Examples Of Satire In Huckleberry Finn

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In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain uses mockery to point out the social issues that were current during his time. Throughout the text, Mark Twain utilizes the main character Huckleberry as a means of voicing his own opinion on problems in social institutions in a jokingly manner; this is called satire. Hypocrisy in religion is one example of satire found in the novel. People's quickness to believe and stupidity are others as well.

There were many Christians in the novel that Twain criticized for acting against their religion. Miss Watson, for example, was a Christian slave owner. "By and by they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed" (Twain 3). This is quite hypocritical. She is praying …show more content…

Two men that Huckleberry found while on his raft adventure took advantage of just that. They made their money by tricking others into believing they were somebody different than they truly were. For instance, they pretended to be brothers of a rich person who had died to reap the benefits in his will. "These uncles of yourn ain't no uncles at all; they're a couple of frauds?regular deadbeats" (Twain 187). The funny part is that the family believed them and gave them everything they wanted without even questioning it. And when someone does doubt it, the family was already too convinced to believe that they were fakes (Twain …show more content…

The basis of the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons feud is an example of this stupidity. These two families have fought for multiple generations and continue to murder each other over reasons they cannot even remember. "'Well, who done the shooting? Was it a Grangerford or a Shepherdson?' 'Laws, how do I know? It was so long ago.' 'Don't anybody know?' 'Oh, yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the old people; but they don't know now what the row was about in the first place'" (Twain 108). Huckleberry questions the feud which reveals how dumb it is to continue a fight that is killing people without a

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