Theme Of Satire In Huckleberry Finn

Satire forces the audience to realize a ridiculous behavior, it allows the audience to see exactly how foolish the behavior is. This, hopefully, ceases the behavior. Often times, the behaviors satirists choose are things of human nature that are unreasonable. For example, in pride there resides many human tendencies which are often the target of satiristic novels. Specifically, pride brings in arrogance, stubbornness and hypocrisy. Mark Twain, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, seeks to expose many hypocritical, illogical patterns in human behavior, especially when it comes to pride, since this novel was after the Civil War he satirizes how badly people treat African Americans.

Essentially, the novel stares down to the root issue of prejudice.

Several instances show in the novel that characters say something and their actions don’t match their word. For instance, when the Widow Douglas told Huck that he could not smoke because smoking was “a mean practice and wasn't clean” (2). Miss Watson herself, however, chewed tobacco. Other characters in the novel also serve as the form of satire to hypocrites. The duke, right away says that “ - all black men are thieves - ” (--). In reality, the king and the duke are the biggest thieves of them all. They judge Jim as having bad character but they are the ones who honestly have major character flaws. Overall, Twain identifies many religious characters’ flaws in their practice. For example, many of the Christian characters in the book believe that “ --” (--). This would be a normal virtue if it wasn’t for the fact that they act against it. Twain chose to satirize these traits in order to point out how ridiculous human behavior truly

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. Also, Emmeline’s parents made her a very ornate shrine in their home for her. After her death her poetry became much more appreciated as well as her art. On one particular painting that hung in her room the Grangerfords decorate it with flowers in her room “every time her birthday come[s]” and “other times it was hid with a little curtain” (77). Twain mocks those who idolize people that have passed. This is a way of many when trying to cope with difficult situations. People also have a tendency to go with their instincts about trusting others. For example, Mary Jane and the rest of the Wilks family, including the town they lived in, trusted the duke and the king for their word and believed them when they introduced themselves as Peter’s brother. In fact, Mary Jane trusts the king so much that she gives him the bag of money and tell him to invest it for the family (129). Twain exaggerates how