Use Of Satire In Huckleberry Finn

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A satire defines itself as something that mocks the seriousness of something widely known and accepted. Mark Twain uses multiple satires in his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This book discusses the moral growth of a young, white boy, Huck Finn, who attempts to escape civilization with the help of his African American friend Jim. Mark Twain uses satires to mock topics, such as slavery, the American Civil War, the gullibility of the human race, and the pointless complexity of writers from the Romanticism era and show the growth of Huck Finn throughout the book. Mark Twain satirizes the irony and immorality of slavery in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The protagonist in this novel, a white male named Huckleberry Finn, …show more content…
Mark Twain "emphasizes [the irony of the feud] by having the two families sit close to one another in a church while the preacher lectures them on brotherly love" (D'Ammassa) and holding guns between their legs. This familial dispute can also be seen in the American Civil War. Brothers would fight against each other but still be considered brothers. In the novel, Buck Grangerford gives a detailed description of how a feud works, but he says that he does not know why the feud started. Buck says that "a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man’s brother kills him; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in—and by and by everybody’s killed off, and there ain’t no more feud" (Twain 111). Huck then asks Buck why the feud started, and he says that he does not know why it began. Buck, not knowing why the feud began, proves how idiotic and pointless the feud is. Also, the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons possess similar character traits. They contain "around the same amount family members, they go to the same church, and they are armed, dangerous, and quite wary of each other" (Sanders). In fact, the Shepardsons were as "high-toned and well born and rich and grand as the tribe of …show more content…
"Tom [Sawyer] inflicts romantic notions upon his playmates that resemble lockstep romantic notions" (Davis) and attempts to live like the people of the Romanticisim era. His Romantic ideas make Huck realize the importantance of living a simple, straightforward life. Mark Twain "ridicules Romantic literature" when Tom Sawyer and Huck attempt to break Jim out of the Phelps' farm, and "Tom abandons common sense with a preposterous plan to rescue Jim" (Lorcher). One of Tom's plans consists of using "[a] couple of case-knives" to dig Jim out because real prisoners never had "all the modern conveniences in [their] wardrobe to dig [themselves] out with" (Twain 245). Tom's unnecessary, over complicated escape plan came from the Romantic novels that Tom has read throughout his life. Romantic writers enjoyed over complicating their stories to make them more interesting, but Realist writers, such as Mark Twain, like to get straight to the point and make their stories realistic. Mark Twain satirizes the Romantic writers through Tom Sawyers to prove how absurd and illogical their stories were. Mark Twain uses satires in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to mock the human race and their beliefs. Mark Twain satirizes slavery, the American Civil War, the gullibility of the human race, and the Romantic writers. The comedy of such largely known and widely accepted topics
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