Mob Mentality in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

While many Romantic authors elevate their childhoods to idealistic terms of good or bad, Twain walks the line between Romanticism and Realism. After romantically heralding the position of a steamboatman in Old Times on the Mississippi, a young Mark Twain realizes and expresses his new belief on the unfairness of life because of his recent knowledge about the rise of an ungodly boy to the position of a steamboatman. Twain writes, "This thing shook the bottom out of all my Sunday-school teachings" (275). Instead of glossing over his young self's questioning nature, Twain acknowledges the ability to question the authority of the church, even if it is based on jealousy. Similar in honesty and naivete to the young Twain is the forthright Huckleberry Finn. He will not accept society's conventions about both religion and history, and he denounces the Widow Douglass' story about "Moses and the Bulrushers." Huck states, "so then I didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in dead people" (26). Huck ceaselessly disdains efforts to civilize him, but the Widow Douglass continues to try to change him. After Huck first learns about Hell from the Widow Douglass, his earnest initial response is memorable. Huck covertly thinks, "Well, I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going, so I

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

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

He also sees how hypocritical they truly are, and, it can be inferred that, Twain wanted them to represent society in the novel. Huck thinks their way of living was ineffective, and that is why he used to sneak out in the middle if the night, skip school, and smoke his pipe. It was difficult for Huck to adjust from an unstructured home, with no training, raised by an alcoholic and abusive father, to two strict, cookie-cutter women in a house with plenty of rules and regulations. After earning a large amount of money as a reward, with his best friend, Tom Sawyer, Huck's abusive alcoholic father, who he calls Pap, comes back to steal his money by kidnapping him, and while Huck is with his father he says, "I didn't see how I ever got to like it so well at the Widow's, where you had to wash, and eat in a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever bothering over a book and have old Miss Watson peeking at you all the time" (Twain p. 37). Huck's view on society is one of dissatisfaction and rebellion, as his opinions reveal how imperfect, and unjust society's rules actually are. Especially after hearing that his behavior will determine whether or not he will go to Heaven or Hell scares him a little bit, because he wasn’t taught right from wrong his entire life up until this point. After this Huck's thoughts are, how can a man not be punished by law (his father), for abusing him, but Huck can be reprimanded for harmless things like

Twain 's use of satire is one of the many things that makes this book a classic. By pointing out human weakness Twain helps show flaws in society and how society can be wrong. This book serves as a lesson about forming your own opinions and in Huck’s cause it is about breaking from society’s morals and deciding that slavery isn’t wrong. Huck 's experiences with Jim, helping him escape slavery illustrate this. Huck sees how people can be cruel even when they claim to be civilized. “”Twain 's satirical attack on slavery, hypocrisy, and prejudice in antebellum America compels readers to look not only at slavery and racism, but also at the whole tradition of American democracy””(PBS). Twain satirises the people Jim and Huck meet and the society they are in. Huck and Jim must oppose the “respectable” people they meet along the Mississippi, Miss Watson, Pap, the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, and the Duke and King(Nichols 13) because they don’t agree there ideas and they would take Jim back into slavery. How Miss Watson can be a

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain explores many complex issues such as humanity, being civilized, and morality. This quote that is stated above by Colonel Sherburn is a huge turning point in the novel even though this character is only in this novel for one chapter the speech that he gave changes everything. In this speech that Colonel

Twain uses this sense of satire to illustrate that even Miss Watson, a “good Christian woman” is still morally wrong by discriminating people by race and ethnicity.

Throughout the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn there are many social institutions Mark Twain has a laugh at. Twain brings a certain light to otherwise dark topics in American history. The novel uses satire to address mob mentality, religion, and family.

In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the young protagonist Huckleberry Finn runs away from his abusive father with Jim, a black slave. Throughout the novel, Huck encounters people that fail to understand the injustice of slavery and violence, despite their education. Although Huck lacks any substantial education, his moral values and judgment are highly developed. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses uneducated, colloquial diction and deliberate syntax to provide ironic contrast between Huck’s rudimentary level of education and profound use of moral judgment.

Yet, because of Huck’s blind submission to the group by entering the cave, Twain satirizes about society’s flawed instinct to conform. Thus, he urges people to believe in themselves.

Twain uses hyperbole to suggest that society’s morality is flawed, by making making Jim very stereotypical in many ways to Huck’s eyes. “Watermelon shows man, lock shows prisoner; and it ain’t likely there’s two prisoners on such a little

I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together” (1), respectively. By taking no interest in religious figures or religious dogma from the start, Twain shows how Huck’s code of ethics differs from those around him as he does not necessarily need to follow exactly what religion teaches to be considered moral, something Twain challenges the reader to try. Twain also demonstrates how easily religion influences people when the two con artists, the Duke and the King, successfully scam a crowd full of zealous worshippers into giving them money believing them to be former pirates who want to spread the word of God and try to convert those back in their homeland. Not only does Twain satirize the gullibility of those completely devoured into religion in this scene, he also shows how easy someone could take advantage of the followers and mislead them to make a wrong decision, one of his biggest problems with strict dogma some

“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.” (Twain, ix) Mark Twain opens his book with a personal notice, abstract from the storyline, to discourage the reader from looking for depth in his words. This severe yet humorous personal caution is written as such almost to dissuade his readers from having any high expectations. The language in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is completely “American” beyond the need for perfect grammar. “Mark Twain’s novel, of course, is widely considered to be a definitively American literary text.” (Robert Jackson,

In this excerpt, motif and character are revealed. Huckleberry Finn wrestles his own personal morals and the widow’s satirized values he is taught. Ultimately his character is illuminated by his choice to help Jim gain freedom. Therefore his critical response to Jim’s capture pivots the story by pushing Huck to pursue a plan for Jim’s escape. This passage emphasizes Twain’s satirical criticism of not taking responsibility. He is ridiculing people who “don’t want to take no consequences” for their disgraceful actions. Moving the novel closer to the conclusion through this prolonged falling action leaves the reader in suspense. Writing with conviction, Twain describes the con men as “scoundrels” who wronged Huck and Jim. Furthermore, he writes

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