ipl-logo

Examples Of Huckleberry Finn Society's Flaws

1306 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The development of huckleberry finn

Ted Harter
January 5, 2016
English 10
Hour 6
Society’s Flaws Revealed In Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a young man and an escaped slave travel down the Mississippi River, experiencing great friendship and many adventures along the way. However, the people from ‘sivilization’ that they meet along the way keep intruding on their journey, bringing danger to Huck and Jim, and highlighting society’s flaws. When it was released, the book was very controversial because of its coarseness, Twain’s use of racial slurs, and how the story illustrates the hypocrisy of American society, all elements of Twain’s writing style called Realism. Americans did not like the depiction of a white boy helping a slave escape slavery, and …show more content…

Mark Twain exposes a flawed society by describing in detail the racism of the time. Many of Twain’s characters open display their racism in what they say and how they say it, exposing the racism in American society in the late 1800s. When Pap is drunk and yelling about an African American that was allowed to vote, he exclaims “Thinks I, what is the country a coming to? It was ‘lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn’t too drunk to get there; but then when they told me there was a state in this country where they’d let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I say I’ll never vote ag’in” (Twain 27). Pap believes that just because a person is black, he shouldn’t be able to vote, even though the man is free. This quote is especially revealing because …show more content…

Religious beliefs and practices are an important part of society in the story’s time period, and Twain uses religion to highlight society’s immorality. When Huck is staying with the Grangerfords, he learns about their feud with the Shepherdsons. Buck tells Huck that they have been fighting and killing each other for years. Huck then describes, “Next Sunday we all went to church […]. The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same.” (109). This account illustrates several deeply flawed but widespread religious practices in society. It is crazy that two families who have long fought and murdered each other go to the same church together, obviously understanding little of the lessons in the weekly sermons. In fact, the sermon about brotherly love is completely lost on both families that are involved in a feud that no one even remembers how it started. Twain highlights the absurdity of these characters’ religious beliefs further with the picture of guns stacked in the corner of the church, which is bizarre. Church is a place for to receive forgiveness of your sins, but the Grangerfords and Sheperdsons take guns for protection against each other, failing to see the absurdity of their behavior. Twain is criticizing society by depicting the

Show More
Related
2172 Words | 9 Pages

And this is a great example of symbolism. Mr.Twain represents Mr. Sherburn and the mob is the rest of the audience who is hateful and bigoted and also that deny the African American people to receive equal rights. And through Symbolism we see that Mr.Sherburn is right about the mob and their lack of courage. He explains how all of them are pitiful and how they are all cowards. And this is true for them and the people in real life who hunt, mistreat, and even kill African American people they are all cowards, they don’t have honor.

Read More
979 Words | 4 Pages

Suddenly, Huck’s eyes are opened to the shortcomings of people he was previously blind to. Huck reaches the pinnacle of his moral development when he decides that Jim is worth going to hell for, no matter what society may think about a slave’s worth. After much internal turmoil, he decides, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (Twain 215). This is a significant point in his changing perception of what is “sivilized”, as he finally decides that the ideals he has been taught are truly not worth it.

Read More
743 Words | 3 Pages

Twain's writing cuts deep into the heart of racism, and shows us that it does not matter what we look like on the outside, it only matters what we have on the

Read More
1011 Words | 5 Pages

Twain exposes the mendacity in the way adults at the time believed they were civilized, but simultaneously dehumanized the African American race. This book is important to society now, because it teaches teenagers how to recognize racism

Read More
1724 Words | 7 Pages

Essay The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a story about a young boy who is trying to find who he is during the civil war. In this novel by Mark Twain it speaks about this young boy, named Huck, and how his original morals are beginning to change while he helps free his friend Jim, who is a slave. Though People have argued that this book uses many racial slurs that demoralize the African American race. Though there is solid reasoning why those are not Mark Twain's true intentions.

Read More
2101 Words | 9 Pages

The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching—all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination, and I don’t know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet.” This text shows how society is corrupt, for multiple reasons. Not only are families who kill each other going to a sacred place together under a temporary cease-fire, they are also hearing a preacher speak about brotherly love and saying that it is a good sermon.

