Literary Analysis of Satire Throughout the story of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain utilizes satirical flaws to teach readers about society back then and society today. Twain wants to reveal his feelings towards society, positive or negative, in order for us readers to understand his purpose for the novel. Twain’s satire of mob mentality and gullibility is evident through the satirical techniques of parody,situational irony, and exaggeration. Twain exposes the satirical flaw of mob mentality throughout the plot of the story. In the story, there are specific occurrences of this flaw. One of those specific occurrences happened in the scene where Sherburn was ran out of town by the mob for shooting innocent Boggs. With that, the mob felt bad for Boggs’ death and they weren’t going to oblige to Sherburn killing innocent people in the town. Twain …show more content…
Tawin used this evidence to imply that the townspeople were afraid of the mob. Through parody, a reader could tell that Twain used this technique to imitate the people running out of the way in order for them to not get run over by the mob. Twain’s message is that society tends to be followers of other people (in this case the mob) and society tends to disregard their own individuality to be apart of a group in which they agree with their values. Even though the mob runs Sherburn out of town, there is another occurrence of mob mentality existent in the story which is when the mob digs up Peter Wilks’ grave for the hidden money. When this happens, it reveals that the mob wishes to discover the money because they dislike the duke and the king; In addition, they think the duke and the king are frauds. A clear view of this event occurring is “When they got there they swarmed into the graveyard and
They went to the family’s home and told them they have arrived. Some people didn’t believe them and they almost got away with it
"Satire also allows you to make fun of every different aspect. It allows you to make fun of both sides. It allows you to make fun of everything, really, so you can do it in a harmless way" (Neill Blomkamp). Satire is the use of irony, humor, or exaggeration by writers and is used to demonstrate the absurdity and corruption of an individual or society. Mark Twain notably uses satire to express his criticisms of American society in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain uses satire to bring attention to the problems in the society of that time period. These ideas include hypocrisy, government, and racism. All of these items were presented in the time period of which Huck Finn lived in, and Twain despised how people engaged in these acts on a daily basis. He used his satire to criticize society and its flaws for the greater good of human nature. First and foremost, Twain wrote these satirical scenes to bring attention to the problems of society in hopes they would try to correct them.
Ulitmately, Twains’ book criticizes the racist ways of the time period along with displaying Huck’s underlying moral development; however, in the end, Twain abandons his own moral earnestness with a tasteless end to Huck's journey. As unsettling it is to hear the language used and the beliefs held by the characters in the narrative, it
In one of his short stories, “A Ghost Story”, he doesn’t go in depth on the characters appearance or personality but focuses on the setting and the plot. This gives the reader a vague explanation and no background information. When comparing this story to one of Twain’s more analytical pieces it becomes clear that he was an author of many different writing styles and can go from a short story to a satirical essay containing his stance on public issues. In Mark Twain’s story “A New Crime” satire is the main literary element throughout the entire piece.
Mark Twain wrote this essay in a pessimistic and biased manner, which forced his readers’ to reflect upon a deeper meaning. His writing style was biased by not including any favorable qualities that people possess. He spoke of man's moral sense being worse than the disease of rabies, yet didn't offer any solutions. He disproved his own thesis by basing his stated theory on satire, which leads one to believe his stated thesis was not his motivation in writing this piece. Using Satire was a way for him to address the problems he saw within society without directly insulting his audience.
Overall, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, criticizes the moral conditioning of society. Twain utilizes situational irony, mockery, and absurdity to satirize racism through Huck’s journey. Twain’s use of stereotypes uncovers racial hypocrisy by criticizing the way society has taught young kids to think about black people. Twain uses irony to mock the way the government treats slaves and African
Moreover, Twain uses satire and irony to give his novel depth and a truly deeper meanIng than just a clever boy and his friend who is a slave. Romanticism, religion, and the legal system are excellent examples of satire used throughout the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. “Ransomed, What’s that? I don’t know but that's what we do.
And this is a great example of symbolism. Mr.Twain represents Mr. Sherburn and the mob is the rest of the audience who is hateful and bigoted and also that deny the African American people to receive equal rights. And through Symbolism we see that Mr.Sherburn is right about the mob and their lack of courage. He explains how all of them are pitiful and how they are all cowards. And this is true for them and the people in real life who hunt, mistreat, and even kill African American people they are all cowards, they don’t have honor.
This ends up being a bad decision on the King’s part because soon after the real brothers show up and the King and Duke must leave without any money, not even the already stolen six thousand. Twain uses the King’s greed to represent the southerners who did not want to give up slavery because they would lose money from it. In the end, slaves were freed and hundreds of plantations and southern properties were destroyed during the Civil War. One critic even wrote, “ Huck has to keep moving,
Mark Twain was a social critic just as much as he was a novelist. He observed a society filled with arrogant, racial hypocrisy. In the beginning of his fictional novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Twain forbids his audience from finding a motive, moral, or plot. In using rhetorical strategies such as satire, irony, and humor he challenges the reader to look for deeper meanings throughout the novel. With the purpose to shed light on the false ideals that society represents as seen through the eyes of young boy.
Mark Twain uses satire to portray different issues that were going on during the time period. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, author Mark Twain uses Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer to represent romanticism and realism. Doing so formed the characters into two drastically different persons. Mark Twain uses satirical elements to contrast the two main characters in their personalities and views. Tom Sawyer is a child who is blinded with fictional literature and the worlds view on slaves.
The Adventurous Huckleberry Finn Hailed by (most) critics and language arts teachers alike, Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a complex novel with several developed themes. What this book does bring to the table is a controversial literary device. “Backpedaling” which is the idea of deconstructing pre-existing ideas or character developments to highlight another. Full of intentional contradictions, Mark Twain uses his own hypocrisy and puts it into our protagonist, Huck to make him a realistic and, relatable character. This is done in several ways through the novel; It is done in the character’s moral development, within the setting itself with a variety of hypocritical ideologies, and in the oversimplification of characters
Between the church revival mob and the duke and the king as well as the lynch mob scene all topped off with the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons feud, we find an abundance of examples against human weakness. One thing that Twain wants to warn against is that we can be so swept up in the moment in a crowd that we loose our own opinion and voice as our voice becomes that of hundreds or thousands. Twain also wants to bring to light that people don’t see their actions as negatively in a group than alone. Why could this be? Probable because we think of them as actions outside of ourselves.
Mark Twain, well-known American author, ridicules the self destructive nature of greed upon man in his controversial novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry and Finn. Twain criticizes the society he lived in, noting the “superficiality and meaningless” lives of people. Mark Twain utilizes situational irony, farce, and exaggeration in order to compare two situations in the novel where characters illustrate upon themselves the negative effects of greed. Twain establishes a critical tone to bring attention to even modern day readers that greed will eventually result in punishments and consequences. First, Twain utilizes situational irony to analyze the ongoing feud between the Shepherdons and Grangerford family.