In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain utilizes satire to convey the overall message of the novel, that society is flawed; he implies one should refrain from orienting their personal moral compass and ideals by what others dictate, because society is imperfect. This is evident in Huck’s moral struggle with the concept of slavery: Twain uses slavery as an example to satirize religion and hypocrisy. He also satirizes “us vs them” mentalities through the example of the Sherburn and Boggs incident. He also mocks the baselessness and irony of racism in American society. Satire is used in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn against religious hypocrisy, mob mentality, and racism to highlight these human flaws and address dark and serious issues with a touch of humor.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic novel that takes the reader on a series of thrilling adventures full of life threatening situations, racism, and slavery. The author Mark Twain, uses the novel to highlight the flaws in society by creating a character like Huck, whose personal sense of morals and justice are more noble than those of the very people trying to civilize him. Throughout this captivating novel Huck endures his fair share of trouble and morally challenging decision but he always comes out on top by following his heart and doing what he feels to be right.
Mark Twain emphasizes the theme that a person's morals are more powerful than the corrupt influence of society in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Based on how Huck Finn views the world and forms his opinions, he does not know the difference between right and wrong. In the novel, Huck escapes civilized society. He encounters a runaway slave, Jim, and together they travel hopes of freedom. But along the way, Huck and Jim come across troubles that have Huck questioning his motives.
Hypocricy and Blind Faith Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn took place in the eighteen hundreds when religion and reputation were dominant in peoples everyday lives. It was very rare for someone to believe something different than everyone else. In Twain 's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Tom Sawyer and Huck appear to be very different, but their actions, descriptions, and dialogue bring them together to symbolize society in order to show the blind conformity and hypocrisy that humans often display.
Irony in Huck Finn Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain takes place in the mid 1830’s to the mid 1840’s when slavery was still prevalent in the south. Although the book was set in the 1830’s to the 1840’s, it was not published until 1884, after slavery had been abolished in 1865. Slavery is an important topic of the book to focus on because it shaped the way people thought. A way that Twain shows the truths of slavery in the book is through irony. A specific scene that he used irony in was when Huck was helping Jim escape from slavery, yet Huck judged Jim for wanting to free the rest of his family which is ironic.
In Mark Twain 's book “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn” a young boy by the name of Huck is going through his life and without knowing it is learning about morals and the difference between right and wrong. In the beginning of the novel Huck has very little morals, he and his group of friends strive to be the antagonists in the books they read. They do things that may seem immature and vexatious. Such as hassling a Sunday school, although in their minds, they were attacking Spaniards and A-rabs for the diamonds they had. Huck and his group of friends constantly imagined stories in their heads and did things to act upon it.
For instance, religion proves to be a prominent component to these issues in Huck’s environment. As stated, “I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there [Heaven], and she said not by a considerable sight” (Twain 3). The preset disposition of religion leads to these fraudulent assumptions of whether one’s actions are right or wrong. Subsequently, Mark Twain is subtly hinting that there are flaws in the teachings of any religions that become misleading to the entire population. Next, the most urgent topic he implies, is racism.
In the 19th chapter of the book, Huck describes the river in great detail. For example, “ ...was about knee deep, and watched the daylight come. Not a sound, anywheres-perfectly still…”(Twain 138). In addition, he uses the sense of touch and sight. Twain uses great amount of imagery to make us imagine what Huck is seeing through his eyes.
Although there are numerous instances where Huck’s moral growth can be seen, the individuals around such as Jim, will influence his moral growth greatly. Jim, a runaway slave, is the most influential individual when it comes to Huck’s moral development. During the beginning of the novel, Huck’s morals are primarily based on what he has learned from Miss Watson. Huck begins to become wary of such ideals that Miss Watson has imposed on him, and decided all he wanted “…was a change” (Twain 10).
This leads into the main internal conflict that Huck must face. He must chose whether to break federal law by running away with Jim, a slave, or to do what society believes what is right and return him back to his owner. In the end, Huck chooses to not turn Jim in and go on a journey with him, defying the laws of the country. Johnson says that this recommends disobedience and defiance on the part of young people, however it does the opposite. This shows that Huck’s moral values are more in tune with making the right choice than society’s.
Huck experiences things normal people have never experienced, this allows him to embrace the people around him and mature as a person. Growing up he was taught to turn in people like Jim, he questions this belief and is once close of doing so. Then he realizes what good would it do
In the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain proscribes his audience from finding a motive, moral, or plot. In using rhetorical strategies such as satire, irony, and humor he challenges the reader to look for deeper meanings not only in the Notice, but throughout the whole novel. His purpose was to shed light on the false ideals that society represents as seen through the eyes of young boy. The ironic events that prohibit Huck from being a dynamic character suggest the inadequacy of blind faith in society.
“Among many disparate attempts by scholars and critics to explicate The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, at least two interpretations have met with general acceptance: 1) the feud of the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons...represents a literally fatal flaw in the chivalric code of a decadent Southern aristocracy, and...Huck's desire to escape the strictures of civilization by seeking the relative freedom from social restraint represented by the river and the territories” (Hoy, 17). In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses a satirical approach to initially reveal the truths about the Grangerfords; however, these initial truths build to expose the aristocratic values of a southern family and how their views reformed Huck’s outlook on
Huck 's morality is the only educational thing I believe is in this book, because it 's something you have to piece together and isn 't clear all the time. On page 43, Hucks early morality is a typical southern 's, “‘Well, I b 'lieve you, Huck. I—I RUN OFF.” “Jim!’”. Huck basically states he 's better than Jim in a way, Huck is shocked and mad that Jim has run off but Huck is also a run away so you can see this early racial attitude Huck has.
The historical novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain in 1884, has many literary elements to generate a good plot and compose a good story. Twain introduces the characters, the major ones being Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, as well as Jim. Finn was a white, poor child, who unlike Sawyer was not very dramatic in his way of life. Tom Sawyer read a lot and knew how to make any situation thrilling. Jim, a very mature black child, tags along with Finn (as well as the King and the Duke) to run away, and ultimately needs to get rescued in the end as he is forced into slavery by Ms. Watson.