Today, countless television shows and movies such as America’s Funniest Home Videos, Family Guy, and The Three Stooges capitalize on our increasing desire to watch people in pain. From someone face planting on concrete to another tripping down the stairs, watching other people in pain has always induced a stream of laughter. However, sometimes these amusing acts are taken to the next level, from torture to even murder. Yet people still find entertainment in the eternal agony of another, and some will even endorse more violent actions. Such atrocities are prevalent in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where criminal acts, such as murder and assault, are not only endorsed, but also turned into forms of entertainment. In The Adventures…show more content… For example, when Tom Sawyer is asked whether his newly found gang will kill, he proclaims, “Oh ,certainly ... it’s considered best to kill them-except some that you bring to the cave here, and keep them till they’re ransomed” (Twain 18). Even young children marvel at killing and harming others, for they are desensitized to killing through exposure to countless books and stories that idolize criminals such as pirates and murderers. Through this extreme scenario, Twain spotlights how everyone, especially children, are intrigued by the misery or death of another person. Similarly, Huck explains his prank to Jim by stating, “I went to the tavern to get some [tobacco], and found a rattlesnake in there. I killed him and curled him up on the foot of Jim’s blanket ... when Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck a light the snake's mate was there, and bit him” (Twain 59). Although Huck did not know the snake’s mate would come to attack Jim, he did know that seeing a dead snake on his blanket would give Jim a lot of anxiety. By using informal diction, Twain satirizes how pranksters, like Huck, will always find pleasure at the expense of another’s well being. Society continuously creates entertainment from the pain of others, but entertainment does not justify injuring, or in some cases, killing other
