Examples Of Religious Hypocrisy In Huck Finn

Human beings are all sinners no matter their religion or race. When it comes to sin, no body can point out fingers. There is nothing wrong in making a mistake, thus God does not expects us to be perfect. However, not everyone properly repents his or her wrong doings. Even worst than lying and pretending to be other than oneself, is acting as if one is not conscious of the sin one is committing. Mark Twain writes a lot about religious hypocrisy in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and this might be a reference to the society he has lived in. In the society that Twain writes about, people are mostly Christian. How come despite their faithfulness, the period in which the story takes place is characterized by one of the cruelest marks in the

Watson discuss a lot. As soon as the book starts, religious hypocrisy is evident. Miss. Watson describes heaven as a peaceful place where no poor chaps are allowed. First of all, she speaks about heaven as if she already has a spot guaranteed and quickly tells Huck that he will not go to heaven if he continues being bad. The reader might notice how quickly this makes Huck feel as if his only option left is to go to hell. Miss Watson never tells Huck about God’s immense forgiveness towards one’s regret based on wrong doings, which is the only way one is able to achieve eternal life. After Miss Watson forces Huck to pray without actually teaching him how to, he also expresses religious hypocrisy, thus he thinks: “She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn’t so. I tried it”(11). Huck’s ideas are hypocritical because he sees God as some sort of wish- granting magician by asking only for material things, forgetting about spirituality. This is seen nowadays a lot, thus Christians sometimes tend to pray only when one is in need. And if God does not quickly makes wishes come true, one’s faith starts immediately shaking. Also, the widow Douglas tries to instill religious aspects and morals on Huck, and she says: "I must help other people, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself"(Twain 13). She talks a lot about

Christianity emphasizes acceptance, thus real Christians would not mistreat, offend or oppose someone just for the fact that he or she belongs to a different religion. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the reader is able to easily see religious hypocrisy with the King and the Duke. Next to Huck, they are trying to make a plan in order to help Jim move in a different village next to the river. The Duke’s idea is to dress Jim as an Arab. He wrote a sign for Jim that says, “Sick Arab—but harmless when not out of his head”(132). The Duke’s words are extremely hypocritical towards Christianity because as a Christian one must practice what our religion preaches, and the Duke does not have an ounce of tolerance. Religion does not define oneself. Does it mean that Arabs are bad just because they do not share one’s believes? Bad is the Christian that dares to think this way. No matter what one believes in, what is important is to stay morally righteous and integrate. One might say that he or she is as Christian as he or she wants, but if one is not able to treat and respect an Arab as a brother or sister, one is not only revealing immense lack of Christianity, but also lack of humanity based on their religious