Rhetorical Analysis Of Huckleberry Finn

Author, Mark Twain, in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, illustrates the story of a boy who undertakes an epic journey to escape the boredom of his old life. Twain’s purpose is to impress upon viewers the idea that human naivety leads to our downfall by addressing his society's tendency to disregard the necessity of education, especially in the South. He incorporates a derisive tone in order to persuade his readers to think more intelligently. The author satirizes human naivety by utilizing parody, exaggeration and knaves and fools.
Twain creates a parody when Finn is thrown into the family feud between the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons. The conflict originally started when there was a disagreement between the two families. After

After Sherburn kills Boggs for disrupting the peace, a huge group of civilians begin to gather in order to hang Sherburn for taking an innocent life. In response to this crowd, Sherburn climbs to the top of his roof and gives a speech to the threatening crowd. He claims that “ if only half a man- like Buck Harkness, there shouts ‘Lynch him! lynch him!’ you’re afraid to back down- afraid you’ll be found out to be what you are -cowards- and so you raise a yell,” (Twain 146-147) The author creates an exaggeration in this scene by showing the accused man stand up against a whole crowd. In 19th century, hanging was a widely held belief and a common practice when punishing criminals. During that time, as many as 4,743 people were killed using this method. Victims ranged from runaway black slaves to petty thieves. More often than not, the sentenced felons would not fight against a whole crowd of violent citizens. Twain’s purpose in his exaggeration is to emphasize the fact that the people only rallied against Sherburn, because of one particular individual. He wants to ridicule the fact that naive people will often follow the crowd, because they can not think for themselves. This serves to make the audience feel idiotic for blatantly following others in similar cases, oftentimes without listening to their own judgement. His goal is to convince his audience to think for

When the doctor asks Mary Jane if she will accuse the King and Duke of being liars, she claims “‘Here is my answer.’ She hove up the bag of money and put it in the king’s hands, and says, ‘Take this six thousand dollars, and invest for me and my sister in any way you want to, and don’t give us no receipt for it.’” (Twain 170) This serves to create a comedy which ridicules people's’ gullibility by stimulating a similar situation where three girls are tricked into giving their money to thieves. During Twain’s time, thefts were very common due to the fact that police departments were still developing. Robbers could potentially steal valuable objects or commit heinous crimes without getting caught. The King and Duke symbolize knaves, who travel around the country to steal money. In this scene Mary Jane willingly gives her family’s life savings to them without questioning their credibility. Jane, a very nice person, represents the fools who are often taken advantage of. His purpose is to ridicule the fact that some people are naive and will allow others to use them. Selfishness drives criminals to exploit innocence for their own personal agenda without any consideration for those around them. This serves to make the readers feel enraged that people would pilfer their hard earned wealth by utilizing their naivety. The author's desire is convince his audience to