ipl-logo

Examples Of Satire In Huckleberry Finn

923 Words4 Pages

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a satire of the American society and human nature. Written during a period where hypocrisy was prevalent, the novel mocks the slavery, superstition, judicial system, family feuds, racism, ignorance, and the cruelty displayed by a majority of Americans. Twain used many of the characters and situations in the novel to represent pieces of the society he thought were ironic, and he did so in a humorous and hyperbolic manner. One major conflict in the novel that Twain uses for satire is when Pap, Huckleberry's father, reappears after a long abandonment and is angry at Huck for going to school. Pap's character is exaggeratedly used to symbolize illiterate, dead-beat, racist, white, wandering drunkards. …show more content…

He thinks these things he has read are mandatory and common for a gang to do, yet we all know that if something is written in a book, it is not always true. Twain gave the books power to rule the people, which they sought guidance from. The satirical moment with Tom's outlook on books is brought up again in chapter 35 when Tom justifies his plan to get Jim free by saying, "It don't make no difference how foolish it is, its the right way--and it's the regular way...I've read all the books that gives any information about these things (Twain)." This time, Twain is poking fun at the irony that society still has the tendency to follow the media even when society is aware of how nonsensical the media can be. A similar event Twain uses for satire within the book occurs when Sherburn kills Boggs for badgering him, inciting the wrath of many people calling Sherburn to be lynched. Yet, when the mob of people comes, Shepburn preaches them instead and says, " The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's what an army is-a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath pitifulness" (Twain). Twain satirizes how in human nature people will follow the crowd despite it being different from their own moral

Show More
Related
614 Words | 3 Pages

The Grangerfords and Pap are two of the characters who are utilized by Twain to denounce edified society. Twain utilizes parody to express his conviction that "acculturated" society is neither good, moral, nor civilized.   Exaggeration, stereotyping, and incongruity are utilized all through the story to satirize and to uncover the Grangerfords as the run of the mill southern blue-bloods and pap as the regular plastered "white junk." After a ferryboat mischance, Huck appears to lose his slave partner Jim subsequent to coming shorewards. Huck then is acquainted with Buck Grangerford (about the same age as Huck) and is permitted to stay in the Grangerford family.

Read More
715 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout Huckleberry Finn, the author Mark Twain showcases his beliefs about religion through satire and satirical properties. Mark Twain himself was a Christian, so his exposure of satire to religion wasn't out of disrespect. He satirizes throughout the book the fact that many people during the 1800’s did not practice what they preach. Instead, they were doing it for show. He also satirizes religion to show how hypocritical and absurd it could be.

Read More
1153 Words | 5 Pages

Creative Title Mark Twain is known for his controversial writing, most well-known is his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel focuses on Huckleberry Finn, a young, uneducated boy about 13 years of age. Huck has misadventures with some unlikely allies such as; Jim, the previous slave of Huck’s guardian Miss Watson, the Duke and the Dauphin, sneaky thieves who attempt to rob the Wilks sisters, and the most important, Tom Sawyer, Huck’s role model. Huck looks up to Tom the entire novel and is continuously thinking of what Tom would do in the situation. Huck Finn’s character, the use of the river, and the language in the novel are aspects that make the use of the novel necessary in the curriculum.

Read More
2137 Words | 9 Pages

Parody is when a work apes another work in an absurd tone so as to mock the original. Parody’s use to mock government in Huckleberry Finn is best exemplified by Colonel Sherburn’s rant to the lynch mob that formed against him after he shot and killed Boggs: “‘You [The members of a lynch mob] didn’t want to come. The average man don’t like trouble and danger. You don’t like trouble and danger. But if only half a man -- like Buck Harkness, there - shouts ‘Lynch him!

Read More
1162 Words | 5 Pages

Tone (3 tone words with supporting quotations & explanations [identifying specific words & phrases used as evidence]): 1. “...would squeeze his hand on his forehead and stagger back and kind of moan; next he would sigh, and next he’d let on to drop a tear” (Twain 154). Parts of the novel offer some comic relief, even if there is a serious tone, but it is supposed to satirize the situations that occur when you are ignorant. This humorous yet serious tone is illustrated through the phrases and words: sigh, tear, and stagger back.

