Huckleberry Finn Satire Analysis

Throughout the novel, Twain shows his contempt for corrupt human nature. Although these instances are often satirized and exaggerated, the message is still the same. For instance, when the King and the Duke first start to lie about being the dead Peter Wilks’ brothers to obtain his money, Huck says, “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race,” (191). In this instance Twain is utilizing Huck to show his aversion to the way people lie and cheat, and how a couple of people can make a bad name for all of us. Another example is when Jim sells the King and Duke out to the townspeople and they are carried on a pole, tarred and feathered. Although Huck, has tried to escape the King and Dukes several occasions and has witnessed the cruelties put on others and lies they tell, he does not think that they deserve similar treatment. In fact, he says, “Human beings can be awful cruel to one another,” (269). Through Huck, Twain is voicing his opposition to how people treat one another, whether they deserve it or not. Thus Twain is using his novel to voice his enmity for the cruelty in human nature.

Twain showed to the reader that people of all classes at the time were very ignorant and gullible, through what things appear to be and what they really are. Twain shows people’s gullibility when Huck arrives at the grangerfords. As Huck first walked through the house he described it by saying things like “This table had a cover made out of beautiful oilcloth, with red and blue spread-eagle painted on it” (100) and “They had pictures hung on the walls… they was different from any pictures I ever see before.” (101). Huck seemed to be amazed by all the things

Moreover, Twain thinks not telling the truth can be dangerous and can also put one lives in danger. After Jim and Huck had been separated, Huck meet the Grangerford family who are in a fight with the Shepherdsons. One day, Buck tries to shoot a young man named Harney Shepherdson but misses. Huck asks why Buck wanted to kill Harney, and Buck explains that the Grangerfords are in a feud with a neighboring clan of families, the Shepherdsons. Miss Sophia run away and later the Grangerford’s family was killed. Huck feels guilty for not telling the family how Miss Sophia had sent him into the church to bring the bible which contained the writing. “I juged l ought to told her father about that paper and the curious way she acted, and then maybe

It is hard to fathom how such a serious lesson can be taught by using satire. Somehow Mark Twain accomplishes this through his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The main characters in the novel are a runaway boy named Huckleberry Finn and a runaway slave named Jim. In the story, Huckleberry Finn is mostly referred to as “Huck.” The story is about Huck, a boy who fakes his own death and runs away from home because of an abusive father. To escape his father, he floats down the Mississippi River. Shortly after starting his voyage, he picks up Jim, the runaway slave. The two experience many trials throughout their journey. As Huck slowly distinguishes between right and wrong, he is faced

In Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Twain uses satire to criticize many aspects of American society. His first use of satire may be overlooked by many. Twain's decision to set the novel in a time where slavery was allowed, despite the book being published in 1959, is one of his ways of making fun of American society. This detail mocks how little progress the United States made with civil rights in the century. Twain continues to mock ideals such as religion, family feuds, and greed, all of which were engrained in American society during his life time.

Samuel Clemens ( Mark Twain is his pen name) witnessed the oppression of the black people while living in Missouri. He Sa how they were sold as slaves and how they were deprived of their human rights. This encouraged him to write the 43-chaptered novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." This picaresque novel narrates the adventures and misadventures of Huck, who had experienced cruelty on the hands of the society's big bosses.

He says that, “as they swum down the current the men along the bank shooting them and singing out, “Kill them, kill them!” It made me so sick I most fell out the tree. I ain't a-going to tell all that happened … I wish I hand't ever come ashore that night to see such things” (112). As Huck recalls on his serene life on the river, he comes to conclusion that on land, hypocrisy and contradicting worlds go hand in hand. Families, such as the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons, exert confidence and represent dignity, but they contradict their very words by handing their

