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Satire In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

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The reading requirement of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is not worth the discomfort of students and teachers due to racism and sensitive topics.
Twain’s novel, while possibly bringing light to the hostile nature of racism through his satire, does not leave stereotypes out at all. He consistently exaggerates black characters. Even though that is typical in satire, it is wholly uncomfortable for everyone involved in reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. When Huck and Jim are crossing the river into Illinois, Huck states that the reason Jim must cover up is: “because if he set up, people could tell he was a n*gger a good ways off.”(Twain 120) When read aloud, the “n-word” is an extremely uncomfortable situation, regardless …show more content…

The use of minstrel stereotypes on top of the n-word used in the novel makes the story even more unbearable. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn truly do use Jim as a toy much of the time throughout the story. When locked away, Tom acts his story-like fantasies out on Jim, telling him to he needed to suffer because others do(in stories). Tom states: “But Jim, you got to have ‘em(the rats)--they all do. So don’t make more fuss about it. Prisoners ain’t ever without rats.” (Twain 252) Consequently, this allows the reader to make the assumption that Jim is simply a character inserted into the story to suffer for the sake of laughs, and therefore permitting the audience to believe the same for other black people. Julius Lester believes: “Jim is diminished to a “minstrel” figure rather than the “admirable” person he was earlier.”() Even discounting the so-called …show more content…

These topics are often uncomfortable due to the simple nature of the acts. The discomfort of these acts are acknowledged in the book when Huck witnesses the punishment of the duke and king, two characters he meets that scheme and mistreat people. Huck mentions: “Well, it made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for them poor pitiful rascals, it seemed like I couldn’t ever feel any hardness against them any more in the world. It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be awful dreadful to eachother.”(Twain 232) While the acknowledgement of the duke and king’s punishments proves the satirical element of the instance, it does not make the event any less unbearable to read about. Most, if not all, would agree that this scene is not graphic as it is written, but arguably, the nature of the punishment discredits the lack of gore within the scene. Another reat example of horrid topics in Huck Finn is the drastic child abuse Huck faces with Pap. Pap, Huck’s father, is an astounding example of a raging alcoholic, even in 1870s standards. Before Huck sets off on his adventure, he has to escape from the hands of Pap, who locks him in Pap’s home, rarely coming home, unless he’s drunk. Huck recounts his abuse, stating, “But by-and-by pap got too handy with his hick’ry and I couldn’t stand it. I was all over welts. He got

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Huck has always seen Jim as a slave until they crossed paths while going down the river. The two develop a friendship and Huck starts to care about Jim and his well being. Although Huck views Jim as someone he cares about, he still sees him as a slave as well. “ I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write that nigger’s owner and tell where he was,” ( Document E). Huck is in a continuous battle with his inner self when it comes to his views on Jim.

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902 Words | 4 Pages

There, Pap abuses Huck in a drunken rage as he whips him and gets “to handy with his hick`ry” (Twain 24). He also locks Huck inside when he goes out to the town to purchase more whiskey even though “he had enough whisky there for two dunks and one delirium tremens” (Twain 28). Pap had also locked Huck inside for 3 days where Huck “judged he had got drowned and [he] wasn`t ever going to get out.” (Twain 24).

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1044 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, there are lessons and recurring events in the book that allow it to be viewed in many different ways. This can be done by examining plot points in the book through various literary lenses. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can be explored and better understood through the feminist and archetypal lenses. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, having taken place in the 1830s, displays minority groups in a negative light or denies them a real role in the development of the novel.

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We know that Twain is not racist, but he did use the N-word to show what kind of people his characters were. Delila Lloyd wrote a document that addresses both sides of the issue, but one of the points that sticks out is "Take the N-word out of Huck Finn, and is it really Huck Finn?" (Lloyd). Huck uses the N-word because he grew up in a society where the word was meaningless, and was used to describe slaves as scum. The word practically means nothing, but not as in the word doesn't have a meaning, but in the sense that the people described as the word are meaningless.

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789 Words | 4 Pages

Furthermore, the n-word is used over 200 times in the book which puts students in a challenging and uncomfortable position when reading the book. Huck uses the word to belittle Jim and make himself feel superior to Jim. In one instance after playing a trick on Jim, Huck feels bad and it takes him fifteen minutes to "humble [himself] to a nigger" (Twain 89). The n-word is used to degrade people in the story and in the real world and as a result makes people uncomfortable when reading the

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789 Words | 4 Pages

Huck Finn’s father, Pap Finn, is one of the most prominent examples of hypocrisy in the novel. Pap Finn is known for being an abusive, racist, drunk who has been arrested multiple times. After he is released and gains custody of Huck he goes on this long racial tangent that ends with him trying to murder Huck. “He chased me round and round the place with a clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death, and saying he would kill me, and then I couldn’t come for him no more” (pg 31). This is extremely hypocritical because Huck’s father is an immensely flawed human being with a lot of issues.

