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Irony In Huckleberry Finn Essay

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By employing a colloquial tone and telling the story from the perspective of a 13-year old kid, Mark Twain utilizes the message of Emily Dickinson’s Poem 1263 of “slanting the truth” and describes the bigotry and racism of the deep South in an imaginative manner. Additionally, the poem and Huckleberry Finn utilize irony which demonstrates the social flaws in society. Huck Finn, the narrator of the novel, tells the story in casual and everyday language of a small child which downplays the grave racism of the South, similar to Dickinson’s metaphor about lightning where its true dangerous nature is avoided. In Dickinson’s poem, she writes “As Lightning to the Children eased-- With explanation kind,” which says lightning is usually explained …show more content…

In Dickinson’s poem, the message is to “tell all the truth but tell it slant”. She urges society to be honest and tell the truth in their everyday lives, but then directly contradicts that statement by saying “tell it slant”. The original message of being completely honest and “tell all the truth” is diluted by her next point of telling the truth “slant”. In Huckleberry Finn, there are many instances of irony involving various characters such as the Grangersons and Huck. Huck constantly has moral dilemmas about the decisions he makes relating to Jim. When Jim talks about his plan to buy his wife and kids from plantation owners, Huck is nervous that his decision to liberate Jim is wrong. Even though he believes his decision is ethically the right thing to do, he has been raised in a Southern slave society, which vehemently disagrees with his decision. It has been ingrained into Huck that he should not free slaves, so it is a serious ironic dilemma when he internally believes that it is the morally right thing to do. The irony present in the two pieces of writing causes the reader to doubt the original message and think deeper about what it being said. Huck’s moral dilemma about liberating Jim forces readers to think about their own ethics about if breaking the law is acceptable if it is for a just

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Twain extends his satire to the moment surrounding the funeral service of Peter Wilks. The dark humor of the funeral scene is obvious with the actions of the undertaker and the interruption of the dog catching rat. When the service is interrupted by the noise of the dog, the undertaker tells the people at the funeral that "He had a rat!" Huck's says "there warn't no more popular man in town than what that undertaker was" which is another example of satire directed at the subject of death. The scene in which Mary Jane is saddened by the unfortunate situation of the slave family, forces Huck to act based on both his instincts and his conscience.

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Twain uses Verbal Irony through Huck when he reveals how Tom Sawyer was the "gladdest" of all when Tom has a bullet in his leg. Normally, most people wouldn't be happy to have a bullet in their leg, so it was ironic for Tom to be so happy with a bullet in his leg. This verbal irony was used to show the readers Tom Sawyer's tendency and passion for romanticizing and exaggerating a situation. It also reveals Tom's love for adventures as he was willing to sacrifice his life and get hurt to go on life threatening adventures.

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In the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain proscribes his audience from finding a motive, moral, or plot. In using rhetorical strategies such as satire, irony, and humor he challenges the reader to look for deeper meanings not only in the Notice, but throughout the whole novel. His purpose was to shed light on the false ideals that society represents as seen through the eyes of young boy. The ironic events that prohibit Huck from being a dynamic character suggest the inadequacy of blind faith in society. Twain uses satire to show the conflict between slavery and Christianity.

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In Chapter 16, when Huck sees Jim’s reaction to being near freedom, Huck describes his feeling as, “miserable”, “abusing”, “scorched”, and “die”. Although Jim is happy to face his future, Huck becomes burdened by societal beliefs and more importantly, his own moral values. For Huck, bestowing freedom to a slave is shameful and unethical; no different from one’s “property”. This also implies that Huck values the societies view more than his relationship with Jim. Later on, Huck’s view of the past changes as he separates his own conscience from the societal values.

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Mark Twain, well-known American author, ridicules the self destructive nature of greed upon man in his controversial novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry and Finn. Twain criticizes the society he lived in, noting the “superficiality and meaningless” lives of people. Mark Twain utilizes situational irony, farce, and exaggeration in order to compare two situations in the novel where characters illustrate upon themselves the negative effects of greed. Twain establishes a critical tone to bring attention to even modern day readers that greed will eventually result in punishments and consequences. First, Twain utilizes situational irony to analyze the ongoing feud between the Shepherdons and Grangerford family.

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It is ironic because we, as the readers know that Huck is actually doing the right thing in freeing Jim and that slavery is a wrong act. Huck 's maturity progresses throughout the novel to this moment. At the beginning of the novel, he thought that nothing was wrong with slavery and it was okay to own slaves , but he has grown morally to oppose slavery and be willing to risk his own life for a black man who has protected him. 3.When the duke and the king sell Jim, that shows how bad they are and how they have the ability to cruelly take advantage of every situation they are in. By betraying people, they have lived with in the process.

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The perfect ending The numerous examples of satire and irony provided in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the reason I selected this as the topic for my essay. The examples I have included below all tie together to give the book an overall theme of Jealousy. For the duration of your whole life, everyone is jealous of at least one person in their life at one time for numerous reason that will vary person to person. Whether it's jealousy of appearance, money, experiences, education, jobs, friendship, excetera everyone will end up longing for something someone else has that you lack.

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In the book The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, there are several point where Huck himself or other characters have used verbal irony. For instance, when huck says “ They asked us considerable many question; wanted to know what we covered up the rast that way for, and laid by in the daytime instead of running-was Jim a runaway nigger? Says I: ‘Goodness sakes, would away nigger run south?’ No, they allowed he wouldn’t.” (page 124).

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Throughout the book, Twain incorporates irony every time he informs us about Huck’s conscience. For example, Huck helps Jim from men looking for runaway slaves by spinning lies about his “pap” having smallpox which drives them away successfully. While Huck is unsettled because he perceives his actions as wrong, but we are aware that he took the morally right approach. Twain uses irony again when Huck decides to steal Jim from the Phelps’ but perceives his actions as that of a sinner, but again we are aware he is doing the correct thing even if he isn’t. Twain’s setting is an essential element to the story.

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This leads into the main internal conflict that Huck must face. He must chose whether to break federal law by running away with Jim, a slave, or to do what society believes what is right and return him back to his owner. In the end, Huck chooses to not turn Jim in and go on a journey with him, defying the laws of the country. Johnson says that this recommends disobedience and defiance on the part of young people, however it does the opposite. This shows that Huck’s moral values are more in tune with making the right choice than society’s.

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For instance, it is human nature to want to follow emotions. Huck, and other characters in the novel, act on their hearts not their minds. Specifically, Huck wants to turn Jim in because he believes it’s the most logical solution. And by not writing away to Jim’s rightful owner about Jim, Huck believes he is holding on to the biggest sin of all (161). Since others taught him that slavery was acceptable Huck determines that the right decision is to not free him, however, his heart tells him that Jim deserves to be free.

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Satire is defined as “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices.” Mark Twain’s use of satire throughout “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” shows his beliefs on many controversies that afflicted the country at that time, such as slavery and human nature. Satire helps make this story so engaging because it is funny yet covering a serious topic. His purpose of writing this story was to attack the immoralities of the American society in the eighteen hundreds and correct them. The significance of Twain’s use of satire in situations such as, sentimentality and gullibility, the average man, romantic literature with its mournful subject matter in poetry and its ridiculous plots in novels, a code of honor that results in needless bloodshed, and religious dogma influenced the reader considerably.

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