Examples Of Religion In Huckleberry Finn

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain criticizes religion by using details and irony throughout various episodes. These episodes vary from Huck speaking with the Miss Watson, to speaking with himself, to speaking with Pap, and him going to church on multiple occasions.

The first example of Twain’s criticism of religion appears when the Miss Watson is attempting to teach Huck about Moses. She goes into detail about who Moses was, what he did, and why he is important. Huck’s response is that Moses had been “dead a long time” and that he “didn’t care…because I don’t take no stock in dead people”(14). This detail shows Twain’s criticism of religion by showing that religious figures are all people that have been dead for a very long

The first example of this appears when Miss Watson tells Huck to pray for things. His response was “whatever I asked for I would get, but it warn’t so”(23). This is ironic because Huck is praying for literal physical things such as fishing lines, instead of what he should be praying for, like forgiveness. This criticizes religion in the South by yet again showing people’s ignorance. Another example of irony comes when Huck is talking to his father, Pap, who says “First you know you’ll get religion too. I never seen such a child”(32). This is ironic because Pap is obviously against Huck learning about religion, which is the opposite of what someone would expect from a father in the South. This is shown by his tone and by him saying “I never seen such a child”. It is the opposite of what someone would expect because the stereotype of the South includes religion as a big part of it. One more example of Twain’s use of irony is when Huck goes to church with the Granderfords. Huck says “Sunday we all went to church… the men took their guns along”(116). This is ironic because the men are bringing their guns to church. Church is a place of peace and yet these men are bringing in weapons of war that represent death and destruction. This criticism shows once more the ignorance of southerners when it comes to religion because they are deliberately bringing guns to church yet they are not making a big deal about it and acting

Another example of irony is shown when Huck goes to church again and the congregation was acting wild and crazy. It was described as “Folks got up everywhere…they sung and shouted and flung themselves…just crazy and wild”(131). This is ironic because church is a place of peace and the congregation are meant to gather and worship in peace, not act all wild and crazy. This criticism shows how little control southerners have when it comes to religion. One detail that Twain uses to criticize religion appears when Huck and the king go to church. The king “bursted into tears, and so did everybody…Take up a collection for him”(136). This detail shows just how forgiving churchgoers can be, that being too forgiving. This is a criticism of southern religion by showing how forgiving they can be. Here is a man, the king, who has done nothing with his life but lied, cheated, and stolen. Despite all this, the churchgoers are more than willing to forgive him for everything and not only that, but they are willing to gather a collection for him as well. The final example of Twain’s criticism of religion in the South shows when Huck is talking about Sunday school. He says that “they’d learnt that people that acts as I’d been acting about that nigger goes to ever lasting fire”(204). The way that Huck had been acting towards that “nigger”, Jim, can be described as compassionate. However, this says that if someone acts