Satire In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

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Twain’s Journey Down The Nihl In Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he uses the literary device of satire to express his views on society in the antebellum South. Many authors besides Twain have used devices such as symbolism to convey their own views. Twain displays this satire and his world view through symbolism and irony, as well as through characterization throughout the novel. Twain takes a satirical, negative view on humanity and uses Huck as a vessel to expose man’s faults and idiosyncrasies. Mark Twain uses Huck’s father, referred to as “Pap” in the novel, as an exposé of racism and hypocrisy in Huck’s time. Pap’s hypocrisy is a topic that Twain touches on through multiple scenes in the novel. For example, Pap’s rant in the beginning of the novel clearly outlines this. In the midst of his rant, Pap complains that “a man can’t get his rights in a government like this…” (28). This displays irony because Pap is a white man in the antebellum south, a demographic which is widely considered to be the most privileged of the time. Pap’s racism is also a broadly explored topic. An example of this …show more content…
While these are not the only examples of Twain’s Nihilism, bleak outlook on the South, and his overall distaste for the racism expressed by the common individual in Mississippi in the period, they stand out as the clearest. The novel is a subtly satirical narrative that allows thoughtful readers the opportunity to clearly see Twain’s view on mankind and his idiosyncrasies. Through his usage of symbolism, irony, and characterization, Twain successfully paints his portrait of a dismal, racist, hypocritical, and often blindly ignorant view on humanity through the description of the people Huck meets and is involved with throughout the novel. While Huck and Jim may have had an adventure on the Mississippi River, Twain certainly had one of the River
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