Satire In Huckleberry Finn Essay example

The use of Satire in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn In his novel the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published in 1884, Mark Twain uses satire frequently as a medium to display his feelings on a range of issues related to society at that time. Throughout the book he ridicules many aspects of society, including the prevalent views on slaves and religion, and their social structure. Even though the novel was set fifty years before it was published, the themes still held true for contemporary society. This led to the novel being criticised widely as a result of it condemning the very society it was presented to.

Twain utilizes the novel to poke fun at the society and social class of his time. “The object behind the fun was to expose pretentious, phony, and stupid people, and to bring down the mighty, whether it be con men or rich men, exalted authors of great reputation or the royalty they adored” (Johnson 225). He descriptively portrays a representation of each class within the social hierarchy during the era in which the novel was written (Weiner 73). Jim symbolizes the slaves, while Huck and his father represent the lower class. Mrs. Watson, Tom Sawyer, and Tom’s aunt represent the middle class. The Shepherdsons and the Grangerfords characterize the wealthy, upper class. Throughout the novel, society rejects Huck because of his economic status and upbringing. Huck was the son of the

The first time when Huck Finn is pulled in conflicting desires is when he finds Miss Watson's runaway slave, Jim, at Jackson's Island. Huck knows that if he doesn't turn the runaway slave in to his owner, "People would call [him] a low-down Abolitionist and despise (him) for keeping mum. " (Twain 43). Then later in the novel when he tries to write to Miss Watson that he knew where Jim was, he doesn't because " she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again." (Twain 212). The conflict within Huck Finn illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole because during the novel Huck develops affection for Jim are through he is challenging societal norms. When Huck tears up the letter when he remembers the time Jim said that "[he] was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now." (Twain 214)

Devices like mockery, irony, parody, and sarcasm make the use of satire effective . Satirists typically use these devices when hoping to expose, or even humiliate an individual or a society. Writers also use satire when creating social change as well as preventing it. Well known satirists include Mark Twain, Jonathan swift, and many other extarident authors. Every satirists uses different methods or devices to get their point across and effectively at that . Satirists use many different methods and devices like mockery, mock-heroic, and others to use satire effectively and gain an audience's attention.

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been controversial ever since its release in 1884. It has been called everything from the root of modern American literature to a piece of racist trash. Many scholars have argued about Huck Finn being prejudiced. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses satire to mock many different aspects of the modern world. Despite the fact that many critics have accused Mark Twain’s novel of promoting racism, through close analysis of the text, it becomes remarkably clear that Twain is satirical in his writing as he ridicules slavery and the racist attitudes prevalent in his day.

Many authors use satire to discuss issues in society that they have opinions on. These authors express their opinions by mocking the issues in a subtle way in their writing. Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain satirizes many societal elements. Three of these issues include the institution of slavery, organized religion, and education.

Mark Twain uses his novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to point out the flaws of society. Huck Finn meets a runaway slave, Jim, and together Twain uses them to walk the readers through a society that is based on slavery and dishonesty. There were many defects within the Southern society because of the conflict between christianity and slavery. Mark Twain uses Huck, Jim, and other characters as well as humor and satire to point out religious hypocrisy.

Mark Twain’s publication of The Adeventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1883 stood as a groundbreaking novel for its time. The book definitely shocked quite a few people, and many were offended by Twain’s criticisms of society. Fast forward over 100 years, and Twain’s book has found itself banned in several areas after being accused of being a racist novel. However, not many realize that Twain’s portrayal of other races in Huckleberry Finn was through a satirical and ironic lense. Twain himself criticized society for several things, but some large critiques of his were of the gullibility of people and of the foolishness of slavery.

Mark Twain's use of satire within his novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is to promote his criticism of American society. Twain uses humor, irony, and excessive exaggeration as a way to criticize. In this case, Twain is taking serious issues in America and exaggerating them to make them easier to read about. Targeting these specific problems with irony is what Twain did best. Within the novel, Twain uses satire to show greed, family issues, and civilization within the American Society.

From the races people can label others, but people cannot know others’ humanity. Since the racism came about society, people look people based on their own morality codes, and even the people who have good morals are overlooked because of the word “racism” that makes people to depict and judge one’s character. In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain introduces a coming of age character named Huck who sees his surrounding with a logical thinking, and Jim who plays a controversial role in the novel as a slave. Mark Twain uses satire to criticize racism that gives negative aspect of society and create an unalterable realities on one’s worldview, indicating society’s moral code veils one’s hidden personality and confuses natural

Molly Ivins once said, "Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful". This quote explains how the use of satire, which is the use of humor or irony to point out or mock someone's stupidity, could be used as an insult to point out the obvious in any situation. The use of this figurative language technique is portrayed perfectly in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The three most prominent examples would be the way African Americans are viewed in that time period, the situation when Huckleberry pretended to be a girl, and the way Huckleberry talks about Pap verse how he actually acts. Twain's use of satire is used perfectly in this novel; these are only three examples out of the millions in the story.

There are many forms of satire in Mark Twain’s book The Adventures Huckleberry Finn, one of which is racism satire. Twain uses this satire to show many different things in the book such as showing the way that African-Americans were treated back in the 1800’s or showing how they were viewed as in superior to the other races of the time. Racism satire was not as major a topic in the 1800’s than it is in the modern world, which is a good example of how these worlds differ so much. This topic in general is a major issue in today’s world which could make The Adventures Huckleberry Finn controversial.

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.

Twain uses Huck to make decisions based on this hypocritical slave-owning, Christian lifestyle. Huck must choose to either aid a runaway slave named Jim or return him to Miss Watson, while the white society of the South would expect Huck to return Jim to Miss Watson. Huck and Jim 's friendship makes this a significant decision because Huck is morally conflicted. Jim is his friend, but he is also the property of Miss Watson. An excerpt from Magill 's Survey of American Literature puts the situation in a right perspective exclaiming “Jim is property before he is man, and Huck is deeply troubled, surprisingly, by the thought that he is going to help Jim, not only because he sees it, in part, as a robbery, but more interestingly, because he sees his cooperation as a betrayal of his obligation to the

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (published in 1885), considered a classic of American-literature, and to some the zenith of American realism in literature and the apex of satirical writing in history, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has proven itself as a milestone in the history of literature and a turning point in American literature. The garnering of such acclaim, and accolades were due to The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn possibly being the most poignant and successful critique on society every put into writing. Twain does not waste any time with sophomoric cant in his meditation, but instead critiques the inherent cant present in society and the people entertaining this cant throughout that time; showing