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Examples Of Satire In Huckleberry Finn

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In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain uses satire to bring attention to the problems in the society of that time period. These ideas include hypocrisy, government, and racism. All of these items were presented in the time period of which Huck Finn lived in, and Twain despised how people engaged in these acts on a daily basis. He used his satire to criticize society and its flaws for the greater good of human nature.
First and foremost, Twain wrote these satirical scenes to bring attention to the problems of society in hopes they would try to correct them. A large portion of these scenes was centered around hypocrisy. One of the hypocritical groups Huck encounters in his tale is the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords-two …show more content…

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck’s father, Pap, returns to Hannibal to acquire Huck’s vast fortune of six thousand dollars. Jim Finn didn’t really want to be a father to Huck, he only wanted Huck’s fortune so he could buy more alcohol. The townsfolk knew that Pap was abusive, had a lack of education, and was no more than a drunk. This shows Pap’s poor character and how he shouldn’t be taking care of a young boy. The Widow Douglas tried to win custody of Huck to take him away from his father but the court denied her. In the novel, the judge of Huck’s custody dispute stated, “the courts mustn’t interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he druther not take a child away from its father” (Twain 21).Twain shows satirization in the legal system because the townsfolk knew Jim Finn wasn’t a suitable father and the court still allowed him custody. This also shows satirization of the government because Jim Finn was an alcoholic and abusive father, but the judge still gave this horrific man full custody of Huck. Lastly, this shows how courts at the time would rather take the easy way out and not be involved. The court system rather than help people through their problems or remove children from harmful circumstances would leave them in dangerous situations. Mark Twain did this to show how courts at the time just wanted to settle cases, rather than look into and actually figure out the right path to fix the

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