Essay On The Use Of Satire In Huck Finn

The Use of Satire in Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Mark Twain establishes a plot that intrigues readers as well as teaches them through messages that are necessary to advance their learning. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain tells the story of an adolescent and developing boy who travels with a runaway slave down the Mississippi in hopes of finding freedom. The author uses satire in addition to the flaws of society to adequately narrate this adventure. Twain’s satire of human religious hypocrisy and racism is evident through the satirical techniques of irony and parody. Throughout the novel, Mark Twain satirizes the societal flaw of religious hypocrisy through irony by showing that characters in the story own slaves and claim to be religious at the same time. For example, the readers are introduced to Huckleberry Finn’s guardians, Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, and it is revealed that they own slaves, “Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it get tiresome and lonesome. By-and-by they fetched the slaves in and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed” (Twain 2). The irony in this is that after making the slaves work all day, they bring them in to pray; however, one of the Bible’s teachings is to respect all human beings and “love your neighbors”. It is religiously hypocritical to own human beings and preach God’s word at the same time. Another example is Tom Sawyer’s relatives, Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas, praying with Jim, the runaway slave, as they held him in the shed,

This novel addresses the problems in society by using satirical techniques and causing the audience to reflect on their society and the choices they have made regarding religious hypocrisy and racism. It does this through an adventurous and captivating plot with characters that develop Twain’s messages about the weaknesses of a