Foils in Satire

There’s never been such a book full of as much excitement and value as Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn , as the story takes you through a journey between the capers of a young blooded, wild-eyed boy, and his freedom-chasing friend. Among other literary wonders, Huckleberry Finn stands out by tackling the key topics of its time and challenging them; in this case, racism. Likewise, there’s another, albeit more dated book, which looks to serve the same purpose. Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations , like Huckleberry Finn, rode along the lines of some sensitive topics for its time. However, Great Expectations focused more on challenging the structure of society as a whole. While not the biggest conflict, Mark Twain still used his character Huck Finn to match that sense of challenge to the construction and ‘rules’ of civilization. Huck Finn and Pip Pirrip seem to come from opposite sides of a coin, as one desires to thrive within the heights of society, and the other strives to break from it altogether, but the authors use them both as relatable points to their own arguments of society.

In Great Expectations, Pip is born into and raised from a very low point in society, and has never truly known life any other way, whereas Huck Finn has been run from place to place most of his life. Following the death of his parents, Pip goes on to live with his older sister and her husband, a blacksmith. Compared to the lives of other characters in the book, Pip comes from relatively humble beginnings, near the bottom of the social networking in his time. Due to later events, Pip becomes exposed to the life outside the blacksmith’s shop, and desperately wishes to become a part of it. Huck proves to be more fortunate than Pip in the beginning, and is ta...

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...ire is using irony or exaggeration to point out the foolishness in a certain idea or theme. Through the novels of Great Expectations and Huckleberry Finn, authors Charles Dickens and Mark Twain bring to light the very hypocritical and costly operations of society and what is defined to be “Civilized” within our world. While society and the rules that govern it may be what keep balance between peace and chaos in our world, it is important for one to remain their own person and not to lose their own identity in the mix of it all. Pip Pirrip and Huck Finn showcase why it is so very important to stay true to what one believes to be right, even if it may seem that the whole world opposes that idea.

Works Cited

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1986.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Bantam Books, 1986.