Chelsea Cheung
Block G
English III
Ms. Hunnewell
March 16, 2014
The Role of Hucksters and Con Men in Huckleberry Finn
Twain in his novel, Huckleberry Finn, have used different characters to reveal how stupid the society is. Through out the novel, there are con men, tricksters, pranks that use their minimal knowledge to deceive the people. Tricks seem to be a significant tool that is used to earn living for many of the characters in the novel. This implies that there is a high supply of the gullible and foolish people in this society. Twain reveals that the town comprises of a number of stupid, ignorant, and gullible people of whom hucksters and con men uses their naivety to earn themselves a better life.
Twain shows how the victims of con men and hucksters are stupid enough to fall on their traps. For instance, duke and the dauphin take advantage of the gullible townspeople by holding The Royal Nonesuch show that was overcharged. However, the con men were not successive on their show because of their ingenuity, as well as the foolish, vindictiveness and selfishness. After the audience of the first show realized that, it was horrible and not what they expected, they attracted other people in the show to be fooled the same way they did. Instead of the townspeople warning other people not to attend the show, they would rather let them being ripped off as they did. Despite the fact that the dauphine and duke were fake in their ascent and hilarious incompetent in their role- playing, no one would suspect then except for Doctor Robin. When Doctor tried to expose the con men, some of the townspeople, Mary Jane, who dismiss his allegations without taking a second thought. This indicated that people in this society are not in...
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...equently Huck. According to Twain, Jim “was sitting there with his head down between hin knees, asleep, with his right arm hanging over the steering- oar” (Twain 130). Although the gravity steered the raft, Twain wanted to show how the two were ignorant enough to fall asleep on a sailing boat through the Mississippi river. However, if they could have come across any unexpected barrier, the one to be blamed would be Huck; since it was Huck’s turn to steer the raft.
Twain attempts to reveal how people in the society blindly fall on the traps of the con men and hucksters without thinking critically. In other words, people tend to take things as they are without being skeptical of the event or the idea and lead them to ultimate downfall. According to Twain, the consequences of not thinking critically to oneself are depicted by failure to succeed in the future.
In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Grangerfords and Pap are two of the characters who are used by Twain to condemn civilized society. Twain employs satire to express his belief that “civilized” society is neither moral, ethical, nor civilized. Exaggeration, stereotyping, and irony are used throughout the story to satirize and to expose the Grangerfords as the typical southern aristocrats and pap as the typical drunken “white trash.”
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain gives direction to the reader about characters that have traits of greed for material or their own self wanting to have wealth to show how he thinks about the problems with our communities dealing with greed and wealth. He hopes he can make an impact on people so they can better themselves in the long run.
-The man vs. man conflict is brought up many times throughout this story. The first that is posed is the conflict between Huckleberry and Pap. Pap is Huckleberry’s abusive biological father, and an alcoholic to boot. He first comes in and tries to steal his son’s fortune, just so he can get drunk. Huckleberry is kidnapped by his father for a short time, and during this is beaten many times. Huckleberry eventually escapes as he saws his way out of a shed with an old saw he finds. He then kills a pig to fake his own death and smears blood all over the shed so the story is more believable.
Mark Twain displays good in humanity through depictions of courage in the characters of Huck Finn and Jim. Huck Finn was certainly one of the bravest characters in the book to have faced all of his adventures. When he and Jim happened upon a crashed steamboat, "The Walter Scott", and discovered a ruthless band of cutthroats, Huck had the courage to try and stop them. Huck said, "But if we [Huck and Jim] find their boat we can put all of 'em [the cutthroats] in a bad fix-for the Sheriff 'll get 'em" (Twain 90). Huck had the fearlessness to risk his own life to bring several murderous criminals to justice. The character Huckleberry Finn displayed the human virtue of heroism when he decided to free Jim from the clutches of the Phelps family. Although he thought it would cost him his soul, Huck had the courage to follow his heart in freeing Jim as summed up by his thought, "All right, then, I'll go to hell"(Twain 273). Twains other main character besides Huck Finn is a runaway slave. This slave, Jim, exemplified true courage. When Jim decided t...
Twain’s attitude changes from the first half of the story to the last half since it is many years later. But, years later, when he thinks about how much pride he had in his successful crime, he cannot relieve himself of guilt. In fact, he can’t even convince his own mother that he lied. “How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!” (6). He built his heroism on a lie and now that he tries to tell the truth to his mother, she won’t believe that he lied. After all, they say that people believe what they want to believe, even in the face of truth. Twain, as a teenager, participated in Simmons’s show for the attention, and thirty-five years later his guilty conscience continues to haunt him. But, it wasn’t only his wrongdoing, the townspeople and Simmons are all to blame.
...t the end of the book Huck even feels compassion for people that do not deserve it. He witnesses the duke and king being tarred and feathered. Despite the fact that these men played dirty tricks on him Huck still feels pity for them. “It was a dreadful thing to see. Humans beings can be awful cruel to one another.” (208) Mark Twain is essentially questioning the reader to examine their set of beliefs and decide which ones they actually believe, and which ones should be abandoned just as Huck did with Miss Watson’s beliefs and Pap’s beliefs.
