Racism Exposed In Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn

Racism has been prominent in America for centuries, reaching its peak during the 19th century when enslaving African Americans became a norm for southern families. Although slavery was eventually stopped, racial prejudice continued to be salient through segregation in the mid 1900s, and is still evident today through unequal ratios of minorities in the workplace, school, and nearly everywhere else. Written in 1884 by Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn tells the tale of Huck, who runs from his abusive father only to meet and work together with a runaway slave, Jim. Throughout the story, Huck learns to make important moral choices and changes his view of slaves by cooperating and befriending Jim. A large component of the novel is the use of satire, …show more content…
Satire is still effective in criticizing our inability to acknowledge the problems in our country. A piece from a satirical news website says, “Explaining that it’s highly suspicious for such prejudice to be present in every aspect of society by mere coincidence, local 31-year-old Peter Dowling, an avid conspiracy theorist, told reporters Thursday that he is beginning to believe racism may be institutionalized in the United States.” (The Onion). This is a massive understatement, using heavy sarcasm to make the reader feel first confused by the rather obvious statement, and later guilty that the statement has been true for decades. The article plays racism off as a simple conspiracy, as if it’s simply unimaginable even though sadly, it is reality. The article keeps up this charade of sorts by saying, “I’m telling you, [racism is] all pretty much hidden in plain sight. No one up at the top wants this getting out.” (The Onion) The article uses another understatement as well as irony to sarcastically express that racism is very well covered up. It is clear to any American citizen that racism is not hidden from society at all, and makes the reader feel ashamed that we could have ever allowed our country to continue to have racism that is so prominent that it’s incredibly obvious to anyone. While both authors use Juvenalian satire to send a serious underlying message in their humor, Twain’s techniques are very different than the article’s. Twain did not often use understatements in his writing because it was not understood well enough at the time that racism was wrong, and an understatement would not have been as well understood as a reversal or ironic situation. However, in terms of directed audience, it’s likely that Twain’s satire conveyed his point more, by satirizing Southern behavior and racism throughout the story. While the current article still