Huck Finn Essay

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a satire written by Mark Twain. The novel is based on the series of adventures that the protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, and his companion a runaway slave named Jim go on. In the novel, the protagonist, Huck Finn's mind is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires.

In the beginning of the novel, Mark Twain shows his disdain for the blind faith of religion through Huck’s confusion. For example, when Huck states; “I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for,

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel written by Mark Twain, is an important literary work because of it's use of satire. It is a story written about a boy, Huck, in search of freedom and adventure. In the beginning of the story you learn what has happened since The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huck and Tom found a hidden treasure that was later invested for them. Huck was taken in by Mrs. Watson, who attempted to teach him religion and proper manners, but was taken away when his father returned. Pap, being a drunk and abusive father, imprisons Huck because he wants the money Huck has invested for him. Huck fakes his own death and hides out on Jackson's Island, where he discovers Jim, Mrs. Watson's former slave, is also hiding. Jim

     The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the greatest, most daring novels in the world. Mark Twain’s style helps to realistically portray early America. Mark Twain tells the story through the voice of Huck, the very kindhearted main character. Everything that Huck says reflects the racism and black stereotypes typical of the era. This has lead to many conflicts from readers since the novel was first printed. However, the story has inspired some. James W. Tuttleton says in an article he wrote that “Huck Finn is regularly denounced as racist trash” (The San Francisco Chronicle [1885] 6) . Yet, again to oppose that is a quote by a reader, “Anyone who is

“Next we slid into the river and had a swim, so as to freshen up and cool off; then we set down on the sandy bottom where the water was about knee deep and watched the daylight come.” (88) Huck prefers it to be just he and Jim on the raft. “So, in two seconds, away we went, a sliding down the river, and it did seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big river and nobody to bother us.” (154) So when Huck and Jim encounter two conmen, the “duke” and the “king” to accompany them on their adventures he is not pleased. Huck doesn’t agree with how the king and the duke earn their livings being frauds. When the men are putting on a Shakespearean show “Royal Nonesuch” in the small town of Bricksville a man named Boggs is shot and killed. Huck is repulsed by the reaction of the townspeople:

Mark Twain uses his novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to point out the flaws of society. Huck Finn meets a runaway slave, Jim, and together Twain uses them to walk the readers through a society that is based on slavery and dishonesty. There were many defects within the Southern society because of the conflict between christianity and slavery. Mark Twain uses Huck, Jim, and other characters as well as humor and satire to point out religious hypocrisy.

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.

Due to the topic of kings, dukes, and earls, Huck and Jim began to question why leaders, in general, are so insensitive towards their people. While expressing his opinion, Huck spoke how people in charge “…just set around. Except maybe when there’s a war. But other times they just lazy around…other times, when things get dull, they fuss with the parlyment; and if everybody don’t go just so he whacks their heads off” (Twain, 72). They live surrounded in wealth and power, and do nothing progressive for their nation. With this published after the Civil War, Twain used this passage

Mark Twain's use of satire within his novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is to promote his criticism of American society. Twain uses humor, irony, and excessive exaggeration as a way to criticize. In this case, Twain is taking serious issues in America and exaggerating them to make them easier to read about. Targeting these specific problems with irony is what Twain did best. Within the novel, Twain uses satire to show greed, family issues, and civilization within the American Society.

Huck Finn There are many themes in the story Huck Finn. These are main things found throughout Huck Finn. When the Dauphin and Duke take the money is an example of power of words. “This is because when they were talking to the Wilkes family they told the family that they were the brothers of Peter.

Huck went against everyone else's beliefs in order to help Jim which risked making him an outcast of society. This is shown when Huck says, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (Twain 207) after tearing up the letter he tore up. This is a good lesson for kids to learn in school to teach them good morals and show them that they do not have to follow some rules set by society that degrade other human beings. Additionally, it teaches that adults are not always right.

This innocence allows Twain to satirize religious sentimentality and superficiality with abandon. Miss Watson and Widow Douglas, Huck's unofficial guardians who try to "sivilize" him, teach Huck the concept of Christianity. The women emphasis prayer and Providence. Huck recalls, "She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it" (10). The literal minded young boy believes that he would receive anything he desires if he prays for it. This is made apparent when Huck states, "I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work" (11). Further attempts by the two women to explain prayer only leads to more confusion, making Twain's point that religious practices, in this case prayer, do not always make sense. To further this point, Twain includes Huck's confusion over Providence. Each of the women explains the concept of Providence differently, actually contradicting one another. Huck explains what he is taught by saying, "I judged I could see that there was two Providences." Thus, Twain criticizes religious philosophy by creating a scenario whereby the two women, and subsequently Huck, have two juxtapose interpretations of a religious concept. Twain conveys his message of how ridiculous it is for two or more people to have different interpretations of the same religious concept and still claim to practice the same

Twain uses colloquial diction to convey Huck’s struggle between the values of his southern upbringing, which urge him to return Jim, and his strong friendship and loyalty with Jim, which encourage him to protect the runaway. Although Huck lacks education, Huck interprets the laws in ways that are morally sound, an interpretation that most educated people fail to understand, while they blindly accept the injustice of slavery. Throughout the novel, Twain makes use of uneducated diction and syntax to convey an ironic contrast between Huck’s ability to discern between moral and immoral actions and his lack of education.

In chapter sixteen of Mark Twain’s, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck and Jim are floating on a raft, through a foggy night, in search of Cairo, Illinois. Fearing they had passed the town, Huck set off in a canoe to investigate with the secret intent to turn Jim in however, Huck changed his mind when he heard Jim spouting off that Huck was his friend and the only one to have kept his promise. In this scene, Twain uses satire to convey the struggle between doing what is expected by society or following your own conscience and morals.

Twains portrayal of both Huck and the King and the Duke helps to contribute to the enduring value of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as they help deal with societal problems that face all societies around the world. Twain is not only a novel writer but also a social critic, this persona comes out throughout the novel. This persona is seen as Twain criticizes the constrictiveness and corruption of society.. These are presented respectively through the characters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which are Huck and Pap. Twain judgment of his society reflects the contextual influences on him during pre-civil war and post-civil war