How Does Twain Use Dramatic Irony In Huck Finn

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Twain also satirizes the racism of the south through dramatic irony. In chapter 26, the duke explains how he thinks all black men are thieves. "Because Mary Jane 'll be in mourning from this out; and first you know the nigger that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds up and put 'em away; and do you reckon a nigger can run across money and not borrow some of it?" (160). The duke is complaining about thieves, which is ironic because essentially he is a thief. Another example would be the boy Huck meets on the road. The boy explains his enthusiasm for the reward for the runaway when he explains, "Well, I reckon There's two hundred dollars reward on him. It's like picking up money out'n the road" (190). Clearly, the southerners don’t view Him as a person, just a large bag of money. Twain hit the nail on the head when illustrating the racism of the south. …show more content…
When Huck joins a gang, they insist on capturing and ransoming prisoners. They have no idea what ransome even means. But, “I’ve seen it in books; and so of course that’s what we’ve got to do” (8). They treat the fictional books as reality, so, of course, they think that’s how real life works. A second example would be Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn trying to help Jim escape. They insist on Jim taming a snake to escape stating; “I prisoner's got to have some kind of a dumb pet, and if a rattlesnake hain’t ever been tried, why, there’s more glory to be gained in your being the first to ever try it than any other way you could ever think of to save your life” (235). They believe to break someone out you need to have some sort of gimmick. These crazy ideas originated from fictional, fanciful ideas of the romantic