Read More
738 Words | 3 Pages

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic novel that takes the reader on a series of thrilling adventures full of life threatening situations, racism, and slavery. The author Mark Twain, uses the novel to highlight the flaws in society by creating a character like Huck, whose personal sense of morals and justice are more noble than those of the very people trying to civilize him. Throughout this captivating novel Huck endures his fair share of trouble and morally challenging decision but he always comes out on top by following his heart and doing what he feels to be right.

Read More
1403 Words | 6 Pages

The black man on the back porch is afraid of the rattle snake because it is bad luck, or the innocent little slave is quick to believe everything one tells them at the drop of the hat. These are just some of the many racist stereotypes of the 1840s. A character named Jim is the star African American whom Twain bestoys the mission of being the stereotypical black man to prove a point. He along with his much more pallor companion Huck go on exciting adventures that unfold the events which expose the racist conduct of the time. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain saturates his novel with potent images of acute racism severe enough as to create a satirical mien that exposes the absurdity of prejudice.

Read More
705 Words | 3 Pages

In this Southern society hypocrisy lies underneath religion and reputation, Huck and Tom just happened to point it out. When Miss Watson was explaining to Huck all about hell and how it was so bad he told her that he “wished {he} was there” (twain 10) she was so shocked and devastated because how horrible it was. This just shows hypocrisy because Miss Watson is explaining all about the bad place, that only the worst people go there and how terrible it is meanwhile she is enslaving innocent people. Huck also reveals hypocrisy when Miss Watson was telling him all about the need for prayer and how important it is in society and he asks why should he believe it and all she could say was that “its in the books” (Twain 17).

Read More
326 Words | 2 Pages

issue of slavery. Unfortunately, some claim that Twain's writings are "offensive to black. readers, perpetuates cheap slave era stereotypes, and deserves no place on today's. bookshelves” (Salwen 1). This work reflects a boy's struggle dealing with slavery while.

Read More
142 Words | 1 Pages

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the racist attitudes of the Deep South in the late 1800's are shown. Mark Twain portrays a runaway slave, Jim, as a racist caricature who does whatever is asked of him and exhibits little intelligence. The reader can initially see this through the use of the word "nigger" that is all throughout the book. In the modern 21st century this term is taken offensively, but in the 19th century this term was commonly used and Twain took advantage of it.

Read More
516 Words | 3 Pages

Twain’s perspective on slavery and ideas regarding racism had been a source of debate. This theme of racism and slavery and Twain’s perception of it is developed throughout the “plot” events of the book. Twain was passionately anti-slavery during his

Read More
1083 Words | 5 Pages

In the following statement, “It was ‘lection day, and I [Pap] was just about to go and vote myself if I warn’t too drunk to get there’ but when they told me there was a state in this country where they’d let that nigger vote, I drawed out” (Twain 27), the reader questions the decency in an abusive, alcoholic excuse of a man being able to vote over a black man. Comparatively, Twain suggests that someone’s color shouldn’t determine their basic human rights. Whether it be with voting, or even just having freedom from slavery, the corruption of equality leads to a major theme of the novel.

Read More
1007 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel, most did not care about their remarks towards African Americans, mainly because racism was not as big of a deal as it was later in time. Mark Twain includes quite a few racist comments throughout the novel. The comments made by other characters in the book are usually geared toward Jim, the runaway slave. Even though the topics mentioned include some racist remarks, there is even more racism throughout the novel. “...here was a free nigger there from Ohio—a mulatter, most as white as a white man.

Read More
1233 Words | 5 Pages

However, despite Twain’s Confederate influences, his opinion on slavery was not impacted, showing that regardless of the fact that he had seen the South’s opinion on slavery he knew that someone was responsible to address the cultural tensions that the nation faced. Nevertheless, there are people who greet this novel with unjust disapproval. Stephen Carter says “Once upon a time, people hated the book because it struck them as coarse. Twain himself wrote that the book’s banners considered the novel ‘trash and suitable only for the slums.’”. The idea that this novel faced such a negative response at release is almost a social commentary that speaks for itself, and unquestionably confirms the fact that this was one of the first real attempts in American literature on social reformation that was met with such

Read More

More about Examples Of Huckleberry Finn Society's Flaws

Related Topics

Open Document