On their adventure, the pair happen upon two ragged con men who quickly flee from the town and join Huckleberry and Tom on their raft journey. The two con men introduce themselves as an English duke and the dauphin of King Louis XVI of France. Huckleberry immediately realizes that the two are con men, but is unable to accuse them of so because of his position as a child and Jim being a runaway slave. Huckleberry recalls that his father had told him the most practical way to deal with those kinds of people was to allow them to do as the please (212). The two are then subjected to the pseudo-royals’ whims and are involuntary forced to go along with their profitmaking exploits. Their antics are often borderline legal if not completely illegal, which include deceiving the innocent people. By allowing the two do as they please as Huckleberry feigns ignorance of their illegal activities, the author demonstrates another flaw of society through the use of satire. The two con men who claim to be royalty represent the corrupted aristocracy who often kept the commoners ignorant of their true intentions as well as keeping them unaware and oblivious to take advantage of them. During the event involving the Wilks’ family, the two repeatedly deceive the family of being the relative of a dead family member for their money, continuously

Thus, Twain mocks the “civilized” society as the supposed proper people are catalysts for the violence and disorder of the time period. Huckleberry Finn is first introduced as a young innocent boy who is unhappy with his current living conditions. He finds it “rough living in the house all the time” (Twain 1) with the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson as they strive to civilize Huck. He is a” poor lost lamb” to them, in need of an intervention (Twain 1).Through the sisters, Twain implements satire to exemplify the hypocrisy of aristocrats. Although, Miss Watson gives off the illusion that she is self-righteous; that is all a façade as it becomes ever apparent that she too is filled with flaws.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, was an American writer, entrepreneur, and publisher. He was an adventurer with a quick witted attitude and an ambitious use of the pen. His childhood and adolescence came to shape two of the most iconic and influential stories. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The basis of all American Literature came from those two books.

Mark Twain’s famous book, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is very allegorical, and Twain often used the story to address problems he saw in society; the author usually critiqued racial, religious, or cultural issues. The feud between the Grangerford and Shepherdson families is used as a device to portray the lack of morals in the “Sivilized” society. Huck describes the Grangerford family as not just civilized, but also very high in class. When Huck, under the alias of George Jackson, entered the Grangerford home, he quickly began to notice how lavish it was. Huck described everything from the fancy door knob to the nice fireplace, the clock, art, and all the food on the table. The family had many slaves as well, and Huck described how pleasant

After Huck escapes and finds Jim, they take a raft along the Mississippi River. This river symbolizes freedom, as well as an escape from the civilized world. The moment Huck steps back onto dry land, that is where civilization restarts, and more importantly, the place where Twain uses satire the most. One time, Huck is taken in the the Grangerford family, who happen to have children who passed away. Slowly, Huck begins to learn that the Grangerfords are in a feud with another family, the Shepherdsons, and it is a violent one where they kill each other, yet no one knows the reason why: “Oh, yes, pa

Twain uses satire to exhibit the blatant stupidity that occurs countless times throughout the novel. To begin, Huck Finn’s father, Pap attempts to gain full custody of his son. Huck recounts this sorrowful reality, “He said courts mustn’t interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he’d druther not take a child away from its father… That pleased the old man till he couldn’t rest. He said he’d cowhide me till I was black and blue if I didn’t raise some money for him” (21). The judge mistakenly decides to grant custody to an alcoholic and abusive and irresponsible (polysyndeton) father for the sole reason of “not wanting to split up families”. He even goes as far as to try to mend Pap and his immoral ways. He naively believes that Pap can change and become a better person, all while risking a young boy's life. This, of course, does not end up happening. Luckily, Huck escaped this treacherous life. It was never too soon; it was never too late (antithesis). This

Mark Twain is known for his use of satire. In the classic novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain satirizes many aspects of 20th century American life that and brings light to sensitive subjects including race and religion. Twain evaluates the world, the way it works, what people believe, and how they act, particularly about religion and race, to make a comical point to reader and possibly change their outlook.

A picaresque, derived from the Spanish word “picaro,” meaning rogue or rascal, is a genre of realist fiction which depicts the first-hand, episodic and nomadic adventures of a misfit hero from a low social class. This genre also uses satire to critique societal morals. Yet, within these novels, the picaro is a pragmatist hero who matures little or no by the end of the story despite often being forced to choose between integrity and survival (Merriam-Webster).