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How Does Frederick Douglass Use Irony In Mark Twain

1555 Words7 Pages
Throughout history, irony has been used in a multitude of ways. It is not just a way to inject humor into a story, but a way to slip a message in without saying it flat out. By doing that, it allows the reader to take in the information, and possibly come to the conclusion that the author wanted them to. This way, though, it does not seem like something forced upon them. Authors who used this tactic were Frederick Douglass in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They wrote these novels during the reconstruction period about the pre civil war era, and used them to get their opinions on the time period across. While some may say that Twain and Douglass used irony for many purposes , they mainly used it to expose the downfalls of society by critiquing hypocrisy, conformity, and the cruelty of slavery. While some may say that Twain and Douglass used irony for a humoristic purpose, they actually did it to expose the downfalls of society because of how they critiqued hypocrisy. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck had his epiphany and decided that he did not want to be a part of the scheme and ruin three innocent lives, he went to the rooms of the King and the Duke. At some point, they walked in, and as he hid, Huck heard them say that “Mary Jane ‘ll be in mourning from this out; and first you know the nigger that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds up and put ‘em away; and do you
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