In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Huck), author Mark Twain exposes antebellum society ignorance and exploits the lack of education to his satirical advantage. Twain was adverse to slavery and used the aforementioned problem to comment on slavery in Huck. Twain uses satire on ignorance and the difference between book-smart and street-smart to show that slavery is morally wrong. Twain shows the difference between two characters, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, to illustrate his point. Tom Sawyer represents book-smarts and the educated, “civilized” general population, whereas Huckleberry Finn represents street-smarts and the uneducated, underbelly of the population that nonetheless provides a path to redemption in the southern society. Twain presents Tom Sawyer as a very illogical, dramatic, by-the-book character. Tom believes the stories and tales in book to be equal to the word of God himself. For Tom, everything has to happen exactly as it did in the books he has read or else it is incorrect: “Why, blame it all, we’ve got to do it. Don’t I tell you it’s in the books? Do you want to go to doing different from what’s in the books, and get things all muddled up?” (Twain 19). This rigid belief of Tom’s leads him to act in very illogical ways and gets him into trouble. When Huckleberry and Tom are trying to help Jim escape, Tom makes them do many unnecessary things like make a rope ladder and and inscribe a coat of arms purely because that’s what happened in the books he
First of all, Tom Sawyer does not care if someone else’s life is in his hands, for he would rather copy the books and take the most dangerous route possible. This trait is displayed in many moments in the novel, including when Jim has been captured and is being kept prisoner by the Phelps’, and Tom and Huckleberry are conspiring to plan his escape. “ ‘That’s more like,’ he says. ‘It’s real mysterious, and troublesome, and good,’ he says; ‘but I bet we can find a way that’s twice as long. There ain’t no hurry; le’s keep on looking around’ ”(p.234). As Huckleberry narrates Tom’s statement, it is seen that Tom is being quixotic to the point where it’s ridiculous. Jim is in trouble and Tom treats it like a game. Tom ultimately gets so caught up in his “adventure” that he forgets Jim is a person who still needs to be
It can also be considered an “opposites attract” scheme by Twain. As Tom has a stable, loving family and a home to go too. While Huck who is considered an orphan (due to being the town drunks son) sleeps where he wants, eats what he wants (if he can) and is never forced to go to school or do his “duties”. Most Importantly, Huck has fended for himself for years, and because of it has developed common sense beyond his years and grounding him self in his harsh reality. This is a stark contrast to Tom Sawyer, who creates worlds in his mind and has deep imagination. Even with all these differences Tom still envies the free spirited Huck and will go to great lengths to prove himself, even if Huck sees Tom as his closest friend already.
The dissection of the immorality of society is further explored in Tom Sawyer’s scheme to free Jim from the Phelpses’ captivity. Tom, seemingly eager to help Jim escape, creates a plan that seems to exist more for his own amusement than for Jim’s emancipation, a plan that eventually ends in Jim’s recapture and Tom’s injury. Thus, Tom’s plan to free Jim takes on a dark irony as Huck says that Tom is “not mean, but kind”; this is subverted when we discover that Tom has used Jim as a plaything in his game of escape (Evans). Tom and Huck, both boys of about the same age and with similar backgrounds, are a good example of the difference that “sivilized” society makes on the development of the individual. As Tom and Huck plan Jim’s escape, the two represent very different places in their development as individuals; Huck having discovered a new morality through his journey down the Mississippi, and Tom having remained more or less the same as his introduction at the beginning of the novel. While Huck has demonstrated his ability to more fully realize individuals, notably Jim, Tom has been conditioned by society to see slaves as subhuman, and thus has no problem with using Jim as a plaything in his game of adventure. This trivialization of human life, presented by the “civilized” and “kind” Tom, demonstrates the immorality and toxicity of Southern society. Twain also comments on the hypocrisy
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
Year after year The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is placed in the top ten banned books in America. People find the novel to be oppressing and racially insensitive due to its frequent use of the n-word and the portrayal of blacks as a Sambo caricature. However, this goes against Mark Twain’s intent of bringing awareness to the racism in America. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is classified under the genre of satire and is narrated by a fictional character named Huckleberry Finn. The novel takes place in the south during the year 1845. With his abusive father, and no mother, Huck is left feeling lonely, and as if he has place to call his home. So he decides to leave town, and on in his journey where he encounters a slave he’s familiar with, Jim, who is also running away. This story captures their relationship and growth as they face many obstacles on their way to freedom. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn satirizes people’s greed and violent behavior by mocking the stereotype of southern hospitality.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain uses Huck’s personal hyperboles, irony and an appeal to pathos as he subtly attempts to alter his Reconstruction's audience view on the African Americans role in society. Towards the end of the novel
Some people may think that overcoming society's class system is impossible, while others make an effort every day to fight the prejudice put in front of them. There are many views on the issue of social bias, but one that truly stands out above the rest is legendary author Mark Twain's, through his novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Throughout his piece, Twain sprinkles hints on his standpoint, but it is only after the reader has completed Twain's story that they can really understand his philosophy. When looking at his portrayal of both Huckleberry Finn and Jim, it becomes much clearer what Twain has to say on this issue, and he continues to voice his standing through these characters and their struggles throughout the entirety of the book. When carefully observed, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tells its readers how society can fit a character into their own mold, how different a person can be from certain social ideas, and what's wrong with having these preconceived stereotypes.