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The word ‘nigger’ is used 219 times throughout Mark Twain’s novel ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’. This fact, along with Twain’s depiction of Jim and subtle attack on religion, has offended not only multitudes of African-Americans, but also the Catholic Church. Twain’s novel has simultaneously revolutionized American literature and become one of the most frequently banned books in history. ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ was extremely provocative from its very publication, as its themes of rebellion, disobedience, and interracial friendship were thought to corrupt young children. In recent years, debates have no longer centered around Huck’s disobedience but implications of racism and anti-religious allusions.

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In the eyes of a young naive boy- Huck Finn, Twain informs society about the many faults and failings humans have. Through adventure, trials and overall tribulations Huck Finn soon grasps a mentality of understanding that equivalence between race is not only important but crucially substantial. Twain continually uses satire and dark themes as enticements to exposing the truth about how badly “slavery” impacts the rules of society.

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1724 Words | 7 Pages

These reasons show why Twain may have intended to discourage racism. In the novel Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain it is a story of a troubled young boy and his good friend Jim. In the story Twain is not trying to portray racism toward the character Jim but rather is discouraging it. We see examples in the novel where Twain shows how Jim differs from other White men who cheat others, how he describes the white and black symbolism, and shows empathy for Jim.

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544 Words | 3 Pages

While books influence Tom he still sees African Americans as objects when devising a plan to free Jim, Tom just cares about the adventure that goes along with the plan (Twain 216). Tom is has grown up in a society where white people see blacks as object not people. While also being twelve years old he just isn’t that interested in the real plan of freeing Jim. Tom is a

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1403 Words | 6 Pages

The black man on the back porch is afraid of the rattle snake because it is bad luck, or the innocent little slave is quick to believe everything one tells them at the drop of the hat. These are just some of the many racist stereotypes of the 1840s. A character named Jim is the star African American whom Twain bestoys the mission of being the stereotypical black man to prove a point. He along with his much more pallor companion Huck go on exciting adventures that unfold the events which expose the racist conduct of the time. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain saturates his novel with potent images of acute racism severe enough as to create a satirical mien that exposes the absurdity of prejudice.

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The Reality of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn “One nasty, offensive, mean-spirited little word should not be allowed to defeat the real education of our students” (“Huck”). In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, it takes one word to offend most of the populace, but little do readers see how they miss the life lessons and morals written between the lines. The big debate on whether or not Huck Finn should be taught in schools derives from one word--nigger. This is sadly unfortunate because readers tend to miss the overall message the book has to offer because their focus is solely on this one word. I think that readers should look at why Twain chooses to use the n-word in his novel, the fact that the word itself offends people even though it is still used today, and lastly the

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1367 Words | 6 Pages

The novel provides the young white students with racial slurs, at the same time implies to them the language is okay to use. Children nowadays grow up in Hip Pop culture where the “N” word is highly prevalent. They may understand that the word is not good to use, however

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1621 Words | 7 Pages

They get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing about it” (Twain 2). While Huck was talking about snuff here, it really sets the theme for the entire novel. Nobody knows anything about Jim, except that he is a slave and a “nigger.” Nobody knows him except for his lost family and Huck, who discovers that Jim is more human, and has better values than any of the “white” people Huckleberry meets along the way. Mark Twain used the characters of Huckleberry and Jim not only to portray the issue of racial prejudice in society but to show how it may be overcome.

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The dominant culture constantly viewed anybody that was gay or who seemed gay as something that was unfavorable, often represented in negative ways in society’s mainstream media. Also, bias to the stereotypical views that went along side with them, representing a very large portion of LGBT as either overly flamboyant, or somebody with commitment issues that tend to sleep around, or even as a person hiding in the closet about their same sex feelings. The LGBT choice never seems to fit the normal character category or even family friendly. The mainstream media tend to portray the LGBT character as either overly dramatic, kind of crazy or in some kind of comical way. One show that I thought of that gave the LGBT community positive outlooks but now that I look back I can see that there are more negative views then good.

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