Huckleberry Finn Satire

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.

The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain and published on December 10, 1884. This picaresque novel takes place in the mid-1800s in St. Petersburg, Missouri and various locations along the Mississippi River through Arkansas as the story continues. The main character is young delinquent boy named Huckleberry Finn. He doesn’t have a mother and his father is a drunk who is very rarely involved with Huck’s life. Huck is currently living with Widow Douglas and Miss Watson who attempt to make the boy a more civilized and representable citizen. Later Huck runs away and meets this runaway slave named Jim and they become good friends. As Jim and Huck travel down river in their raft they experience many conflicts.

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

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.

In Mark Twain`s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn chapter 5, Twain demonstrates satire through Pap`s return. For instance, when Pap sees Huck he says “Starchy clothes- very. You think you’re a good deal of a big bug don’t you?’ which demonstrates Pap`s hypocrisy through ironic language. This is exemplified by Pap judgment on Huck`s “new” way of dressing which leads him to believe that Huck is becoming better than him. Even though, that most parents would want the best for their kids, pap finds this as a bad thing, almost as a disgrace. Another example is when pap also says “you think you`re better than your father, now don’t you, because he can`t [read]?’ which demonstrates Pap`s disbelief in needing an education if it means that Huck will become better than his father (14). Whereas, parents now stress about needing an education in order to be successful.

Mark Twain purposely had satire put is his book “Huck Finn”, to show all the faults society has at this time. Mark Twain has satire, mostly on about human greed and violence. He shows this by everyday human interaction and people do to others. Also, people can be selfish because they scammed or something bad happened. They had to let others be affected to because they wanted them to suffer too. Satire in “Huck Finn” was meant to show the faults of society during this and how people can be selfish and really violent.

Satire is a literary technique that uses humor to emphasize a certain point, usually by over exaggerating its flaws. It is extremely effective because it approaches the topic in a seemingly light hearted manner, but portrays a deeper, more powerful message when thoroughly understood. In today’s culture, the media is flooded with various types of satire, irony, and sarcasm that efficiently conveys their ideas. For example, there are many political cartoons today of President Donald Trump. Pictures may over exaggerate certain features such as his bright yellow hair and orange-ish facial color in order to criticize him and express their disapproval.

In the novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain uses irony, sarcasm, and satire to show that slavery and racial discrimination are morally wrong and that people shouldn’t be treated differently because of their ethnicity and race. Twain’s use of irony and ridicule exposes and criticizes the society’s viewpoints of what is right and wrong in contrast of Huck’s conscience and his experience on the journey with Jim to come to find what he believes is right or wrong. While writing the novel, Twain was living in a society where racial tensions and discrimination had a great impact during these times. Twain illustrates the stupidity of slavery and racial discrimination by mocking many different aspects of the society in which Huck grew up in. Throughout Huck’s and Jim’s adventurous journey down the river,

Satire is a rhetorical device which uses literature to integrate irony, humor, and ridicule to denounce others’ vices. When one reads a piece of writing by Mark Twain, he prepares himself for a satirical masterpiece. Twain’s essays, novels and stories provoke reverse meanings and quirky banter. In one of Twain’s famous works The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain scoffs the state-of-mind held by Americans during his time period by using both Horatian and Juvenalian satire.

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.

Satire is the use of humor to talk about issues in the world. For example, Saturday Night Live uses satire all of the time. The show has recently made fun of the presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Satire is also used in books, movies, television, etc. One of the most common books with the use of satire is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. In the classic novel, Twain satirizes many topics such as racism, greed, and religion. Religious satire is one of the most common issues that is satirized throughout the novel. Talladega Knights, a movie staring Will Ferrell, also satirizes religion. Without the use of satire, entertainment today would not be near as funny.

The famous American writer, Mark Twain, in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, writes about the racism that infected society in the 1800s. The story is about a young boy, named Huck Finn, who meets a black slave named Jim and embarks on an adventure to free Jim. Twain writes this book after slavery was abolished to ridicule racism and unveil the frivolous idea of slavery. He writes to the many people who condescend blacks and continue to look down on them. Throughout the novel, Twain satirizes the idea of racism by using hyperbole, ignorance found in society, and irony in order to cause the reader to reflect on human's vices.

Throughout the novel, the author Mark Twain utilizes many literary devices to emphasize aspects of society. His use of satire is most often used to effectively mock society and criticize their flaws. Satire is a technique used by authors to make the readers take awareness to society’s social flaws and criticize the society mostly through irony and sarcasm. Mark Twain effectively uses satire to bring attention to the flaws of the society around the main character, Huckleberry Finn by making use of his nature as a young boy who does not completely understand his own society. Through his innocent and partially unbiased eyes, Mark Twain surfaces the reality of the Pre-Civil War era in the southern United States as well as society in general.

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a book written by Mark Twain, which is a sequel to “Tom Sawyer”. Most readers will find themselves laughing at different scenes from the book. It is autobiographic of a young boy in adventures along the Mississippi River. Tom Sawyer appears in this book again, but the scenes and characters are different. Everything is seen through Huck’s eyes.