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How Does Mark Twain Use Satire In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

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Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses satire to denounce many ideas and institutions that he believes are problems in society. One such idea that Twain satirizes, is Romanticism’s unrealistic quality. In this novel, Twain’s sarcastic tone sends a humorous yet serious message through his attacking of Romanticism’s impracticality. By using knaves and fools, dramatic irony, and burlesque, Twain exposes the absurd principles in romantic literature. By utilizing knaves and fools, Twain is able to use Tom Sawyer as a medium to depict the ridiculousness of romantic imagination. When Tom finds a purpose for his band of thieves in kidnapping and ransoming, he bases it off books he read from the romantic era, “Don’t I tell you it’s in the books? Do you want to go to doing different from what’s in the books, and get things all muddled up?” (12). Tom as a knave, leads his gang of fools by thinking that they must follow and obey the rules of romantic literature. The insane notion of a group of boys blindly following fictional novels in order to be robbers clearly shows the absurd …show more content…

At the beginning of Jim and Huck’s adventure, they come across a wrecked steamboat called “Walter Scott”(69). Scott, a popular Scottish romantic author, wrote many romantic works including Ivanhoe. Twain describes the boat as a “wreck” (69), implying that certain romantic authors like Scott and their works are inaccurate as well as incompetent. Twain’s dislike for the exaggerated parts in romance is shown through this section, allowing his audience to visualize how the nonsensical aspects in romantic literature would cause the entire piece to fail. By connecting romantic authors to the wrecked “Walter Scott,” Twain is able to link the feeling of a shipwreck with Romanticism in his reader’s minds implying that they should stay away from the genre. awkward last

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