How Does Twain Use Irony In Huckleberry Finn

In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he uses satirical language to convey irony and humor in order to ridicule how nonsensical and hypocritical most people in the South were. Twain illustrates his purpose through the eyes of a young boy named Huckleberry Finn who goes through a series of events to prove how society attempts to taint the image between what is morally right & wrong and also to show the flaws in society. In the beginning of the novel, Twain uses irony to expose religious hypocrisy in the South through the use of his character Miss Watson. Huck notices this when he asks to smoke but is not allowed to even though “[Miss Watson] took snuff too [but] of course [it] [was] [alright] because she done it herself” (2). Which also is ironically

Society constantly refers to African Americans by this belittling term which connotes that they are to be categorized as only slaves and not as human beings. This exemplifies irony because Miss Watson is willingly determined to change the ways of Huck based on her understanding of the Holy Bible, but is also humorous because her teachings are purely hypocritical for the reason of owning slaves which is condemned in her bible. The initial understanding of what the Holy Bible portrays leads Huck to think that “[he] couldn’t see [an] advantage in going where [Miss Watson] was going, so [he] made up [his] mind [that] [he] wouldn’t try for it” (3). Yet later on in the novel, Huck clearly feels that he needs to abandon Christianity to be friends with Jim when he states, “all right, then, I’ll go to hell” (214). This implies the conclusion that Huck is not able to escape the influence society has on him because he accepted the ideas in society that he originally rejected. Although Huck claims to be a friend of Jim, he is still unable to see Jim as just “Miss Watson’s