Humor In Huck Finn

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.

1. What is the issue Twain is satirizing? Mark Twain is satirizing the advice young people are given by authoritative figures on different issues in life. The words of wisdom used to guide youth usually promote the same ideals and are repeated so often that in some sense they lose their strength. That does not mean though that the issues they touch upon are not important. Twain uses humor to actually make young people go beyond the banality and conformity and ask questions of importance.

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

In 1907 Bernard Shaw remarked to Archibald Henderson that, "Mark Twain and I find ourselves in the same position. We have to make people, who would otherwise hang us, believe that we are joking (Clemens 5)." This point is well illustrated by the fearless Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn included one of literature's most famous techniques, satire. Satire is the use of irony, humor and exaggeration to criticize and show the foolishness in

In "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Mark Twain uses satire to mock many different aspects of the modern world. Throughout his trip down the Mississippi, and even prior to leaving St. Petersburg, Huck encounters a variety of people and situations that are designed to scoff at the American people. Twain employs satire in order to criticize human behavior in society, demonstrating societal hypocrisy and just how easily people conform to mob mentality.

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.

Romanticism is defined as ¨a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.¨ In the novel,The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain mock romanticism to show the reader the hysterical view of society and civilization from

Normal people in today’s society are not overjoyed about stepping out of their comfort zone. Most people like to do things that are most familiar to that person. An ordinary person would give excuses to why they are not adventurous, such as not having enough time, being scared, or not being in the best financial situation. In Mark Twain’s, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn displays a wide range of personality traits such as being smart, creative, and wild that develops the theme of the power of stepping out of one’s comfort zone.

In many books, the author will use literary devices to enhance their writing. Literary works are used to bring out the author’s ideas in a creative, meaningful way. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, he uses satire and symbolism to express that his motivation for writing

Mark Twain uses humor to show all that is wrong with society in many different ways. Humor is mostly shown through hypocrisy in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” which is conveyed through the people in Huck’s life. Twain uses wit and humor to show what needs to be reformed in society.

Taking it place in the first years of the 1800s, the book was actually written in the late 1800s, the last quarter of the nineteenth century. During this time, great prosperity emerged in the America, this was a time of wealth to many people as they were becoming richer and

Mark Twain was a very honest man. In the writing piece written by Mark Twain, titled, “Unconscious Plagiarism”, it says, “Perhaps I unconsciously stole the rest of the volume, too, for many people have told me that my book was pretty poetical one way or another. Well, of course, I wrote Doctor Holmes and told him I hadn’t meant to steal and he wrote back and said in the kindest way that it was all right and no harm done; and added that he believed we all unconsciously worked over ideas gathered in reading and hearing, imagining they were original with ourselves.” This was written because Mark Twain wrote something and a man told him that it was very similar to someone else's writing. The man showed him proof of it and Mark Twain realized that he had read poems written by another man before he had begun writing and accidentally stole this man’s way of writing without realizing it. But after he realized this, he owned up to it and apologized for it. There are many examples but this is just one of the many that show you that Mark Twain was a very truthful person.

NUMBER 1: MARK TWAIN Mark Twain is a very intelligent man, and he has also proven in the past to be a witty person. A few quotes prove this, and the first was when he said he didn't attend a funeral, but instead sent a letter of approval! Then, he topped this one and said he would never learn to like a

Mark Twain’s writing gives the impression that he follows an unexplored and uncharted path. While writing for newspapers, he exposed himself as an inventor and he actually patented three inventions. While he visited places to deliver his lectures he was celebrated for his fine and exceptional sense of humour. At times his speeches and writings bear the mark of satire about the mentality and behaviour of people in the United States of America. Satire is a tool for making remarks about absurdities of the society is a casual and mocking way.