Theme Of Irony In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

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Mark Twain created a character that is completely unaware his narration is ironic at every turn. Huckleberry Finn, in the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn may not realize it, but much of what he says can be perceived as ridicule. This tale is the journey of a young boy growing up and finding his place in society, after leaving his drunk of a father behind. Much of his trip is spent floating down the Mississippi River on a raft with Jim, an African American man seeking freedom, and in a way, they both find it. Mark Twain, the author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, mocks religion and superstitious beliefs, the educational maturity of Tom Sawyer 's gang of robbers, and slavery through irony and satire in his writing.

Mrs. Watson tried …show more content…

Within the novel, this is a secretive but exclusive social group run by the boys in the town. They signed a blood oath with the death penalty for any perpetrator and his family if he dares to break the rules. The gang 's purpose was to pillage and murder, making it seem more like a cult than anything. But the irony is that even though the boys act as though they are mature and able to comprehend the seriousness of crime, they are nothing but children at play. "Ransomed? What 's that? ' 'I don 't know. But that 's what they do. I 've seen it in books; and so of course that 's what we got to do" (Twain 19). None of them even know what a ransom is, but Tom insists they must "ransom people" merely because it is what books say real robbers do. Most of the boys have little education like Huck, and learn the most from what they read and see for themselves. As a result, the entire foundation of what their group is, is made up of concepts they can 't even begin to understand. "I didn 't see no di 'monds, and I told Tom Sawyer so. He said there was loads of them there, anyway; and he said there was A-rabs there, too, and elephants and things. I said, why couldn 't I see them, then?" (Twain23). Every time the boys go on an adventure to commit crimes, some robbery is done, but nothing more. They pretend to kill men and take riches from carriages they stopped in the road. The same way all kids make believe to …show more content…

In their travels together, Jim expresses to Huck his excitement to be so close to freedom. The boy comes to realize he aided a slave in running away, and he feels guilty. "Here was this nigger, which I had as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children- children that belonged to a man I didn 't even know; a man that hadn 't ever done me no harm" (Twain 99). Jim is one of the best companions Huck has ever had, yet he nearly turns him in because it feels as though he is betraying the slave owner. It seems quite ironic that doing the right thing to assist a good man would make Huck feel as though he committed a crime. Also in the novel, the worst characters- murderers, and violent stupid drunks- are all white. Pap goes on and on about how a black should not be able to vote, yet he is uneducated and never sober enough to think straight. Jim, a runaway slave, is one of the most respectable characters Huck encounters, which is Twain 's way of ridiculing the institution of slavery, and all the prejudice against African Americans at the

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