preview

Mark Twain Satire Analysis

Good Essays

Mark Twain's Satire
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name, Mark Twain, was a renowned writer and humorist in American literature. Twains most famous and well known pieces are The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Throughout most of Twains writings he primarily used a form of humor known as satire. The definition of this literary device used by Twain is “The use of humorous exaggeration and irony to expose people's failings and stupidity” (Satire, 2017). Usually, humor plays a role in making people laugh, which makes it easier to break the ice and for satirical writing to reach its targets. “To make it more effective to change society, Mark Twain used satire, which is a literary manner of denouncing, criticizing and laughing at the foibles, crimes or vices of a person or society, with the aim of correcting them” (Mark Twain Satirical Approach, 2017). Mark Twain used his satirical writing style to convey, criticize, and poke fun at the flaws in society prevalent at the time.
Born the sixth child in the Clemens family, Samuel was born on November 30, 1835 in Missouri. During the time period of Samuels birth, Missouri was considered a fairly new state. The Clemens family resided on the banks of the Mississippi River which later on became an ironic setting throughout many of Twains books. The Mississippi River is one of the longest Rivers in the United States and the fourth largest river in the world. “What has made the Mississippi

Get Access