Examples Of Satire In Huckleberry Finn

In the book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain there is this young boy (Huck Finn) who has a big heart that lives sometime around the civil war era. He lives with an old Christian lady, Widow Douglas that makes him go to school and study all the time. His dad was a drunken man who was married to the bottle. He came back and got Huck they lived in a cabin for a while and Huck escaped. The rest of the book is devoted to Huck and Jim’s trip down the river. You might think the story ends there but it does not. Some people read this book as a children’s book—yes it is for a child but if you read closer you will find many objects of satire. The five main objects of satire were religion, racism, slavery, greed, and civilization. The first main object of satire was religion. One example of religious satire is when Huck asked the widow Douglas if he could smoke tobacco, and she said

An example of this is when Huck’s dad hears that Huck was getting money, lots of money from the judge. He decides he wants Huck back. So he goes in to town where Huck lived and told Huck that if he goes back to school he will spank him. Huck’s dad kidnapped him and locked him up in this cabin. He didn’t want Huck because he was his own son he wanted Huck’s money. Another example of greed that is satirized in this novel is when the King and duke commit fraud several times to get rich. The king and duke put on these play that where cheesy and lame, and charged people to watch them. After that they went up river and found out that a man just died and the family was waiting on some kin folk from England to come in, and there was talk of money being left to them. So they found out everything they could from a man and decided to act like they were the kin folk. They had a plan, a pretty good one at that. They went to the family’s home and told them they have arrived. Some people didn’t believe them and they almost got away with it