Huck’s Race Through Twain’s Satire
Well-known author, Mark Twain, in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, tells the exciting story of Huckleberry Finn, a teenage boy living in pre-civil war times who assists a slave in escaping his owners. Exhibited through Huck’s story, Twain’s purpose is to expose the hypocrisy and racism of the United States government and convince Americans that black Americans should no longer face injustice. In order to achieve this purpose, he utilizes aspects of satire, such as invective, irony, and sarcasm. He uses a comedic tone in order to engage his audience while ridiculing the hypocrisy of the American society and government.
Twain exemplifies the prejudice of the American citizens against black Americans …show more content…
Huck describes a preacher he meets while on his adventure whose lifestyle demonstrates this ignorance. "He was the innocentest, best old soul I ever see. But it warn't surprising; because he warn't only just a farmer, he was a preacher, too, and had a little one-horse log church down back of the plantation, which he built it himself at his own expense, for a church and schoolhouse, and never charged for his preaching, and it was worth it, too. There was plenty other farmer-preachers like that, and done the same way, down South. " (232) The irony within the lifestyle of the preacher is that even though he is a preacher, he owns slaves. The Bible says that people should treat others the way they want to be treated. However, the preacher treats his slaves as if they are inferior to him. Therefore, the preacher’s actions contradict what he believes. Twain discloses that though the preacher follows and preaches from the Bible, he is a hypocrite because he owns and oppresses slaves at the same time. Huck also mentions that “there was plenty other farmer-preachers like that, and done the same way, down south,” signifying that many Americans lived in this contradictory way. Twain wants Americans to realize their oblivion to their deceptive lives and change their behavior and they way they perceive black
Well-known author, Mark Twain, in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, tells the exciting story of Huckleberry Finn, a teenage boy living in pre-civil war times who assists a slave in escaping his owners. Exhibited through Huck’s story, Twain’s purpose is to expose the hypocrisy and racism of the United States government and convince Americans that black Americans should no longer face injustice. In order to achieve this purpose, he utilizes aspects of satire, such as invective, irony, and sarcasm. He uses a comedic tone in order to engage his audience while ridiculing the hypocrisy of the American society and government.
Twain exemplifies the prejudice of the American citizens against black Americans …show more content…
Huck describes a preacher he meets while on his adventure whose lifestyle demonstrates this ignorance. "He was the innocentest, best old soul I ever see. But it warn't surprising; because he warn't only just a farmer, he was a preacher, too, and had a little one-horse log church down back of the plantation, which he built it himself at his own expense, for a church and schoolhouse, and never charged for his preaching, and it was worth it, too. There was plenty other farmer-preachers like that, and done the same way, down South. " (232) The irony within the lifestyle of the preacher is that even though he is a preacher, he owns slaves. The Bible says that people should treat others the way they want to be treated. However, the preacher treats his slaves as if they are inferior to him. Therefore, the preacher’s actions contradict what he believes. Twain discloses that though the preacher follows and preaches from the Bible, he is a hypocrite because he owns and oppresses slaves at the same time. Huck also mentions that “there was plenty other farmer-preachers like that, and done the same way, down south,” signifying that many Americans lived in this contradictory way. Twain wants Americans to realize their oblivion to their deceptive lives and change their behavior and they way they perceive black