Satire In Huckleberry Finn And The Princess Bride

The film The Princess Bride, directed by Rob Reiner, is an adaptation of the John Goldman book of the same name and a cult-classic that is often watched for enjoyment. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, on the other hand, is a very common part of high schools’ curriculum and rarely consumed for its entertainment factor. Despite the reasons behind why these two works are commonly known today being incongruent, both of them are pieces of satire, having general genre satire with some social commentary in there, as well. Even though the amount of focus placed on social commentary in Huckleberry Finn greatly outweighs that of Princess Bride, they both commentate on the frivolousness of religion, the blind faith people place

Parody is when a work apes another work in an absurd tone so as to mock the original. Parody’s use to mock government in Huckleberry Finn is best exemplified by Colonel Sherburn’s rant to the lynch mob that formed against him after he shot and killed Boggs: “‘You [The members of a lynch mob] didn’t want to come. The average man don’t like trouble and danger. You don’t like trouble and danger. But if only half a man -- like Buck Harkness, there - shouts ‘Lynch him! Lynch him!’ you’re afraid to back down… you raise a yell, and hang yourselves onto that half-a-man’s coat-tail, and come raging up here, swearing what big things you’re going to do.’” (Twain 214). His speech is a parody of political speeches, one of the main mediums through which politicians, and, consequently, the government, draws in the public’s blind faith. Its use in Princess Bride is typified by when Prince Humperdink, the main antagonist, sniffs a vial of Iocaine and identifies it as such (Reiner, Princess Bride). This is an example of parody, as Westley, the original owner of said vial and its contents, stated that Iocaine powder is odorless, tasteless, and invisible, making it impossible for Prince Humperdink to identify it, which is a mirroring of a few old detective tales, where the main detective is seemingly omniscient. Both of these works use

Parody is when a work apes another work in an absurd tone so as to mock the original. Parody’s use to mock government in Huckleberry Finn is best exemplified by Colonel Sherburn’s rant to the lynch mob that formed against him after he shot and killed Boggs: “‘You [The members of a lynch mob] didn’t want to come. The average man don’t like trouble and danger. You don’t like trouble and danger. But if only half a man -- like Buck Harkness, there - shouts ‘Lynch him! Lynch him!’ you’re afraid to back down… you raise a yell, and hang yourselves onto that half-a-man’s coat-tail, and come raging up here, swearing what big things you’re going to do.’” (Twain 214). His speech is a parody of political speeches, one of the main mediums through which politicians, and, consequently, the government, draws in the public’s blind faith. Its use in Princess Bride is typified by when Prince Humperdink, the main antagonist, sniffs a vial of Iocaine and identifies it as such (Reiner, Princess Bride). This is an example of parody, as Westley, the original owner of said vial and its contents, stated that Iocaine powder is odorless, tasteless, and invisible, making it impossible for Prince Humperdink to identify it, which is a mirroring of a few old detective tales, where the main detective is seemingly omniscient. Both of these works use