Journal 1 Although Mark Twain, in his introductory “notice” to the novel, denies there is a moral

This passage highlights Twain’s use of satire. On the surface, it could easily be interpreted as dehumanizing and bigoted, but Twain only uses it to reveal the cold truths of white attitudes in the 1800’s. It also presents the fact that Aunt Polly, one of the simplest and gentlest characters in the book, does not think twice about the violent death of a black person. While disguised as racism, Twain cleverly breaks down white-black relations to the inanities of prejudice.

One of the ways Twain exposes the folly of the negative attitudes toward blacks is through describing the whites' cruel and pointless acts of hatred directed toward Jim. The least severe of the cruel acts toward Jim is that whites often ridicule him. Another dehumanizing act is when Jim is made to hide his face in the daytime. The most foolish and ignorant idea of the whites, however, is when Silas Phelps locked up Jim. Another demonstration of the whites' folly is when Pap, Huck's father, violently objects to the granting of suffrage to a black man. Pap does not take into consideration that this man is an educated professor; he believes that he is superior to this black man simply because of the color of his skin. In actuality, however, Pap is an uneducated drunk. This adds to the irony of the white's actions.

These paragraphs mention a couple of immoral aspects of Twain’s life. When he buries his grandmother under the grapevine, he justifies his reasoning through common sense. “The vine needed fertilizing, my aunt had to be buried, and I dedicated her to this high purpose.” This justification is ironic because his deceased grandmother is providing life for the vines. He also refers to the Constitution in support of his actions. “Does that unfit me for the President? The Constitution of our country does not say so.” Irony also occurs when Twain admits that he dislikes the poor. “I regard the poor man, in his present condition, as so much wasted raw material.” This statement is ironic because the office of the presidency swears on oath to support and serve the entire population of the United States. Because of this, the ironies placed in these two paragraphs further bring out the humor of this

Lester is offended by the parallel that Twain draws between Huck’s imprisonment at the hands of an abusive father and the actual institution of slavery that binds Jim.  By drawing this comparison, he argues that Twain is applying a veneer to obscure the horrors of slavery and therefore evading responsibility and remorse for the crime.  The legal ownership of human beings is not in the same ballpark as child abuse and by placing them side-by-side, Twain shows that he doesn’t take slavery or black people seriously.

Huck not only realizes that Jim is a human being, but he also comes to terms with the fact that Jim is a good person, and has an extremely good heart.

Even though the book shows immaturity I think the audience it's intended for is old enough to not be influenced by bad behavior in a book. This leads me into my next point The strength of writing of Mark Twain. Mark Twain’s writing is very unique because of the way he studies the background of the people the books are about. One of the best features of the book is the way Mark Twain uses dialect. "No! W'y, what has you lived on? But you got a gun. Oh, yes, you got a gun. Dat's good. Now you kill sumfn en I'll make up de fire." (Twain). As you can see in the quotes Mark Twain has a magical way of writing and giving an accurate picture of how it was in the mid 1800s.

In Mark Twain 's satirical essay, “The Damned Human Race,” Twain critiques human beings by declaring that “The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.” The motif of cowardice and the cruelty of humanity is also present in another one of Twain’s most famous works: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Throughout this novel, Twain passionately decries the immorality and corruption of society through the employment of rhetoric and themes. He utilizes irony to draw attention to the hypocrisy and self-righteousness of many Christians and the detrimental effects this hypocrisy can have on society. He implements pathos to highlight the greed and

Those with the power to speak remained silent--as complacent in the oppression of African Americans as the slave-drivers of years past. The vices of such a society were candidly ignored; indeed, struggling for the rights of others seemed futile. Direct action was social (and, where lynchings were quietly ignored by the law, literal) suicide, yet writers like Mark Twain took to the pen to spread their messages for equality and criticisms on society. Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a fictional tale of a young boy’s adventure. However, this innocuous veneer, much like the Gilded Age itself, hides a deeper, darker theme of the pitfalls of modern society, presented in a mockingly lighthearted, sarcastic tone. As Huckleberry Finn matures throughout his journey, his idealization of what it means to be ‘sivilized’ is battered and broken down into a far more cynical view, revealing Twain’s own criticisms of

Mark Twain satires society and portrays it as being uncivilized with drunkenness (Nyirubugara). As mentioned in the beginning of the novel, Pap is the first person introduced as being a drunk. Pap did not like the fact that Huck was becoming smarter than him and when he regained custody of Huck he made sure that Huck stopped going to school. Since Huck was no longer in school, he spent most of his days protecting himself from his drunken father’s abuse, so once he ran away it was not hard for him to shift into adulthood.

Smiley has missed the point of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and has depressed the book to a fractions of its ideas. She sees the book as a failed social commentary on racism and enabling the reader to avoid responsibility. A Short sighted sentiment from Mrs. Smiley, but Mark Twain has a light directed elsewhere. He lights out the territory of social improvements by vexing the reader to view from different vantage points.

Huck always disliked Miss Watson, but now that this society voice plays a part in Huck?s judgment his views are changed. This society views allows Huck to see Jim, a friend, only as a slave and Miss Watson, almost a foe in his young views, as a dear friend. Twain is showing the reader the gross injustices of slavery in this little incident, as well as his moral opposition to slavery. Twain wants the reader to see how slavery ideology changed people, even those who didn?t understand it fully. Twain wants the reader to see how unfair slavery was in how it could even change Huck?s thinking, whom the reader had never before seen voice ill conceptions about black people. When Huck?s mind can be so radically changed to such opposing ideas and morals, the reader sees these horrors plainly and knows Twain?s opposition to slavery is right.

In the fictional novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the reader sees how society can change people but also how it can shape people and how it can sometimes turn out for the best. In the book,

In this essay, Julius Lester talks about the morality of the story itself. Lester talks about how Twain wants the readers to believe certain things that are not credible or with emotions related to fiction stories. Lester mentions how the readers think that Twain is including into his story some sort of a connection between Tom and Jim, when Tom decides to help Huck to free Jim from slavery, but is not what it

This can be clearly shown when Jim gets bit by a snake after Huck makes the mistake of not getting a rid the one that he killed. “Then I slid out quiet and throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for I warn’t going to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it” (40). When he says this he is beginning to it sort out in his head that it was his fault that Jim had gotten bitten by the snake and that he feels bad about it. Although he feels bad about it at the same time he is also doing it so that Jim doesn’t get mad or upset with him. This shows an improvement in his sense of morality for Huck while he is with Jim. When with Jim he starts to see that he isn't that different from him and that he should be nicer to Jim. Another good example of this is when Huck learns that people are heading over to the island to search for him and Jim and he took the chance to go back and get Jim when he knew people were on their way. He easily could have just left but after spending time with Jim and seeing him as a friend he goes back to get him. “Git up and hump yourself, Jim! There ain’t a moment to lose. They’re after us!” (47) This shows a big moral leap with Huck as he could have left Jim to fend for himself when he had his own boat and could easily have fled and escaped. As a friend of JIm you see him feel for someone who isn't the same race which is unheard of and looked down upon at this time. This varies vary much from earlier

To fully understand the themes within Mark Twain’s novels we all must first understand his upbringing, where he was born, where he was raised, and what was going on within the era of his life. Samuel