Twain's Use Of Satire In Huckleberry Finn

Satire has been used to criticize aspects of government, culture and people ever since it was first created in ancient times. Satire has made us laugh and find humor, but the real reason of satire is to criticize something. Satire can be lighthearted or serious, it just has the same purpose; to change something. Huckleberry Finn is a classic example of satire. Huckleberry Finn was created in part to satirize slavery and the evil of the south at that time. Twain, although growing up in the south, opposed slavery and created Huck Finn to satirize the ridiculousness that is slavery. Twain uses his satire to show how slaves are the same as white men and that slavery should have never existed. Twain’s work is successful in that it makes people …show more content…
Twain first uses his satire to bring out the corruption and mistreatment of slaves in the south. Huckleberry Finn came at a time when slavery was a part of life in the south and black people were not supposed to have any rights. Twain shows how many southern whites thought of slaves through Pap. Pap was the town drunk and wasn’t very educated, however, he still thought of himself better than any black man. When he had heard that a black man could vote, he told Huck “but when they told me there was a State in this country where they 'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I 'll never vote agin.” Twain uses Juvenalian satire to show how people thought at that time. People were greedy and even though the thought seem ridiculous, it was serious back then. Twain also uses juxtaposition to compare this successful black man to a Pap where Pap …show more content…
The author uses almost entire satire to get his point across. The article consists of a list that gives satiric advice to young black men. Some of the advice is; “you may be unarmed but you 're also black” shows how many people think about crime. For many people when they think of criminals, a black man will come to mind sometimes due to the amount of inner city crime and gangs that occur in black communities. The author uses this to ridicule the stereotype that is that all young black men are shady. This connects to Twain’s satire by using juvenalian satire to belittle the issue that is racial superiority. Further on in this list of “advice”, “avoid wearing clothing associated with the gang lifestyle such as shirts and pants” is also very similar and different to Twain’s satire. This quote uses juxtaposition indirectly like Twain would use to cause change. This satire however is more Horatian than juvenalian in which Twain used more