Irony In Huckleberry Finn Essay

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

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