Satire allows satirists to critique society, not through senseless remarks, but through carefully constructed subtle biting remarks. Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, yet it takes place prior to the actual Civil War when slavery was still commonplace. This allows Twain to retroactively satirize pre-Civil War United States with his knowledge of how American society would change in the coming years. In order to satirize the ineffective nature of the Civil War, Twain compares the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons to the North and South’s relationship during the Civil War.
Twain uses the instance of the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords in the church to show the …show more content…
Although both families claim they are religious, they “go to church only when they’ve got to” as rather than devoting themselves to following the word of god, they go to church only for society to see them as religious (113). Doing so satirizes the purpose of religion as Twain believes that rather than for the purpose of following the Christian moral code, people go to church solely for others to see them as religious. Thus, when the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords “took their guns along” to church highlights their disrespect of Christianity’s moral code as they do not uphold Christianity’s tenet of peace, instead going to church due to the social pressures of the United States in the nineteenth century that demand families appear righteous and moral (112). Similarly, the people of the North and the South who fought in the Civil War may not have truly believed in their side’s perspective on slavery, yet fought anyway for the purpose of being seen as brave and mighty for fighting for their home as society expected the common man to fight for the freedom of his homeland. Ironically, this common man was fighting against his own nation of his own brethren, but what once was solely a fight about slavery evolved into a fight for the sake of violence. Twain is satirizing how the social pressures of society force people to fight a pointless …show more content…
Doing so, Twain highlights how he believes the Civil War was pointless, as rather than being a war to address the issue of slavery and civil rights for African-Americans, it turned into a war meant solely to exhibit acts of violence. Regardless, the United States successfully abolished slavery as a result of the Civil War, yet African-Americans continued to face discrimination, thus rendering the mutual senseless killing of the Civil War mute as the losses did not equate to newfound respect among society as society did not change with the
Twain uses the instance of the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords in the church to show the …show more content…
Although both families claim they are religious, they “go to church only when they’ve got to” as rather than devoting themselves to following the word of god, they go to church only for society to see them as religious (113). Doing so satirizes the purpose of religion as Twain believes that rather than for the purpose of following the Christian moral code, people go to church solely for others to see them as religious. Thus, when the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords “took their guns along” to church highlights their disrespect of Christianity’s moral code as they do not uphold Christianity’s tenet of peace, instead going to church due to the social pressures of the United States in the nineteenth century that demand families appear righteous and moral (112). Similarly, the people of the North and the South who fought in the Civil War may not have truly believed in their side’s perspective on slavery, yet fought anyway for the purpose of being seen as brave and mighty for fighting for their home as society expected the common man to fight for the freedom of his homeland. Ironically, this common man was fighting against his own nation of his own brethren, but what once was solely a fight about slavery evolved into a fight for the sake of violence. Twain is satirizing how the social pressures of society force people to fight a pointless …show more content…
Doing so, Twain highlights how he believes the Civil War was pointless, as rather than being a war to address the issue of slavery and civil rights for African-Americans, it turned into a war meant solely to exhibit acts of violence. Regardless, the United States successfully abolished slavery as a result of the Civil War, yet African-Americans continued to face discrimination, thus rendering the mutual senseless killing of the Civil War mute as the losses did not equate to newfound respect among society as society did not change with the