Huckleberry Finn's Influence On Society

Words: 869
Pages: 4

Society is cruel and disgusting towards their fellow human counterpart. Mark Twain ex-poses his disgust with society as he leaves many examples in: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The protagonists encounter several individuals who exhibit undesirable character traits and greatly influence the outcome of Huck’s journey. Twain explores the eagerness of two men to lie and profit from their dishonesty rather than make an honest wage. He exhibits man’s ability to continue a conflict rather than resolve it and admit wrongdoing. Twain also brings to light how an innocent person can be negatively influenced by their sinful comrades. Through Huck’s ex-periences in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain’s view of society is clearly negative. …show more content…
The King and Duke embark the protagonist’s raft and convince them that they are royalty from France, but Huck figures out they are not, “… these liars warn't no kings nor dukes, at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds” (Twain160). Huck realizes that everything is not what it seems to be and that people will lie in order to get what they want. Further down the river the group comes upon a town and the two conmen use the town’s meeting to their advantage, the King convinces the town’s people that he is an ex-pirate turned Christian missionary, “They live entirely on on taking advantage of others, and they do well while doing so. Huck notices that they make much more money by their conniving ways” (FeelingNewsy). The citizens generously offer up their pockets and give the King money to help his cause. The dynamic duo then produces a fake show and cons people into paying to attend when they find out it’s a con they refuse to show others to prevent humiliation, “ More crafty, scheming, and educated than the King, he [the Duke] intro-duces the King to stage acting as a means to swindle others” (Shlensky). The King and Duke’s last act is to steal Jim away from Huck and sell him off to bravery, “after to-night we can run in the daytime if we want to. Whenever we see anybody coming we can tie Jim hand and foot with a rope, and lay him in the wigwam and show this handbill and say we captured him up the river” …show more content…
As proven with the King and Duke, people will lie and deceive someone to get whatever they so please. People will continue to fight each other for no known reason and do not question the rea-son behind the conflict. Individuals will tell someone something then turn around and do it them-selves. By being around these traits an overall virtuous person can be transformed into the scum of society that they once had a hatred