Mark Twain once said, "Lie--an abomination before the Lord and an ever present help in time of trouble." Twain's description of deceit gives it a type of double meaning. This idea of lying being used for good as well as evil is not unheard of. Many time people find it necessary to lie to maintain a greater good or save a life. However, all too often, people lie for self-serving, immoral purposes. In this quote, Twain elegantly shows the delicate balance between good and evil in the performance of the same act. Furthermore, Twain also shows this complex thought in his portrayal of characters in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twains novel emulates his quote, juxtaposing the good and bad aspects of stretching the truth. Throughout the novel, Twain provides numerous commentaries on the morality of characters. His display of deception in the story continually serves to improve the reader?s understanding of a character?s moral integrity, based on the nature and intent of the lie. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses the lies of numerous characters to better define the moral ambiguity of those characters.
When Huckleberry Finn is separated to the side of the river, he comes upon the house of the Grangerfords. Twain satirizes this concept of fearfulness that often leads to the inhumanity of man and hypocrisy. Huck shows confusion while describing his experience with the Grangerfords. He sees that they want to be good people; however, they would do anything to anyone if it is in their own interest.
Mark Twain applies humor in the various episodes throughout the book to keep the reader laughing and make the story interesting. The first humorous episode occurs when Huck Finn astonishes Jim with stories of kings. Jim had only heard of King Solomon, whom he considers a fool for wanting to chop a baby in half and adds, Yit dey say Sollermun de wises?man dat ever live? I doan?take no stock in dat (75). Next, the author introduces the Grangerfords as Huck goes ashore and unexpectedly encounters this family. Huck learns about a feud occurring between the two biggest families in town: the Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons. When Huck asks Buck about the feud, Buck replies, 搾... a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man抯 brother kills him; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in ?and by and by everybody抯 killed off, and there ain抰 no more feud挃 (105). A duel breaks out one day between the families and Huck leaves town, heading for the river where he rejoins Jim, and they continue down the Mississippi. Another humorous episode appears n the novel on the Phelps plantation. Huck learns that the king has sold Jim to the Phelps family, relatives of Tom Sawyer. The Phelps family mistakes Huck for Tom Sawyer. When Tom meets with Aunt Sally, he ?.. [reaches] over and [kisses] Aunt Sally on the mouth?(219) This comes as a surprises to her and Tom explains that he 揫thinks] [she] [likes] it?(219) Later, Huck runs into Tom on the way into town and the two make up another story about their identities. The two then devise a plan to rescue Jim. They use Jim as a prisoner and make him go through jail escaping clich閟.
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered the great American Novel with its unorthodox writing style and controversial topics. In the selected passage, Huck struggles with his self-sense of morality. This paper will analyze a passage from Adventures of huckleberry Finn and will touch on the basic function of the passage, the connection between the passage from the rest of the book, and the interaction between form and content.
Twain’s novel was greatly influenced by the times and criticizes the imperfections in society. These errors in society were subjective to the current events during the Gilded Age. The following show the effects of the current times that influenced the context of the novel. One of America’s leading historians of America in the west, Patricia N. Limerick well elaborates on what happened in the Gilded Age. The following quote fro...
The prejudices on which the “civilized society” lie build those who are blind to the injustices occurring. The dark visages from which the societies hid are revealed through Huck’s persona and his interaction between the minor characters. Twain’s exposure to the dark side to even the moral- looking people reveals the theme of everyone wears a face and behind the front is a much darker side that most people do not want exposed.
By writing this, Twain has demonstrated a social class element found in many of his stories. He wanted to express the different types and attitudes from these different social classes. In his days, Mark was fortunate enough to provide and thrive in a corrupt society, while many could not. Many of his jobs (such as a entrepreneur and a journalist) may have exposed him to the blend of culture and wealth found in the corrupted, gilded age of the 19th century. Being emotionally locked with these unfortunate situations in society, Mark may have been compelled to incorporate this into his
Huck Finn learns from the actions of people around him, what kind of a person he is going to be. He is both part of the society and an outlier of society, and as such he is given the opportunity to make his own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. There are two main groups of characters that help Huck on his journey to moral maturation. The first group consists of Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and the judge. They portray society and strict adherence to rules laid out by authority. The second group consists of Pap, the King, and the Duke. They represent outliers of society who have chosen to alienate themselves from civilized life and follow no rules. While these characters all extremely important in Huck’s moral development, perhaps the most significant character is Jim, who is both a fatherly figure to Huck as well as his parallel as far as limited power and desire to escape. Even though by the end of the novel, Huck still does not want to be a part of society, he has made a many choices for himself concerning morality. Because Huck is allowed to live a civilized life with the Widow Douglas, he is not alienated like his father, who effectively hates civilization because he cannot be a part of it. He is not treated like a total outsider and does not feel ignorant or left behind. On the other hand, because he does not start out being a true member of the society, he is able to think for himself and dismiss the rules authority figures say are correct. By the end of the novel, Huck is no longer a slave to the rules of authority, nor is he an ignorant outsider who looks out only for himself. This shows Huck’s moral and psychological development, rendering the description of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as a picaresq...
“The situation of the orphan is truly the worst, you’re a child, powerless, with no protectors or guides. It’s the most vulnerable position you can be in, to see someone overcome those odds tells us something about the human spirit. They are often depicted as the kindest or most clever of characters.” Michelle Boisseau describes how important these types of characters are. In a Sunday Times article, she states that a lot of the stories and novels are considered to be apologues about orphans becoming the hero of the book. Huck’s story is quite like this subject. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel written by Mark Twain, it’s about a boy named Huckleberry Finn, who sets out on a journey to discover his own truth about living free in nature, rather than becoming civilized in a racist and ignorant society. Mark Twain implies that Huck Finn resembles more of what he believes is right rather than what society surmises from him. Twain reveals this through the themes of satire, racism, and hero’s journey, which he uses constantly through out the book.