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Satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn focuses on many issues of the Southern States in the 1850s. The novel is based on Huck Finn’s adventure and journey through the south, trying to free Jim, the slave. They undergo many problems and experience most of the backward ideologies of the south. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses social satire of religion, racism, and southern society to indicate how backward and flawed the southern community is. Satire refers to a genre in literature in which various shortcomings are ridiculed or criticized to cause shame to people and society to improve their ways. Even though satire is comedic, it is often used to reveal constructive criticism (Nafi and Rashed 33). In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, satire is applied to show the faults and shortcomings of America and its people in the 1840s. In this novel, Twain uses various examples to express social satire to show constructive ridicule of society’s flaws.
Religion is one of the main topics in the novel that Twain focuses on and applies satire to develop the story funnier and criticizes religious practices as portrayed by specific people. Twain criticizes the faith of the Southern people because of their immoral behavior. The humor expressed in this is that people pray and thank God while, on the other hand, they force slaves to work for them. Ms. Watson, one of the strong religious widows, is up to doing evil. Ms. Watson says she will not sell Jim to New Orleans, but because she is subject to get a lot of money, she agrees (Twain 55). Another example of religious satire is Huck’s concept of religion. The widow teaches him how to pray and know more about God, yet he sees no reason in doing so. His actions reveal that religion has no important contribution to his life. He often does good things without caring to engage in religious activities like praying. Perhaps, this may also be Twain’s view on religion that there is no need for upholding religion and that people should remain as good as they can be, and this is what Huck does throughout the entire novel.
The Grangerford family is another example of religious satire within the story. The family seems respectable, pleasant, loves God, and goes to church, yet they practice violence in a real situation. Specifically, the family shows religious hypocrisy by attending church services carrying their guns, put between their knees. They are ready to shoot if any need arises. After that, while on their way back home, they recap how the sermon was good and focused on brotherly love, having faith, and doing good to others. A day after, the deadliest feud occurs, killing many family members. Therefore, they may act as religious people but fails to respect God by causing feuds in the temple of God (Nafi and Rashed 43). They represent a group of hypocrites in society who want to be seen differently, yet they do evil things to people (Nafi and Rashed 38). These examples also reveal to us that it is good to have personal views on religion. Generally, concerning religion, Twain attempts to teach the moral of doing what you preach, and it should not just be done, but done out of the heart’s desires.
Twain also uses lying as a form of social satire. Lying plays a great role in the story, and it is applied throughout the entire novel. Huckleberry Finn, the primary character, is the chief culprit for this element. Huck is a character that lies throughout, and it is in rare situations that he tells the truth. He is portrayed as a chief mastermind for lying, and he does it so well without being caught. He constantly makes up stories of escaping bad situations and creates fake identities that enable him to be far from being caught. Duke and Dauphin are also at the center of lying. They travel across the world, misleading people in whichever way they can. They accomplish this by telling lies, to the extent that they pretend to be the brothers of a dead man so that they can also be given money from the will (Twain 223). As the story progresses, Twain shows the negative impacts of lying on people and how it can harm others. He shows us, through Huck, the importance of becoming mature and that speaking the truth is always the right thing to do.
In conclusion, social satire is often used to showcase the morals of specific groups of individuals and time periods. This is done by criticizing their weaknesses. Twain uses social satire to ridicule the flaws of the 1840s, such as racism, religion, and many more as were practiced then. He disagrees with most people’s beliefs, and he puts forth good reasons for doing so. Overall, Twain does well by ridiculing and pointing out the South people’s flaws in a more comedic and funny way. He reflects the morals that people should follow so that they live in a good society.
Works Cited
Nafi, Jamal, and Rashed Daghamin. “Twain’s handling of humor and satire in his novel the adventures of huckleberry Finn.” (2019).
Twain, Mark. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 1884.” Available from a variety of publishers (1985).