In the novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain uses irony, sarcasm, and satire to show that slavery and racial discrimination are morally wrong and that people shouldn’t be treated differently because of their ethnicity and race. Twain’s use of irony and ridicule exposes and criticizes the society’s viewpoints of what is right and wrong in contrast of Huck’s conscience and his experience on the journey with Jim to come to find what he believes is right or wrong. While writing the novel, Twain was living in a society where racial tensions and discrimination had a great impact during these times. Twain illustrates the stupidity of slavery and racial discrimination by mocking many different aspects of the society in which Huck grew up in. Throughout Huck’s and Jim’s adventurous journey down the river,
After endless trials to test Huck’s philosophy, in the final moments of Huckleberry Finn, Huck has a revelation that all this time, his black traveling companion, Jim “was white on the inside.” But say Huck did understand that blacks were not naturally inferior to whites, that he understood the ideals of our founding fathers, that “all men were created equal.” Then, Mark Twain’s story would lead to the birth of a fresh new character, one who differs completely from the initial Huck Finn, a Huck Finn that sees pass a white-proclaimed social ladder. But instead, Mark Twain’s endless on end build up to what seemed like it should have been a powerful positive message about humanity ended up being the opposite. We naturally allow the worse to
“Nothing in all this world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” - Martin Luther King Jr. In Huckleberry Finn ignorance is one of Mark Twain’s main themes throughout the novel. During the late 1800’s, many thoughts and practices in society were in question. One being the idea of slavery, which dehumanized African-Americans in every way possible.
Mark Twain’s famous realist novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a masterpiece of social criticism and analysis. The author skillfully depicts a variety of human failings and foibles, personified in the characters of everyday people and groups. Twain appears to be satirizing and criticizing the old South, but underneath his humorous portrait of Southern social issues, the book is a serious critique of all humanity. With his typical biting satire, Twain points out social issues such as racism, and lynching, as well as human character flaws like religious hypocrisy, gullibility, and violent natures. Many
Additionally, One of the most significant satires used in Huckleberry Finn was slavery. The novel is set somewhere around The Civil Era when slavery was very prominent. Jim one of the main characters was a slave who eventually became free. “And it was the niggers- I just expected (Twain 180(.” Twain demonstrates how unfair slavery is by using this quote. Twain demonstrates how slaves were treated poorly and used as scapegoats for things they didn’t do. “Well I Reckon! There’s two hundred dollars reward on him. It’s like picking up money out’n the road (Twain 202).” Twain shows how people will do anything for money. People at the time saw slaves as money instead of actual people. People treated slaves like property as if they didn’t have any rights.
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.
Comparison of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain presents the problem of slavery in America in the 19th Century. Twain poses this problem in the form of a character named Huckleberry Finn, a white boy raised in the antebellum South. Huck starts to question his view regarding slavery when he acquaints himself more intimately with a runaway slave while he himself tries to run away. Huck’s development as a character is affected by society’s influence on his experiences while growing up in the South, running away with Jim, and trying to save Jim. Although Huck decides to free Jim, Huck’s deformed conscience convinces him that he is doing the wrong thing.