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Use Of Irony In Huckleberry Finn

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The Irony Samuel Langhorne Clemens, or “Mark Twain,” lived a life of American pattern for seventy-five years (Perkins 55). From a young country, to a booming world power, Mark Twain was able to live and write through all of the great changes of America-“from frontier community to industrial urbanity, from riverboats to railroads, from an aggressive, bumptious adolescence toward a troubled and powerful maturity (Perkins 55). Mark Twain was quite the observer of this life and after traveling around the world, he returned back to America in October 1900 actively opposing both the United States and Great Britain’s policies (William D. Howells and Mark Twain 723). It became apparent to him that America was not living up to its expectations of …show more content…

Retracing his work throughout his career will illustrate, not only his use of irony, but the correlation between how heavy-handed it grew to be with how angry he became over the years (Lock 75). For example, several years prior to the composure of “The War Prayer,” he wrote Huckleberry Finn which is filled with numerous ironies. Most notably; however, is “Huck’s failure to understand that the most selfless act of his life has not condemned him to hell” (Lock 75). This “failure” can be seen as innocent, subtle irony; however, the failure within “The War Prayer” is anything but …show more content…

The messenger is asking for a victory over the enemy. The irony; however, falls within the fact that they are asking of this victory through misery and death from “Him Who is the Source of Love” (Perkins 59). Additionally, Twain illustrates an immunity to his irony when he writes, “[i]t was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said” (Perkins 59). This failure to understand the strangers point is also not a new concept written by Twain and can be recalled in much of his work. Mark Twain composed his literature based off of his own life experiences and his use of irony reflected the irony of his own life. The man himself was Samuel Clemens but his life was always marked by dualism, like much of his work, and “Clemens the man was at odds with Twain the image” (Lock 75). Samuel Clemens was not only a member of the American Anti-Imperialist League, but was its vice-president for eleven years, openly. Yet, much of his work was only published after his death which illustrates confliction between his private and public figure (Lock

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