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Huckleberry Finn Rhetorical Analysis

702 Words3 Pages

In the short passage from the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Mark Twain --originally Samuel Clemens-- argues that a pubescent child will always have innocence within him no matter what his seemingly evil actions and intentions may indicate. Twain supports his argument by using pathos to illustrate Huck reminiscing the memories of being called “honey” and being comforted by Jim through petting; this elicits emotions of repentant for Huck’s difficult situation. Twain refers to Huck’s remembrances in order to show how guilty he feels for even considering betraying Jim to Miss Watson. Twain writes this to an audience of a similar age group as Huck to show how easy it is to be “washed clean of sin” simply by letting our culpability slide, …show more content…

This idea is displayed through the indirect characterization of Mrs. Phelps; she is portrayed as greedy since she will not “give up [Jim]” unless the reward is given to her husband first. Twain contrasts distinct characters such as Jim’s cordial personality with Pap and Phelps selfishness in order to teach a lesson of the selfless individuals being rewarded; in this case, since Jim has no evil, he is set free. Twain makes this implication to slave owners to show that slavery is immoral and will not benefit the owners besides accomplishing menial tasks that they are not willing to perform …show more content…

This is evident in the way that he portrays Jim --who is a good man-- a slave, who would “call [Huck], so [he] could go on sleeping;” although the citizens believe they are following the traditional protocol of capturing slaves, this is not considered humane to use other lives to support their own. Twain makes the society appear as a hypocrite in order to undermine slavery and expose their flaws demonstrating that a society that makes up civilization does not always depict civilized decorum. He directs the piece to the Confederates because the piece is written about racial problems even after the Civil War: he calls out for abolition when even Huck decided to “go to hell” to save his dear

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