Mentality In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain is recognized as a literary genius in many circles because of many of his books. However many schools have chosen to ban one of his most distinguished works. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn embodies an American classic by making shrewd commentary on human nature and lifestyle of the time period while also keeping the novel in the tone of a light hearted and comedic child. The main perils of human nature that Twain comments on are the mirrored mistreatment of under aged children and slaves, the flawed southern mentality, and the good and bad sides of human nature. The common criticism of the time period in which The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is their treatment of the black population of America; However, there is another group …show more content…
A large concept in many of Twain’s books is the mob mentality. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the mob scene Is after a man shoots a defenseless drunk in the street. Afterwards the town forms a lynch mob, and marches on the man’s residence, from atop his balcony rifle in hand he delivers a eloquent criticism of the people in the crowd. “The idea of you lynching anybody! It’s amusing. The idea of you thinking you had enough to pluck enough to lynch a man! Because you’re brave enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along here, did that make you think you had enough grit to lay your hands on a man? Why a man’s safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind”(twain 110). The man speaking has just murdered a different man in cold blood who was so drunk he was defenseless. Most people would say that the man who does that would be declared despicable. Yet twain uses him to rebuke the masses. He stands above the rest and calls them cowards and not even full men. That is a blatant insult to the masses and one of the few blatant commentaries on the southern lifestyle. Flaws in the southern mentality where also brought up in their idea that not all men are equal. This time Twain’s choice of spokesperson is a uneducated slave who hasn’t had the the southern lifestyle twist his thought processes. Jim refuses to believe that French people talk different then …show more content…
One of his criticisms is the tendency of humans to feel the need to bring people down to their level because they feel the need to be at least equal to every one. “what we want, is to go out of here quiet, and talk this show up, and sell the rest of the town! Then we’ll all be in the same bout.”(twain114).After the first performance by the two fraudulent actors the duke and the dauphin, the townspeople return and tell of how it was a magnificent show. The people from the original showing care very little about the fact that they are robbing their fellow townspeople themselves of their money. The actors do very little while the normal people choose the route of vindictiveness and make it a walk in the park for them. That’s the way a lot of people seem to act. When a mistake is made. Somebody else better make it as well or its worse. Mark Twain also gives the human race a little bit of a break with young Huck. Even though he has been told all his life that certain people are not to be connected with, he gives his help to them as much as possible. Huck’s choices throughout the book are glimpses of a person full of solid character. Theses choices flash out from behind the childish pranks and less thought out decisions. The first of which is his relationship with Jim. In many instances he has the chance to give him away. He comes across two slave catchers on the river and he intends