The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as satire

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, more popularly known as Mark Twain (1835-1910) was an American novelist and humorist. He wrote his first popular story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavers County in 1865. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and its sequal Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) which is also called "the great American novel". His another works include "The Innocent Abroad"(1869), Roughing It (1872), The Gilded Age (1873) and Life on the Mississippi (1883). Mark Twain was lauded as the greatest humorist of his age. William Faulkner called him the father of American Literature.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered the masterpiece of Mark Twain. Ernest Hemingway said, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain, called, the Huckleberry Finn", he cautioned, "If you must read it you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating."

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an incisive satire on the American society of the day- in fact, not only the society of America but that of the entire world. It mirrors the way people conduct themselves, along with all their prejudices and mindsets.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about a boy named Huckleberry Finn and a slave named Jim who want to escape to the north for freedom. The novel is filled with wild adventures encountered by these two main characters. Throughout the novel, Twain uses Huck to satirize the religious hypocrisy, racism, white society’s stereotypes, and superstitions both to amuse the reader and to make the reader aware of the social ills of that present time.

Mark Twain uses satire to poke fun at a civilized society. The example is seen when Huck is describing his interaction with the Widow. On the arrival of Huck, the Widow gives him clean clothes and food which annoys Huck.

 “The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time… I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied” (Twain 1). 

The Widow wanted to civilize Huck. The Widow provides him with clean clothes and food and yet Huck sees this as ineffective and wants to go back to his old life where he wasn’t getting educated and he was in dirty clothes. By showing the Widow’s ineffective method to civilize him, Twain is able to poke fun at the idea of a civilized society. He is able to show the people of that time period that the idea of this pure, civilized society is 

unattainable and not humanly possible. He uses satire to influence the people of the time period.

Another way Mark Twain uses satire is to poke fun at religion in Huckleberry Finn. He does this when he describes Huck’s thought 

process as the Widow is trying to teach him. 

“After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn’t care no more about him, because I don’t take no stock in dead people” (Twain 2). 

The Widow tries to tell him about religion and he disregards the fact because he wants to ridicule society. Religion was a big part in many people’s lives. Twain uses satire to show the ineffectiveness of doing religious things and uses it to show the people that religion was not supposed to be a focal point of people’s lives. Most of the characters in the book live in anything but a christian way of life. In one instance they use religion as a tool to get money. By including this, Twain was able to ridicule the way they implement religion in life.

 “Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there. She got mad then, but I didn’t mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn’t particular.”” (Twain 3) 

The widow is describing heaven and hell to Huck who doesn’t really care for the matter. The Widow is shown as this overly – passionate Christian. She loves talking about the bible and likes to pray. By this humorous and atout response shows how indifferent he is towards religion. He remains indifferent to the societal expectations. Twain uses this interaction show how ridiculous the concept of religion is. Mark Twain includes superstition in Huckleberry Finn to ridicule it. Huck remembers something that happens as the Widow’s house. 

“One morning I happened to turn over the salt-cellar at breakfast. I reached for some of it as quick as I could to throw over my left shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in ahead of me, and crossed me off” (Twain 16)

Superstition is a big part in society during this time period. He makes fun of superstition in this book to show how absurd the idea that certain actions will influence the good or bad luck you get. Nothing you do can change whether you get bad or good luck. Knowing this, Twain brings up superstition repeatedly to ridicule this fact. 

“Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and before I could budge it was all shriveled up. I didn’t need anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck” (Twain 4) 

While at the Widow’s house, Huck was surrounded by someone who believed in religion and superstition. Twain wants to emphasize the stupidity of the things the people in that society believed in. They believed in many superstitious things which led to Twain using satire towards religion. Killing a spider does not necessarily mean that bad luck will come to you but in the context of that time period, many people believed that. He makes fun of that.

Pap, Huck's father, is a useless drunkard. He used to beat up Huck. So when Pap returned, Huck hid his money in fear he would take it. When Huck refused to give it to him, Pap abducted Huck and took him to a cabin where he beat, and hit Huck. When Huck and Pap were in the cabin Pap

 

“…chased me [Huck] round and round the place with a clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death.” 

This gave the readers an understanding of Pap’s uncivilized actions and could eventually give off the idea that this “civilized” society was unattainable and completely preposterous. Pap kept “saying he would kill me [Huck] , and then I couldn’t come for him no more” (Twain 26).

Pap takes Huck to a cabin in the woods where he beats and abuses him. He is an alcoholic and abusive which is exactly what a civilized society should not involve. In this the reader is able to to see how uncivilized Pap is. During this period, white people were seen as this “pure” and civilized society. On the other hand, "niggers" were seen as “uncivilized” and inferior so they were mistreated. Twain uses the character of Pap to present the idea that this is completely preposterous. By having Pap act uncivilized and unpleasant he is able to ridicule the idea that white people are good and black people are bad. 

Mark Twain uses satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to influence the people and way of life by ridiculing societal norms. Mark Twain uses satire to poke fun at society, religion, and superstition. He does this by including Huck’s humorous and ridiculous thoughts to show how absurd the ideas that people believed in during that time period.