Huck Finn
Mocking Societal Flaws in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Many famous authors and historians consider Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to be a great American novel, noting Twain’s influence on the American society through satire. Throughout the characters’ journey, Twain observes the flaws he sees in societal norms, which are especially pronounced in two of his main characters, Huck and Miss Watson. Throughout Huck’s adventures with Jim, a runaway slave, Twain utilizes irony to highlight the idiotic stereotypes and narrow mindsets of the American people. Mark Twain uses satire and ridicule to expose the shortcomings in human nature and condemn slavery. Throughout the story, Twain emphasizes the flaws in humanity, expressed in Miss Watson, the “good Christian woman,” and Huck’s father, Pap Finn. Although Miss Watson holds herself in high regard, trying to improve herself and grow in faith, she doesn’t realize that keeping human beings as property is moral turpitude. Without thinking of anyone but herself, or how her decisions affect others, she decides to sell her slave Jim. [insert quotes here about Jim overhearing Miss Watson talking about selling him, or Mark Twain describing how much worse the living conditions would be for him, or how it would tear him away from his wife and family] Ripping Jim from his family and sending him to work at a plantation where he would be treated extremely inhuman is a far cry from the facade of Christian love that Miss Watson tries to sell throughout the book. Another of Twain’s confusing characters is Pap Finn. Huckleberry Finn’s father, Pap Finn, is a slob, a drunkard, and is completely illiterate. However, the time that he’s not spending hallucinating in his pigpen, he spends making wildly ignorant comments about allowing African-Americans to vote. Even though his black counterpart is well dressed and well educated as opposed to his utter lack of education and class, Pap Finn feels that it would be
Many famous authors and historians consider Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to be a great American novel, noting Twain’s influence on the American society through satire. Throughout the characters’ journey, Twain observes the flaws he sees in societal norms, which are especially pronounced in two of his main characters, Huck and Miss Watson. Throughout Huck’s adventures with Jim, a runaway slave, Twain utilizes irony to highlight the idiotic stereotypes and narrow mindsets of the American people. Mark Twain uses satire and ridicule to expose the shortcomings in human nature and condemn slavery. Throughout the story, Twain emphasizes the flaws in humanity, expressed in Miss Watson, the “good Christian woman,” and Huck’s father, Pap Finn. Although Miss Watson holds herself in high regard, trying to improve herself and grow in faith, she doesn’t realize that keeping human beings as property is moral turpitude. Without thinking of anyone but herself, or how her decisions affect others, she decides to sell her slave Jim. [insert quotes here about Jim overhearing Miss Watson talking about selling him, or Mark Twain describing how much worse the living conditions would be for him, or how it would tear him away from his wife and family] Ripping Jim from his family and sending him to work at a plantation where he would be treated extremely inhuman is a far cry from the facade of Christian love that Miss Watson tries to sell throughout the book. Another of Twain’s confusing characters is Pap Finn. Huckleberry Finn’s father, Pap Finn, is a slob, a drunkard, and is completely illiterate. However, the time that he’s not spending hallucinating in his pigpen, he spends making wildly ignorant comments about allowing African-Americans to vote. Even though his black counterpart is well dressed and well educated as opposed to his utter lack of education and class, Pap Finn feels that it would be