Humor Is the Cure for Ignorance

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a bildungsroman, a novel that traces the intellectual, moral, and psychological growth of a young protagonist. The novel is largely motivated by two conflicts: the external conflict to bring Jim to freedom, and the internal conflict within Huck between his own sense of right and wrong and society's definition of right and wrong. Huck has a series of "adventures," making many observations on human nature and the South as he does. He progressively rejects the values of the dominant society and matures morally as he does. Huck's increasing maturity is seen in his thoughts and actions as he interacts with feuding neighbors, con men, and the hypocritical emotions of a religious revival and funeral. Mark Twain uses Huckleberry Finn as narrator to provide a practical, naive view of society, which allows satirical comment on the traditions and assumptions of society. Satire is a particularly effective tool as it does not accuse or vilify but merely implies the faults with irony, exaggeration, and sarcasm. As the reader is entertained and laughs at others, the reader also is challenged to think if this laughing is also directed at him. By using an innocent boy, Huck, as the narrator, Twain is able to portray the stupidity and faulty reasoning of society. Twain demonstrates these flaws throughout the novel by developing Huck’s maturity and satirizing the decisions of society.

One of Twain’s main purposes in writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is to satirize the stupidity of human nature. He uses Huck, an innocent boy, to point out how humans, by nature, will follow anything and everything someone in power tells them. Through the Shepherdson and Grangerford feud, Twain is able to satirize humanit...

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...it and he would make more money. He makes fun of many different social issues of the time in a humorous manner with very plain terms to emphasize the simplicity and stupidity of many people. I believe high school students should read the novel because the issues are still relevant in our day. For example, Huck is influenced by society’s views on black people and slavery, which prevents him from seeing Jim as a human being until the very end of the novel. Students can use this in reference to any social issue of the time to realize that society is not always right about life and they need to decide for themselves what the right decision is, just like Huck had to decide between his own definition of right and wrong and society’s definition of right and wrong. Overall, Twain is extremely effective in criticizing society’s flaws while providing humor to his criticisms.