Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a prime example of realism through his focus on the relationship between people and society, his use of satire regarding religion and morality, and the way he has his characters choose their own destinies and overcome their environment.
One of Twain’s main focuses in Huckleberry Finn are the relationships between Huck and Jim and society. Civilized society makes Huck feel trapped in a world he feels like he doesn’t belong in. Society literally traps Jim as a slave to whomever is declared his owner. Jim is the more obvious one oppressed by society as he is literally treated subhuman. To avoid being sent down to New Orleans after being sold by Miss Watson, Jim had to run away and risk being caught …show more content…
Throughout the entire book, Jim is at the mercy of Huck and any other white person who comes across the pair. Huck is up against society as well, as a poor boy who has to choose to be made “civilized” by strangers or to be kept under the thumb of his abusive father. Huck initially escapes society to get away from his father, but throughout his adventures he has to continuously battle not only society directly, but internally as well by having to go against the morals that were ingrained in him by the “civilized” people. Huck and Jim both battle society directly by having to escape from the island. After finding out from Judith Loftus that men were after Jim, Huck shouts, “Git up and hump yourself, Jim! There ain’t a minute to lose. They’re after us!” (143). Huck battles society internally when he starts thinking about the morality of helping Jim escape. Huck feels bad because he “knowed he was running for his freedom” and could have …show more content…
One obvious use of satire were the characters the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. The two families have an ongoing feud of which Buck, a Grangerford child, isn’t exactly sure what it was about. These two families have this long, never ending feud of which blood is still shed (two casualties that year as of when Buck and Huck have the discussion.) Later, Huck attends church with both the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, both families bring their guns and keep them between their knees or up against the wall. The irony shown here is that these two families go the same church and listen to a sermon “all about brotherly love” (172) according to Huck, with their guns close to them, and then carry on wanting to kill each other after church is over. These families both appear to be religious, and yet when it’s found out a Grangerford daughter ran off to be with a Shepherdson son, the families turn to violence and two Grangerfords (including Buck) are killed, going against the “brotherly love” sermon. Another example comes later in the book when Huck starts fighting internally over whether he should go try to save Jim. All Huck wants to do is the right thing, but when he tries to follow what he has been taught as “right,” it makes him feel bad. He tries to pray and write a letter to Miss Watson to tell her where Jim is, but then starts thinking about how good Jim is to him and how Jim is his friend. Then Huck,
One of Twain’s main focuses in Huckleberry Finn are the relationships between Huck and Jim and society. Civilized society makes Huck feel trapped in a world he feels like he doesn’t belong in. Society literally traps Jim as a slave to whomever is declared his owner. Jim is the more obvious one oppressed by society as he is literally treated subhuman. To avoid being sent down to New Orleans after being sold by Miss Watson, Jim had to run away and risk being caught …show more content…
Throughout the entire book, Jim is at the mercy of Huck and any other white person who comes across the pair. Huck is up against society as well, as a poor boy who has to choose to be made “civilized” by strangers or to be kept under the thumb of his abusive father. Huck initially escapes society to get away from his father, but throughout his adventures he has to continuously battle not only society directly, but internally as well by having to go against the morals that were ingrained in him by the “civilized” people. Huck and Jim both battle society directly by having to escape from the island. After finding out from Judith Loftus that men were after Jim, Huck shouts, “Git up and hump yourself, Jim! There ain’t a minute to lose. They’re after us!” (143). Huck battles society internally when he starts thinking about the morality of helping Jim escape. Huck feels bad because he “knowed he was running for his freedom” and could have …show more content…
One obvious use of satire were the characters the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. The two families have an ongoing feud of which Buck, a Grangerford child, isn’t exactly sure what it was about. These two families have this long, never ending feud of which blood is still shed (two casualties that year as of when Buck and Huck have the discussion.) Later, Huck attends church with both the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, both families bring their guns and keep them between their knees or up against the wall. The irony shown here is that these two families go the same church and listen to a sermon “all about brotherly love” (172) according to Huck, with their guns close to them, and then carry on wanting to kill each other after church is over. These families both appear to be religious, and yet when it’s found out a Grangerford daughter ran off to be with a Shepherdson son, the families turn to violence and two Grangerfords (including Buck) are killed, going against the “brotherly love” sermon. Another example comes later in the book when Huck starts fighting internally over whether he should go try to save Jim. All Huck wants to do is the right thing, but when he tries to follow what he has been taught as “right,” it makes him feel bad. He tries to pray and write a letter to Miss Watson to tell her where Jim is, but then starts thinking about how good Jim is to him and how Jim is his friend. Then Huck,