying to make it humorous. “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” may not be as widely known as some of Twain’s other work, but it is a good example of how he includes humor into his writings to catch the reader’s attention and to provide some comic relief from, at times, tense situations.

Another type of humor Twain uses is parody which is portrayed by the character Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer bases his whole life and actions on books and makes simple matters over complicated. An example of this is when he creates an oath for his gang of robbers. It states, “Everybody said it was a really beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got it out of his own head. He said, some of it,