Renowned author Mark Twain in his famous novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn satirizes two prevalent social practices rampant in the South of Pre-Civil War United States: slavery and white supremacy. He does this by employing the rhetorical strategies of irony, absurdity, and pathos to criticizes racism as well as Southern mentality on the topic. He accomplishes this through Huck Finn’s journey with Jim, a runaway-slave. Twain criticizes, through contrasting irony, the Southern mentality that blacks are inferior to whites. He portrays this mindset strongly in Pap’s personal views on African Americans. In a drunken rage, Pap goes on about how the American government is failing because they are allowing African Americans to be
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Having grown up in a society which taught that blacks were inferior, Huck is guilt ridden for most of the story as he helps Jim escape. Having been raised with the Southern mentality he believes that Jim is Miss Watson’s property and that he is hurting Miss watson in someway by helping Jim escape. Similarly, he is afraid at how society might react were they to find out that he was helping a runaway slave. Yet as their journey progresses Huck begins to realize that Jim is indeed human, and deserving of freedom. One night, after getting separated by thick fog for hours, Huck rejoins with Jim who he finds crying his heart out because he believes that he has lost Huck, and that he had failed him. In a different occasion, while taking turns keeping night watch, Jim does double-duty in order for Huck to get the rest he needs. Another moment shows Jim mourning the fact that his wife and daughter are still in slavery. In these scenes Twain is employing pathos; creating an empathetic relationship between, not only Huck and Jim, but the reader and Jim as well. And through this empathetic relationship Twain justifies and asserts his previous criticism on slavery and demonstrates that African Americans are people too and deserve to be treated with
Having grown up in a society which taught that blacks were inferior, Huck is guilt ridden for most of the story as he helps Jim escape. Having been raised with the Southern mentality he believes that Jim is Miss Watson’s property and that he is hurting Miss watson in someway by helping Jim escape. Similarly, he is afraid at how society might react were they to find out that he was helping a runaway slave. Yet as their journey progresses Huck begins to realize that Jim is indeed human, and deserving of freedom. One night, after getting separated by thick fog for hours, Huck rejoins with Jim who he finds crying his heart out because he believes that he has lost Huck, and that he had failed him. In a different occasion, while taking turns keeping night watch, Jim does double-duty in order for Huck to get the rest he needs. Another moment shows Jim mourning the fact that his wife and daughter are still in slavery. In these scenes Twain is employing pathos; creating an empathetic relationship between, not only Huck and Jim, but the reader and Jim as well. And through this empathetic relationship Twain justifies and asserts his previous criticism on slavery and demonstrates that African Americans are people too and deserve to be treated with