Examples Of Mark Twain's Critique Of Society In Huck Finn

Mark Twain’s critique of society in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn President John F. Kennedy once said, “If a free society cannot save the many who are poor, then it cannot save the few who are rich.” Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain highlights society’s cruelty toward others, society’s racism and, through the usage of harsh diction, emphasizes society’s inhumanity. Twain, through highlighting race and greed, shows the hypocrisy of society. To reveal society’s immorality, Twain contrasts Huck’s good morals, to society’s complete lack of morality. Mark Twain decries society's lack of morality, its hypocrisy, and its inhumanity in order to show his purpose of society’s dire need of change.
Within The Adventures …show more content…
When Huck says, “And a lot of men begun to pile down off the benches and swarm toward the ring, saying, “Knock him down! Throw him out!” and one or two women began to scream. So, then, the ringmaster he made a little speech, and he said he hoped there wouldn’t be no disturbance.” And then when Huck says, “It warn’t funny to me, though; I was all of a tremble to see his danger.” With this, Twain shows society’s lack of morality versus Huck’s good morals. Twain is showing that while the other people are yelling in amusement, and having a good time, Huck is legitimately scared for the drunken man on the horse, Huck doesn’t want the man to get hurt. Huck is trembling at the fact that this man could seriously get hurt, Huck really doesn’t like the fact that all the other people are yelling and having a good time. In this, the reader can see Huck’s morality changing in the way that he tries his best to be a good person, and the reader can see how much his morals differ from society’s morals. Twain is showing the reader how little morality society has, here he shows that the people in society have no regard for anyone else, except for themselves, the people don’t care if the man gets hurt, they actually want to see him get hurt, so they can laugh more. This only advances Twain’s critique of society, because it shows more of how much disregard the people in society have for others, and not only how they lack morality, but this also pertains to how inhumane the people of society are, and how they want to see the man get hurt, just to laugh at him while he is actually hurt. Additionally, this gives more reason as to why Huck is trying to escape society, to evade all the inhumanity and immorality of the people in society, Huck wants to escape society to get away from all the negative, racist, immoral, and inhumane people of