Social Satire In Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

omeone once said, "Never assume that every critic is a hater. Not everyone is hating on you. Some people are telling you the truth." In Twain 's novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, his use of satire was seen as a mockery of various social institutions. However, overall, it was a way for him to expose the truth about people. Through the use of various characters, Twain was able to reveal the veracity in the qualities of the failures in human society, royalty, and feuding families. The author 's approach to satirize specific groups was clearly evident and highly effective.

One of the most evident groups that Twain criticizes are the failures in human society. He uses Pap, Huck 's disappointment of a father, to satirize the non-fulfilling

The author used the duke and the dauphin to ridicule royalty. Jim and Huck referred to them as rapscallions because of their mischievous actions to collect money. They tricked people into purchasing tickets to their dreadful and brief performances for their own personal gain. They only cared about themselves and what they wanted because of their constant greed. Twain used humor to criticize royalty when Huck compared the duke and dauphin to past royalty. "...all kings is mostly rapscallions, as fur as I can make out... My, you ought to seen Henry the Eight when he was in bloom. He was a blossom. He used to marry a new wife every day, and chop off her head next morning" (Twain 164). Huck and Jim discussed the many ways in which kings are deceiving, including Henry the Eighth, whose life was over exaggerated to make it humorous for the audience. Twain 's method of comparing the duke and the dauphin to real life royalty was thoroughly effective because it demonstrated for the readers how upper class citizens can become greedy. The duke and dauphin began to gain power when they stated that they were of royal background and used their control for their own personal

Throughout Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a major focus was the issue of slavery and people 's reactions to the African American population. A vast majority of the White American society criticized them for their skin color and forced them into slavery because they were different. Huck, like the people he grew up around, was not friendly towards African Americans. However, his opinion of them changed as he got to know Jim, a slave who ended up being his traveling companion that he was trying to help escape to freedom. He saw the good in Jim when no one else could. Mark Twain poked fun at many groups of people, a lot of them being white. His mockery showed the reader that from slave to royalty, nobody 's perfect. Everyone has flaws. He showed us that their is a darker side to royalty and fathers, and a brighter side to slaves. His satirization greatly impacted a major theme in the story and overall taught his audience a superior