Huckleberry Finn Social Structure

Social Structure

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe, ” (Frederick Douglass). The prejudiced aspects of society that cause turmoil and disarray are put forth in the above quote. Similarly, the classification of people by class and how they fit in social structure is presented in the following literary works: 1984 by George Orwell, Othello by William Shakespeare, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The prejudiced social structures evident in the status quo are challenged by the use of minor characters, plots, and thematic structures.

‘By 2050—earlier, probably—all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared,’ ” (Orwell 68). While Syme has no major importance in the novel itself, he is used by the author to bring to our attention the injustices of society. In continuation, in the novel Othello minor characters are used to undermine the patriarchal status quo of the renaissance: “I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak: My mistress here lies murder’d in her bed, ” (Shakespeare 199). In the time of the renaissance it was an essential part of the status quo for husbands to control their wives. In the above quote Emilia resists the status quo and undermines the male patriarchy by disobeying her husband. Likewise, in the Adventures of Huck Finn the status quo is outrightly challenged by using minor characters. One such example is when Colonel Sherburn makes a speech insulting a mob and standing up to its values: “The idea of you lynching anybody! It’s amusing. The idea of you thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a man! … Why, a man’s safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind—as long as it’s daytime and you’re not behind him,” (Twain 149). This speech is given by the colonel in order to question the lynch mob that is commonly present in southern society. Thus, the use of minor characters is used to undermine different social structures of the statu