Appropriate Satire of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a satirical novel full of colorful and sometimes controversial characters. These characters are used to demonstrate some of the superlative and unfavorable parts of the society and time period in which these characters live. Mark Twain satirically criticizes the way the characters act based on the social standards and issues of the early 1800’s. The social norm was much inspired by romanticism, which was a literary movement that compelled people to be emotionally guided. Because people were emotionally compelled, their reasoning wasn’t rational. Therefore, Mark Twain felt it was appropriate to use a satirical approach to criticize the serious subject
…show more content…
Twain’s attitude towards the era of Romanticism is bitter, so that is why he chooses to sardonically critique the subject in the book. Twain’s strongest illustration of romanticism is the situation where Tom and the gang doing all of their crimes through “the books”. The books that Tom talks about are based on romanticism and they emphasize ridiculous and dangerous situations. One of the boys in the gang asks Tom, “Ransomed? What’s that?” (19). Tom goes on to refer to the books many times and says, “That’s what they do. I’ve seen it in books…Don’t you reckon that the people that made the books knows what’s the correct thing to do?’ (19). Tom Sawyer is heavily persuaded by the romantic novels and obviously the books lead him to do hateful actions. Twain reveals the damage of romanticism through the actions of his character, Tom. Another depiction satirizing romanticism was the sinking of the boat, Walter Scott. Walter Scott was a romanticism novelist. Huck is curious about the boat and approaches the guard of the sunken steamboat and finds out, “Why there ain’t but one…the Walter Scott” (84). The Walter Scott sinks because Twain wants the idea of romanticism to sink. Thus, Twain symbolically kills romanticism by sinking the boat, The Walter …show more content…
The people acted like their religious beliefs were essential to them. Mark Twain comments on the irony of the men attending church while carrying a gun on them. Twain does so by creating the scene of his persona, Huck, spending Sunday with the Grangerfords. Huck accompanies the Grangerfords to church, and he notes “the men took their guns along and kept them between their knees” (120). The Grangerfords are in a family feud with the Shepherdsons, and it’s ironic that they hold guns to protect themselves from another family, but they say they are compassionate Christians. Religious hypocrisy is also mentioned when Miss Watson is teaching Huck about Heaven and Hell. Huck says, “she told me all about the bad place,” and said “she was going to live so as to go to the good place” (13). Also, Miss Watson tells Huck to “pray everyday, and whatever [he] asked for, he would get it” (21). It is ironic that Miss Watson emphasizes religion and she portrays herself as a religious woman when she owns a slave. Because the American people only live by the rules of religion they want and ignore the other rules that they believe don’t apply, Twain satirizes the corruption of religious values to help the people to not be duplicitous when it comes to
Twain’s attitude towards the era of Romanticism is bitter, so that is why he chooses to sardonically critique the subject in the book. Twain’s strongest illustration of romanticism is the situation where Tom and the gang doing all of their crimes through “the books”. The books that Tom talks about are based on romanticism and they emphasize ridiculous and dangerous situations. One of the boys in the gang asks Tom, “Ransomed? What’s that?” (19). Tom goes on to refer to the books many times and says, “That’s what they do. I’ve seen it in books…Don’t you reckon that the people that made the books knows what’s the correct thing to do?’ (19). Tom Sawyer is heavily persuaded by the romantic novels and obviously the books lead him to do hateful actions. Twain reveals the damage of romanticism through the actions of his character, Tom. Another depiction satirizing romanticism was the sinking of the boat, Walter Scott. Walter Scott was a romanticism novelist. Huck is curious about the boat and approaches the guard of the sunken steamboat and finds out, “Why there ain’t but one…the Walter Scott” (84). The Walter Scott sinks because Twain wants the idea of romanticism to sink. Thus, Twain symbolically kills romanticism by sinking the boat, The Walter …show more content…
The people acted like their religious beliefs were essential to them. Mark Twain comments on the irony of the men attending church while carrying a gun on them. Twain does so by creating the scene of his persona, Huck, spending Sunday with the Grangerfords. Huck accompanies the Grangerfords to church, and he notes “the men took their guns along and kept them between their knees” (120). The Grangerfords are in a family feud with the Shepherdsons, and it’s ironic that they hold guns to protect themselves from another family, but they say they are compassionate Christians. Religious hypocrisy is also mentioned when Miss Watson is teaching Huck about Heaven and Hell. Huck says, “she told me all about the bad place,” and said “she was going to live so as to go to the good place” (13). Also, Miss Watson tells Huck to “pray everyday, and whatever [he] asked for, he would get it” (21). It is ironic that Miss Watson emphasizes religion and she portrays herself as a religious woman when she owns a slave. Because the American people only live by the rules of religion they want and ignore the other rules that they believe don’t apply, Twain satirizes the corruption of religious values to help the people to not be duplicitous when it comes to