societhf Southern Society Exposed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Southern Society Exposed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

One Work Cited Elaborate uses of race, unprecedented statements about the role of

religion and an overall mockery of the society of the old south serve as a

method of conveying Mark Twain's opinion of society. In his dandy riverboat

adventure, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain attacks the traditions

of slavery, racism, and the accepted traditions of the old south. He helped

expose the hypocrisies of the southern society through this novel.

Twain stands firmly by his principles. He is a firm believer that

slavery is sinister. It was a wretched institution that was necessary to be

eliminated. He said slavery was bad mainly because it was hypocritical. We see

this hypocrisy throughout the book when Huck is able to interact with Jim and

also learn from him while the southern slave society treats Jim as nothing more

than an object. We see the southern perception of black people in chapter

thirty-two when Huck tells to Aunt Sally his story about the blown cylinder head.

When she asks him if anyone was hurt he said "no'm. Killed a nigger." When

she shows no emotion in her reaction it shows us how many southern whites looked

at blacks. We also see at many times during the novel that Huck and Jim have a

true friendship. The go out of their way at many times for the welfare of

eachother and they develop a relationship to which they both contribute. Huck

teaches Jim about diversity, priests and rulers in chapter fourteen when he

reads to him about Solomon and Frenchmen. Jim also teaches Huck an important

lesson on how people should be treated individually.

Another example Twain uses to show the hypocrisies of society is racism.

Twain is not attacking the whole issue of race as much as the role race plays in

society. Twain uses race to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the rich and "well

refined." He starts demonstrating these falsities of a society of snobby

landowners by showing the vulgarity of their language (that is their overuse of

the word "nigger") . Twain also ridicules racists through Jim and through

whites embarrassing themselves. Jim as a black man is supposed to be an

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