Satire In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

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.

Arguably the most prevalent and obvious types of hypocrisy found in Huck Finn is racism. During the time when the book was set (1845), slavery was a common practice, especially in the south. In fact, many characters in the book owned slaves (Miss Watson, the Grangerfords, the Wilks’, the Phelps). Black people were made out to be inferior to whites, which made it easier to justify such a gruesome system. Even Huck, whom Jim called his “best friend”, believed this lie. He said, “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger,” (42). He even debated his conscience about whether or not he should turn Jim in, seeing as though he was technically the property of Miss Watson. “Here was this nigger which I had as good as helped

In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain mocked the social institution of organized religion. He also mocked slavery, which in that era, was supported by organized religion. Twain protested slavery and organized religion by using his writings to make fun of them as well. In doing so, he invited readers to laugh at society’s crimes. Maybe he hoped that his satirical exposure of what he believed to be wrong with America would incite readers to a change in societal behaviors and expectations.

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.

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.

The first aspect of society Twain ridicules is its attempt at respectability. Huck Finn, a boy referred to as "white trash," has grown up totally believing what society has taught him. Society attempts to teach the

In Chapters 3-6 in the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Fin, Huck uses satire to seem smart, to be funny, and cover up how hard is life is in society. An example of this satire frequently used throughout these chapters is the quote “Well, I got a good going-over in the morning from old Miss Watson on account of my clothes; but the widow she didn’t scold, but only cleaned off the grease and the clay, and looked so sorry I thought I would behave a while if I could,” (Twain 10). This quote not only shows how most people were magnates, but still cared about appearance, that Huck has a satire relationship with the widow. Although satire is used in more obvious ways than this, this is a good “secret” satire quote because it shows their playful relationship and the irony Huck gets from her.

'So you've been gone a couple days,' Alison said. 'Hmm, what'd you miss...A celebrity did drugs. Politicians disagreed. A different celebrity wore a bikini that revealed a bodily imperfection. A team won a sporting event, but another team lost.' I smiled. 'You can't go disappearing on everybody like this, Hazel. You miss too much.'" ~John Green. John Green is criticizing how Americans only care about irrelevant events going on in the world. Americans would choose to hear the latest celebrity gossip, over an event that affected the world. John Green is comparable to Mark Twain, whom also is a big critic of American society. Mark Twain used humor to make fun of family feuds, hypocrisy among religion, and the gullibility of people to fall for a prank. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain used satire to his advantage and humiliated many aspects of American society.

Huckleberry Finn Satire Essay In Mark Twain's The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, there were a lot of examples of satire. The one that stuck out to me was the idea of family feuds. The feud between the Shepardsons and the Grangerfords is ironic in the story because they have been fighting for years and don't even know why they're fighting anymore. This is ironic to me because the Buck wants to fight against the opposing family extremely bad, but he doesn't know why.

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.

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.

“Racism” is a word that, nowadays, feels like it has lost a lot of meaning. This is because “racism” is used now at any offense to any person of color, whether it was truly racist or not. This also means that controversy on this word has risen. Take, for example, Mark Twain’s masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The book’s language, and overuse of the word “nigger” have inspired many to believe that Twain’s entire text must be racist when, in reality, it is not.

Twain uses irony and satire to poke fun of the ridiculous feuds between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. It is ironic how the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons were preaching about brotherly love at one moment, yet they don't have any brotherly love for each other. Twain also uses satire to point out the ridiculous feud that has created conflicts with the upper class which lead them fighting over something with no significance. Throughout the novel, society and hypocrisy is a constant motif that was used to describe the society Huck lives in. Twain uses satire to criticize social hypocrisy as he shows how it can put others in an extremely dangerous situation.

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 is to reveal nastiness of society.

Mark Twain is a great observer of humans and human nature. It is what makes his characters come to life. He is quick to caution in Huckleberry Finn that the reader not take this particular narrative, which includes its’ characters, too seriously. In other words, he intended Huckleberry Finn to be a satirical work. He does have plenty to say and opinions galore, but the message he has about reform and reformers is meant to poke fun and may only represent one aspect of his complete viewpoint in regard to them.