Humor, along with its various forms, including satire, is often used to present social commentaries. This is especially true in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In his novel, Twain tells the story of a boy named Huckleberry Finn voyaging down the Mississippi River to free his slave companion, Jim. In doing so, Twain evokes many issues of Southern culture. Through the use of satirical devices, characterization, and story, the author enlightens readers and offers a critique on racism and religion. One of the best, if not the single most important, humorist in American history, Mark Twain, through his satire, paints a portrait of the pre-Civil War American South and all its flaws. In recent years, there has been increasing debate …show more content…
Huck concocts the tale about the steamship cylinder exploding as an excuse for arriving in town later than expected. When asked if anyone was hurt, Huck replies "No 'm, killed a nigger" (279). Aunt Sally is relieved, replying “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt” (279). To hear that no white people where hurt or killed, Aunt Sally is depicted as racist. She does not care that a black person died. In the beginning of the book, the reader could easily attribute the racist attitudes of the speaker to the culture and time, but after being introduced to Jim, the reader is unable to maintain that distance. Therefore, it is ironic to hear Huck make such a racist comment. As the reader sees through the tale, Huck is morally above the attitudes and ways of traditional Southern society. However, he is simply speaking in a way he thinks Aunt Sally would relate, in order to fit into the situation. Although Twain wrote the novel after slavery was abolished, he set the plot several decades earlier, when slavery was still a fact of life. However, by Twain’s time, racism had not necessarily disappeared in life in the South. In this light, reading Twain’s depiction of slavery presents an allegory of the condition of blacks in the United States even after the abolition of …show more content…
“And then he busted into tears, and so did everybody. Then somebody sings out ‘Take up a collection for him, take up a collection!’ Well, a half a dozen made a jump to do it, but somebody sings out, ‘Let him pass the hat around!’ Then everybody said it, the preacher too” (173). His story about being a pirate and wishing to convert his brethren is laughable, silly, and exaggerated. A rational person would easily see through this hyperbolic narrative, however, at the revival meeting, everyone is so overcome by the love of God and their fellow man that they believe him and donate to his cause. With this anecdote, Twain is commenting on the gullibility of religious zealots. Twain 's view of religion is lucidly set forth in this novel, as he tends to express that devotion to religion is simply a waste of time and
While staying with a farming family, Huck’s partner, known as “The King,” sold off some slaves that he swindled away from the family. While the slaves were crying and saying goodbye to each other, Huck thinks that “I couldn’t a stood it all but would a had to bust...if I hadn’t knowed the sale warn’t no account and the niggers would be back home in a week or two”(Clemens, 234-235). While traveling with Jim down the Mississippi, Huck’s transformation on his outlook on slaves is drastic. He no longer sees Jim as “Miss Watson’s big nigger,”(Clemens, 22) but as a
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel written by Mark Twain during the late 1800’s (Mintz). The book brought major controversy over the plot, as well as the fact that it was a spin-off to his previous story, Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This book has remained a success due to Twain’s interesting techniques of keeping the audience’s attention. Chapters eleven and twelve of “Huckleberry Finn,” uses a first person limited point of view to take advantage of the use of dialogue while using many hyperboles to add drama to entertain the reader by creating description within the story without needing to pause and explain.
Mark Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, has sparked much controversy since its publication in 1884 due to countless racial slurs and stereotypes; in fact it is the most commonly banned book in American history (source). While many argue that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be banned, the literary merit, namely the realistic setting and characterization, outweighs the vulgarity and crude language. Twain’s satirical social commentary
Have you ever seen the Colbert Report, The Simpsons, or even Family Guy? If you have then you have seen works of satire. In “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, the author is famous for his use of satire, he employs this writing technique to ridicule and question fundamental aspects of society like religion, laws, and racism. In Huck Finn the portrayal of race relations is used to urge the reader to question the basic injustices of racial inequality.
While traveling together down the river Huck and Jim, accompanied by the king and duke, came to a stop after passing their original destination, Cairo, during the night. While at the stop Huck overheard the king and duke put out a reward for Jim. Huck knows that if Miss Watson finds the reward notice, he will return back with Miss Watson.Therefore she will sell him elsewhere. When faced with this difficult situation Huck decided to write a letter to Miss Watson, however, after finishing his final sentence he realizes how Jim contains similar emotions and feelings as him and other caucasians. Huck yells after tearing up the letter “All right then, I’ll go to Hell” (Twain 31). This action supports the individual's right to think differently from mankind and express their free will or ability to choose how they interact with others. Huck treats a person of color equally when Jim discusses his relationship with his family and his past. While listening to Jim talk about his family, Huck understands that Jim cares about his family as much as a white person does and so he says “I knowed he was white inside” (Twain 30). This interaction between Huck and Jim signifies that Huck sees Jim as equal despite the racial bias set forth by mankind's stigma around different races. This scenario accurately supports Twain's idea of equality and fair treatment for all
In conclusion, in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Twain satirically portrays organized religion and society's morals throughout the novel. People that Huck and Jim met along on the way regardless of the Grangerford and shepherdson families duck and dauphin disguise themselves and keep true identities of greed, prejudice and hypocrisy hidden. Hypocrisy, the one of the major themes in the novel, transpires the ugliest side of human beings and exposes the brutal society.
