How Does Mark Twain Use Satire In Huck Finn

Throughout the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain subtly inputs some of his thoughts on society. Through his characters and use of satire he mainly critiques the negative aspects of society, but he also has some good sprinkled through his writing.

As Huck travels, he meets many characters. These characters give the reader perspective on how Twain views people. When Huck boards a sinking ship he encounters some criminals. He overhears them deciding whether they should kill one of their members or not and they say, ¨He 'll be drowned, and won 't have nobody to blame for it but his own self. I reckon that´s a considerable sight better´n killin´ of him¨ (70). These criminals reflect the cruel people that Twain believes exist.

In addition to characters, Twain uses satire to reflect his views on society. At one point Huck meets feuding families. When he asks one of the boy why these two families have been feuding for so long, the boy replies he does not know and further explains, ¨Oh, yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old folks; but they don´t know, now, what the row was about in the first place¨ (109). These two families have been fighting for so long and some of their family members have been killed, but there is no apparent reason to why. These two families are very passionate about their feud, but the main problem is that they have no reason to hate each other in the first place. By writing about this Mark Twain makes the feud seem silly to the reader. This shows that Mark Twain believes these family feuds or arguments that people have without a real cause are completely pointless. As is typical of the book, in these chapters Twain critiques the stupidity of human nature. In addition to this family feud Twain includes several instances of satire in his writing. At the beginning of the book, Huck 's father, Pap, returns looking for Huck. Pap is a lazy drunk, but some believe that pap can change as is evidence when Huck explains, ¨The new judge said he was agoing to make a man of him. So he took him to his own house, and dresses him up clean and nice¨ (21). This plan immediately fails and Pap returns to drinking soon after he vows he is a new man. When Pap immediately reverts to his old self, Twain shows how silly it is that the judge believed he could make Pap a new man just by dressing him up. In this instance, Twain is critiquing this idea that some people of his time had that everyone is inherently good. Twain points out the silliness of society for believing people are naturally good. This reflects of Twain´s negative view of society. As seen through Twain 's characters and satire, he mainly believes that society is negative. But Twain does include some positive