How Does Mark Twain Use Satire In Huck Finn

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.

Animal Farm, a well-known novel by George Orwell uses satire to mock communism. Another popular work that uses this approach is Huck finn. Throughout the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain uses satire to mock the church. Instances of his satire include the letter and the church service he attends.

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been controversial ever since its release in 1884. It has been called everything from the root of modern American literature to a piece of racist trash. Many scholars have argued about Huck Finn being prejudiced. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses satire to mock many different aspects of the modern world. Despite the fact that many critics have accused Mark Twain’s novel of promoting racism, through close analysis of the text, it becomes remarkably clear that Twain is satirical in his writing as he ridicules slavery and the racist attitudes prevalent in his day.

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.

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

In Chapters 3-6 in the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Fin, Huck uses satire to seem smart, to be funny, and cover up how hard is life is in society. An example of this satire frequently used throughout these chapters is the quote “Well, I got a good going-over in the morning from old Miss Watson on account of my clothes; but the widow she didn’t scold, but only cleaned off the grease and the clay, and looked so sorry I thought I would behave a while if I could,” (Twain 10). This quote not only shows how most people were magnates, but still cared about appearance, that Huck has a satire relationship with the widow. Although satire is used in more obvious ways than this, this is a good “secret” satire quote because it shows their playful relationship and the irony Huck gets from her.

'So you've been gone a couple days,' Alison said. 'Hmm, what'd you miss...A celebrity did drugs. Politicians disagreed. A different celebrity wore a bikini that revealed a bodily imperfection. A team won a sporting event, but another team lost.' I smiled. 'You can't go disappearing on everybody like this, Hazel. You miss too much.'" ~John Green. John Green is criticizing how Americans only care about irrelevant events going on in the world. Americans would choose to hear the latest celebrity gossip, over an event that affected the world. John Green is comparable to Mark Twain, whom also is a big critic of American society. Mark Twain used humor to make fun of family feuds, hypocrisy among religion, and the gullibility of people to fall for a prank. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain used satire to his advantage and humiliated many aspects of American society.

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.

Jordan Barnard AP L&C Muck on Huck Huck Finn is a classic piece of literature that thrives for a use of satire to vividly open the readers to problems and issues that surround the period. The 1800’s were a controversial period that contained many issues breaking out. Satire was used for many complex topics but one issue that was attacking addressed by satire thoroughly through the novel was religion even though ironically Mark Twain was religious. When progressing through the novel the comical way religion was attacked through the use of irony and hypocritical aspects can be seen.

The novel Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain is a story set before the civil war where slavery was prevalent. Huck, a boy who doesn't like living between the confines of civilization, prefers to have his feet in the mud rather than being educated and follow societal rules. Huck is living with Miss Watson, a widowed slave owner, who is trying to civilize Huck. One day Huck's father Pap, who is an abusive drunk takes Huck from Miss Watson because Huck has a fortune from discovering where bank robbers buried their gold. Huck fakes his death and escapes to Jackson's island where he attempts to live by himself.

Lord Byron once said, "Fools are my theme, let satire be my song." Mark Twain definitely lived by this quote when writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Satire is a way of humoring and criticizing people's views on certain topics. Mark Twain used this technique immensely throughout the American classic. Having satire included in this novel created a different spin on the whole story.

Morally speaking, the slave Jim has the most well equipped “tool belt” of moral standards for the treatment of children and human beings in general. Over the course of the book, Jim and white society are juxtaposed, exposing the corruption of societal views and beliefs during this time period via satire. Along with society’s views, Huck also struggles with his perception of racism and slavery in the 1850s. Written in 1885, by Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has continued to be a pressing issue in both libraries and schools. Over the years, it has been accused of being racist over the use of “nigger”, due to over 200 instances of the word.

Throughout the novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the author, Mark Twain cleverly illustrates specific scenes that satirize and mock the townspeople of St. Petersburg, Missouri. The story is set in the mid 1800s in a small Missouri town by the name of St. Petersburg. The residents of this town are mostly all lower and middle class folks who tend to be very superstitious and naive, which is often why they are satirized by the author. The meaning of satire is mockery, criticism, or parody. This idea is applied to the townspeople through their approaches to the murder of Dr. Robinson and the visit of Judge Thatcher, two very significant characters in this novel.

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by definition, is a social satire. Through the perspective of a runaway named Huck Finn, Twain brings to light the controversial topics of his time and offers some personal outlook into those matters through use of symbolism and imagery. For some examples, he expresses his abolitionist attitude towards through the friendship between Huck Finn and a runaway slave named Jim, and the ridiculousness of societal expectations through Huck’s own refusal to conform to societal expectations. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain illustrates his societal views by exposing Huck Finn to situations that paralleled controversial events of his time.