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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Essay

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Throughout the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn many themes are discussed. The themes as in every case mainly involve issues faced during the duration of the novel such as: racism and slavery, prejudices faced while exploring civilized society, superstition, and the importance of the Mississippi River. Mark Twain does an exceedingly excellent job combining all of these into what is highly regarded as essentially the best piece of American literature according to Ernest Hemingway it is at least: “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn.’” Very early on in the book superstition is established as one of the main themes. It is revisited several times, and is never taken lightly for the most …show more content…

From the start of the book till the end you can tell that many of the customs the people practice and preach are very backwards and hypocritical. The society is depicted as a bunch of concepts that defy logic. This flawed logic appears early in the novel, when the new judge allows Pap to receive custody of Huck not thinking about the welfare of the boy only that Pap has “rights” to his son being his biological father. At the same time Twain is bringing up the fact that this legal system puts the rights of a white man and his “property” or slave over the welfare of a black man. Twain is comparing Huck being forced to go with Pap to the fact that white slave owners forced black men and women into slave labor. Twain implies that it is impossible for a society that owns slaves to be just, no matter how “civilized” that society believes and proclaims itself to be. As the book progresses Huck encounters individuals who appears to be knid hearted on the surface, but are only later revealed to be prejudice slave owners. This shaky sense of justice that Huck repeatedly encounters lies at the heart of society’s problems: terrible acts go unpunished, yet frivolous crimes, such as drunkenly shouting insults, lead to executions. Sherburn’s speech to the mob that has come to lynch him accurately summarizes the view of society Twain gives in Huckleberry Finn: rather than maintain collective welfare, society

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