Read More
388 Words | 2 Pages

Mark Twain criticizes society in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through literary allusions and analogies that reflect useless feuds and unvalidated murders. Twain utilizes literary allusions to reflect the feuds in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the feuds between the North and the South after the Civil War. In the novel, Huck comes across the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, two families who have been killing each other for 30 years for a reason forgotten to time. Also, both families have a child that runs off with one another to marry each other, despite the brutal bickering between the two households. Twain uses a literary allusion to William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to criticize society’s disagreements over a topic that

Read More
901 Words | 4 Pages

(110). Unable to recall the source of the conflict, Buck discerns the honor his family takes in defending their name, so he picks up a gun a follows suit. Twain’s ridicule of the family’s pomposity shows how easily individuals are able to adopt the behaviour of others around them. Furthermore, we see satire present

Read More
902 Words | 4 Pages

Mark Twain uses Satire to highlight the problems and social issues in America before the Civil War. Throughout the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there are many characters and situations, that Mark Twain uses to expose the problems that are happening during this time period. These situations are illustrated when Mark Twain shows the Duke and the Dolphine wasting their time and talents by conning people. Huck's Pap drives home this example when he says that a person with dark skin should not be able to vote even though the black man has more education than Pap. And finally, Mark Twain shows that social class does not equal morality when you meet the Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons who have been feuding for years, over reasons that no one

Read More
2101 Words | 9 Pages

Running away as a child can be seen as a way to escape. A child can escape their parents, their responsibilities, and society as a whole. It is a way to get away from everything in one’s life and live naturally. This is very similar to how Huckleberry Finn decides to live his life in the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. In this story, set in the south before the Civil War South, Huck decides to abandon his life at home and live life on a raft, floating down the Mississippi river with a runaway slave Jim.

Read More
544 Words | 3 Pages

While books influence Tom he still sees African Americans as objects when devising a plan to free Jim, Tom just cares about the adventure that goes along with the plan (Twain 216). Tom is has grown up in a society where white people see blacks as object not people. While also being twelve years old he just isn’t that interested in the real plan of freeing Jim. Tom is a

Read More
835 Words | 4 Pages

In his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, acclaimed author, Mark Twain, satirizes the moral conditioning of society that justifies slavery and extreme racism in the South prior to the Civil War. Twain adopts a critical tone to expose how society is at fault in misleading people to conform to its so-called moral rules, rather than staying true to their values. Twain employs satirical devices including irony, stereotypes, and absurdity to ridicule the attitudes of Americans and the hypocrisy that exists among them. Twain utilizes irony to demonstrate that society’s teachings are unethical and tend to stray away from what is morally correct.

Read More
701 Words | 3 Pages

When Colonel Sherburn is commenting on the mob about their cowardliness is a great scene that shows Twain’s satirical comment on this subject. In this scene Colonel Sherburn had shot down Boggs because he was annoying him and that town got mad at this incident

Read More
551 Words | 3 Pages

Even though Mark Twain is satire, every time he writes a story he illustrates the stupidity and ignorance around him. Although people can be ignorant, it's not always a bad thing. Twain's goal in writing his stories was to expose and criticize some of the flaws that existed in his world. Twain uses his novels, stories, and essays to point out people's failings, sometimes in less harsher ways, and other times in more obvious and violent ways. To start off, a creator by the name of Albert Kanter doesn't really agree with Mark.

Read More
1323 Words | 6 Pages

Twain’s book gave a voice to slaves, and thus, played a vital role in society by highlighting a social issue in a comical manner in order to tackle it, and thus, is an example of a humorist who was devoted to conveying a message in addition to entertaining his audience rather than solely trying to amuse his

Read More
1384 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout the book Jim and Huck’s relationship is put to the test, from racial issues to simple pranks. When Jim gives up his freedom to save Tom, Huck states “I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he’d say what he did say—so it was all right now, and I told Tom I was a-going for a doctor. He raised considerable row about it, but me and Jim stuck to it and wouldn’t budge; so he was for crawling out and setting the raft loose himself; but we wouldn’t let him. Then he give us a piece of his mind, but it didn’t do no good. ”(Twain 342)

Read More

More about Examples Of Satire In Huckleberry Finn

Related Topics

Open Document