The more that someone analyzes and object or situation, the more flaws will be revealed to them because nothing on Earth is perfect. Satire is commonly used technique in the American society as it allows individuals to expose the flaws of a topic in a humorous manner. In Mark Twain’s novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Twain incorporates satire to point out the flaws within the world as he knew it. Though his characterization of the Duke and the King and the description of their various schemes, Twain forces the audience to face the fact that the American society as a whole is easily convinced of anything. In addition, the first person perspective of Huck’s thoughts and decision making process allows Twain to reveal the general moral …show more content…
Throughout “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, a multitude of individual including Huck are fooled into believing something that is told to them. The main grouping of these cases are because of the schemes of the Duke and the King. Twain characterizes these individuals greedy and resourceful people who take advantage of their surroundings for their own personal gain. During their swindles, the Duke and the King take advantage of the ignorance and gullibility of Huck and the people in the small town along the river. In one of their tricks, the Duke and the King attempt to put on a reenactment of “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet’s Soliloquy” which is “the most celebrated thing in Shakespeare”(Twain 135) and begin to rehearse for the play by simply reciting the lines from their own memory. Huck and the people of the small towns along the river are unable to detect that the duke and the king are simply making up words and calling it Romeo and Juliet and …show more content…
In the beginning of the novel when Twain is still introducing Huck, he quickly develops Huck as a young and uneducated boy who has not been civilized. While he is being lectured by Miss Watson about her religion and going to heaven, Huck decides that he “couldn’t see no advantage in going where she was going” and that he concluded that he “wouldn’t try for it” (Twain 3). As a young and uneducated boy, Huck has not decided for himself what is right and wrong. He simply does not like Miss Watson and so he decides he does not want to go to heaven with her. This battle between deciding what is right and wrong for himself is continuously a struggle for Huck throughout the entire novel. This struggle reaches a climax once Jim has been recaptured and forced to become a slave once again. Though Twain’s description of Huck’s thoughts, it is revealed the Huck feels pressured by the stereotypical perception of runaway slaves and the people that help the slaves escape. These stereotypical views confuses Huck into believing that helping Jim is a sin; however, he ultimately decides to help Jim even if it causes himself to “go to hell” (Twain 214). Huck decides to go against what the rest of society would believe would be a sin. However, he is doing the
I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together”(3). Huck does not want to go to the “good place” because Miss Watson is there but would go to the “bad place” because Tom is going to be there. Exaggeration is being used here. It is is putting a choice where there usually isn’t one. Although there is a true path to follow in this religion, people tend to interpret and reinterpret it until the point to where they get the standards of religion to standards that they can deal with/what they want them to be.
Summary: Through the voice of Huckleberry Finn, a deep criticism of racism and civilized society’s rules is narrated to the reader as Huck and Jim, escape from civilized society and set sail on a raft down the Mississippi river to slavery-free states. Both characters share a common goal: to be free of the rules that a civilized society places. Huck and Jim form an alternative family as they head down the river along with two white adult conmen they rescued, who commit many scams . These conmen are responsible for turning Jim into a local farmer
“Sivilized” in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn shows a completely different world from today. That being said, it still shows some aspects of modern society. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck and Jim try to escape to freedom most of the book.
“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
Failing to – he claims it’s been too long since he lived in France - Huck makes up his mind that this pair of liars “warn’t no kings nor dukes at all”, just a couple of low-down humbugs and frauds. He decides not to challenge them, if they wanted to be kings and dukes, let them. Huck decides its best not to cause any trouble (Twain 142). In his critical essay Spontaneity and the Quest for Maturity in Huck Finn, author R. J. Fertel posits that Huck actually likes Duke and Dauphin because they are so alike.
In the beginning of the novel Huck is contemptuous of morality and does not accept the world’s basic principles
At that time people wanted to believe in greater people and a place to go after death because not a lot of people lived for a long time, due to illnesses etc. People started to believe in a religion to have hope. Most people started to get morals from practicing the religion because they were so into it. Miss Watson is one of those people, we see that Twain makes this satirical, Miss Watson says that if Huck does bad practices ,such as slouching and smoking, he’ll go to the bad place. Widow Douglas tries to approach Huck in a better way with telling Huck about stories that would interest a young boy.
He thinks, “Well, I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself, by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I waren’t so much to blame, but something inside of me kept saying, ‘There was the Sunday School, you could a gone to it; and if you’d a done it they’d a learnt you, there, that people that acts as I’d been acting about that nigger goes to everlasting fire’” (Twain 222). Michael J. Hoffman notes that Huck realizes that if he went to church, he would have had the social code ingrained in him. As a result, he would not have had to make hard moral choices (turning in Jim).
He decided to go behind the King and the Duke’s backs and share his own opinion with Huck because he knew it was the right thing to do. On the final page of the book, Huck mentions that Aunt Sally is “‘going to adopt [him] and sivilize [him], and [he] can’t stand it” (220). This final passage allows Huck to reveal how much he has grown as an individual throughout the course of the story. This growth, as seen by his inability to stand the idea of being “sivilized”, presents the idea that he detests
Through Huck’s fluctuating beliefs he shows how often humanity exhibits hypocrisy without even realizing it. When Miss Watson had taken Huck in she had wanted him to become more respectable, she wanted to make sure he knew what was right and
Huck decides to act on his morals rather than be held captive by society; Huck believes that he has to act in the best interest of Jim and does not consider what society believes is acceptable behavior. By stating that he will “go to hell,” Huck reiterates what he promises Jim in the beginning- that he rather be a “low down abolitionist”; these statements combined supports his feelings to protect Jim from society. When Huck and Tom get back to the house, Huck states, “...it don’t make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person’s conscience ain’t got no
Mark Twain uses satire to portray different issues that were going on during the time period. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, author Mark Twain uses Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer to represent romanticism and realism. Doing so formed the characters into two drastically different persons. Mark Twain uses satirical elements to contrast the two main characters in their personalities and views. Tom Sawyer is a child who is blinded with fictional literature and the worlds view on slaves.
Laura Post Huck Finn Scholarly Article “I didn’t want to go back to the widow’s any more and be so cramped up and sivilized, as they called it.” (35). Huckleberry Finn, the protagonist of the famous novel by Mark Twain, deliberately averts being “sivilized” by the adults of the story. While closely analyzing Huck Finn’s society, there is no wonder why. Mark Twain’s novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” should be studied in high school because it shows the hypocrisy in a so called “civilized” society.
This novel takes place in the time of slavery in the USA. Huck, a rebellious boy whose mother died and whose father abandoned him, has to live adopted by the prestigious and wealthy Widow Douglas and her siter, Miss Watson. They are two strict women who want to “civilize” Huck. This means he has to go to school, wear clean and nice clothes and it using good manners. Unfortunately, he can’t go out or play with his friends.
Specifically, through the controversy of slavery at the time, Huck learns how to listen to his intuition and conscience. His slight hesitation escaping with Jim makes him question the authenticity of his morality. He says, “I begun to get it through my head that he was most free--and who was to blame for it? Why, me … But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could ‘a’ paddled ashore and told somebody”