Examples Of Satire In Huckleberry Finn

Kyleigh Moody

Mrs. Briscoe

Survey of American Literature 2326

10 April 2018

English Writing Assignment #3

Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic American novel. Through many different examples of satire and irony, we can see the revolutionary messages Twain wanted to jump off the pages at readers. From Huck Finn’s conflicting viewpoints on God, to Tom Sawyer refusing to tell Huck and Jim that Jim was already freed, to the controversial use of the n word throughout the novel, Mark Twain uses irony and satire to blur the lines of socially accepted themes.

From the very beginning of the novel, Huck has been influenced greatly by Miss Watson and the widow. The widow and Miss Watson both try to impart their vastly different viewpoints of God on Huck. The irony of how two people who both claim to be Christians can think of God in two very different ways is showcased when Huck states, “I judged I could see that there was two Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the widow’s Providence, but if Miss Watson’s got him there warn’t no help for him anymore” (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn pg. 9). Mark Twain uses satire to illustrate the dramatic differences between more conservative Christians

Sawyer is so determined to create an unnecessary adventure that he even ends up taking a bullet for the cause! Mark Twain creates a wild character like Tom that has such a distorted view of reality that he believes his own life should be just as entertaining and crazy as the books he has read. Tom tells Huck, “ Why, hain’t you ever read any books at all? … None of them heroes? Whoever heard of getting a prisoner loose in such an old-maidy way as that?” (pg. 180). When Huck begins to question Tom’s crazy methods, he notes, “But he never heard me. He had forgot me and everything else.” (pg