Samuel Clemens - or as he is most commonly referred to as, Mark Twain - was a seminal American novelist, with his works not only contributing to the general American literary canon, but in fact, greatly inspiring other such elemental writings. Twain is, perhaps, most remembered by the quintessential work, The Adventure’s of Huckleberry Finn, in which the eponymous character travels down the Mississippi River with his close friend, and runaway slave, Jim. In doing so, the two experience Twain’s satirical, yet quite realistic, interpretation of the South, while Huck, consequently, experiences a drastic change in terms of his own morality. When considering this novel’s content from a literary perspective, it seems to be that this notion of moral growth is quite essential to one’s understanding of the plot, as Huck’s character at the story’s conclusion highly contrasts with that of the beginning. Furthermore, and quite importantly, one shall find that evidence is abound for such a change in moral character when one is to examine Huck’s thoughts and subsequent actions in a chronological manner.
Mark Twain’s memoir, Life on the Mississippi, and his short story “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” utilize the definitive styles of a great American writer. Twain’s signature style of writing are found within these two pieces, as he incorporates the language and themes from the American South to depict where he is from. Twain, being a humorist and entertainer, includes comedic dialogue and scenes in nearly all of his writings, each containing various degrees of jest. Life on the Mississippi and “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” both share numerous features commonly found in Twain’s work, but differ greatly in their manipulations of humor.
The majority of the humour in this book comes directly from the characters being ludicrous. Nonetheless in some instances, Twain uses racism incorporated with humour to portray the prejudice between the blacks and the whites in a comical way. “She grabbed me and hugged me tight...people do get hurt” (Twain 223). In this passage, Huck tells Mrs. Phelps about a steamboat incident that occurred; he tells her that the explosion was so massive and extremely life threatening since it had killed a “Nigger”. Mrs. Phelps casually responds, “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt” (Twain 223). This is an incredibly a racist statement because Huck clearly tells Mrs. Phelps that a black man has lost his life during this tragic event, but
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a novel about a boy named Huck who fakes his death and travels down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave named Jim. Throughout the novel they encounter many different characters, most of whom Twain uses to satirize the South. The definition of satire is “a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles.” Twain satirizes the values, and intelligence of the South through the characters of the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords, Colonel Sherburn and Boggs, and the people scammed by the King and Duke.
Mark Twain’s picaresque novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (hereafter Huck Finn) gives a realistic portrayal of Southern life before the American Civil War and depicts the way companionship enables the journeyers to learn from diverse perspectives enriching the journeys power to prompt inner growth and development. This is clearly depicted through the use of first person persona, where Twain employs the uneducated vernacular voice of Huck Finn. This technique contributes to the authenticity of Huck Finn’s Southern characterisation emphasising his transformation from racial prejudice and small mindedness to a more moral and tolerant perspective. Together Huck and Jim embark on their personal quests for freedom; Huck for freedom from “sivilisation” and Jim for freedom from slavery. Together they travel down the river a motif that symbolises their desire for liberation and security. “ I never felt easy till the raft was…out in the middle of the Mississippi…we was free and safe once more”. As they travel they are not merely moving down the river but discovering who they are as they learn and grow along the way.
Twain’s famous novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, plays on the mentality and social structure of his time and its people. He saw the critical weaknesses in our values and ideals as a society during his life. He wanted to express his satirical views to the public and bring light to our society’s problems. Twain had successfully accomplished his task when he published the controversial book that is still argued today. Huckleberry Finn shows how major themes like education, religion, and morality, can be seen in his view.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pseudonym Mark Twain, has been central to American literature for over a century. His seemingly effortless diction accurately exemplified America’s southern culture. From his early experiences in journalism to his most famous fictional works, Twain has remained relevant to American writing as well as pop culture. His iconic works are timeless and have given inspiration the youth of America for decades. He distanced himself from formal writing and became one of the most celebrated humorists. Mark Twain’s use of the common vernacular set him apart from authors of his era giving his readers a sense of familiarity and emotional connection to his characters and himself.
He meant to poke fun of as much as possible it seems when he wrote this book as it is quite the list starting with religion, greed , civilization, romanticism, and the list goes on. Through Huck he shows a young boy being civilized by a society in which slavery exists and of course mistreatment, or a barrier between blacks and whites which affect Huck. “I see it warn’t no use wasting words- you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit”(60). It shows just how much a certain idea can catch considering Huck just called Jim less intelligent than he is which is pretty ironic considering Jim is much older than Huck. Twain just proves that blacks were thought less of during such times, but such a thing was not taken so seriously and with the publishing of this book gave more insight to everything in the south that was a little off. Many instances go farther and show what everyone thinks about blacks in a southern society. Most of what Huck has been taught in the south makes him conflicted when it comes time to decide certain things.”All right then I will go to hell-and tore it up”(162). Huck’s momentary decision here sort of set out how much he was affected by Southern ideology of returning and keeping slaves in check. Huck did start writing to Mrs. Watson in hopes that she would come get Jim. The thought of this really put Huck at such an ease due to the fact that he was used to
Mark Twain was known as a humorist and in fact, humor was a tool he used to strengthen his points about what he saw as the major problems of the day. Living at the time of the Civil War, he clearly saw and chose to address such problems as slavery, child abuse, religion and feuds. In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain expresses his loathing for some of these serious social problems and yet in general, he never loses his humorous touch. Nonetheless, when he deals with the ills of society that particularly anger him, he chooses not to use humor; rather this is reserved for other areas of his work.