Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Essay Example

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is among the best protest novels in literature. The main goal of the author was to show some wicked acts that were recurrent in mid-19th century within the American culture. The plot objective was to make it more attractive to the readers and the society. Mark Twain uses satire, which is a fictional routine of disapproving, analyzing, and laughing at the shortcomings, crimes of a person or a society. The main objective of Mark Twain was showing the shortcomings in the society with an aim of correcting them (Shrum, 38). Humor plays a great part and brings about laughter, making it easier for the readers to see the satire. The above description precisely relates to Huck Finn, for it criticized the vices of the 19th Century American society. He uses satire and irony to create awareness with the society. Many of these evils had been perceived by the author first hand, and who was at times a victim. His life and involvement equipped him with substantial material, which is assessed at four fifths of all his literatures. This verifies that Mark Twain dealt with a condition that really occurred and which he knew very well. He had survived in many regions, in many circumstances, bad and good. He also ventured more into printing, steamboat piloting, the army, mining, journalism, novel and essay writing. All this rich experience and background permitted him to scorn and ridicule the current transgressions. Mark Twain selected his characters in relation to what he wanted to criticize and condemn (Shrum, 46). He uses satire to mock his society such that most individuals brand it as disgraceful, vulgar and wicked to the society. It was banned from libraries for years, proving how deeply Huck Finn had extended his objectives, abolishing a crooked society and traditions. The main theme of Huck Finn is man’s cruelty towards another man. Mark Twain portrayed it under several arrangements, particularly slavery and violence (O’Leary, 62). These were the first objectives of his satire, and the main basis of his cynicism and frustration. Other minor targets were the recurrent iniquities that had become part of frontier culture and life. These were swindling, drunkenness and greediness among the members of the society. Mark Twain challenged his antagonists here with all those vices one by one, and made him shock them. Some of them were reinforced by social and religious bodies, and Huck’s victory over them established Twain’s purpose to transform society. Huck Finn intended to outline the hostility, falseness, deceit and hypocrisy of society (Michelson, 69). Mark Twain uses imagery in his work of literature. The novel mostly focuses on Huck’s personality, then all the evils in the society. The evils in the society was swindling, drunkenness and materialism analyzed single handedly (O’Leary, 78). Violence and its different forms, Pap Finn’s violence, the killing among two aristocratic families, and Lynch Law are also be pointed out and considered. Lastly, the slavery concern and religious hypocrisy are handled from diverse perspectives such as the slave’s non-human status, the affiliation between Huck and Jim, religion’s support for slavery and the difference between morality and instinct (Shrum, 84) The author makes fun of social establishments in the society as he portrays in his book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There are several social establishments that Mark Twain mocks in his book. He uses humor in conditions that society may regard as serious and uses satire to attack foundations and thoughts in his novel. He uses humor to mock stable institutions in the society. He uses his skills to ridicule slavery and religion which were regarded as stable institutions in the society. Religion is key marks of Twain’s satire, in an effort to coerce hypocrites to follow their religion more decisively. For example, in the scene when Huck is spoken about the Grangerford and Shepherdson dispute, he is told that during church “The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall” (Twain, 106). This indicates the level of hypocrisy and irony that transpires between these two families. They could sit down and listen about a sermon on brotherly love, while still discerning about murdering other people within the church (Shrum, 99). The actions that occur when people are involved in a mob justice act is satirized in the novel. Twain highlights deeply on mob-mentality in the scene where Sherburn kills a drunk person in the town. The people gather and somebody out of the crowd shouts, “Sherburn ought to be lynched” and this prompts the people present to march forward and hang Sherburn. Twain highlights how untrue the mob-mentality is when Sherburn pulls out his rifle. They all cowardly run off, showing how faint-hearted people really are, without assurance of group safety. Twain’s purpose in satirizing mob-mentality is to stop people from taking part in a pointless mob (Michelson 99). Mark Twain in his novel uses satire to create awareness on slavery in the society. The author depicts Huck as a legitimate, honorable. It is evident that in this situation he doesn’t seem to be against slavery. It is majorly because of the effect the society has on his life. Twain’s objective in satirizing slavery is to provide awareness on the inhumane aftermaths of slavery. The use Jim as the main character, depicting slavery, and the key moral predicament that followed Huck throughout the novel, Twain creates awareness about the way slaves were treated. Miss Watson is valued as a respectable Christian woman, with strong morals. On the other hand, she owns slaves as part of her wealth. She has a slave called Jim, who runs away after finding out he was about to be sold and alienated from his family. Twain depicts how deceitful a virtuous Christian woman can be when it comes to possessing slaves as property. In the end, Miss Watson feels remorseful for trying to trade Jim and offers him his freedom in her will (Foley, 103). Twain satirizes religion with Huck and Jims litany of superstitions. This was after they reunited, with Huck having faked his death after his father kidnapped him and Jim, a slave running away from his owner who wanted to sell him down south. He expounds further and illustrates the character of Jim’s owner, Miss Watson, who was a well-respected Christian woman. It is ironic in that, despite the religious focus against Christianity, Miss Watson still bends the commandments and owns slaves. However, she grants him his freedom in her will due to the shame and guilty conscience (Shrum, 116). Mark Twain ridicules Romantic poetry. Tom Sawyer preferred escapades over realism, a thing that Twain satirizes. Toms gang of robbers affirm persistently about murdering and theft but only pretend Hucks expedition for exploit and danger lead him and Jim into woes. Tom deserts common sense with an absurd plan to save Jim. Huck does not comprehend why they cant unlock the shack and runs away with Jim. Tom responds, "Well, if it aint just like you, Huck Finn. You can get up the infant-schooliest ways of going at a thing. Why don’t you ever read any books at all? Whoever heard of getting a prisoner loose in such an old-maidy way as that?" (Twain 148) This act of desperation nearly gets the Tom, Huck and Jim killed. This sheds more light on slavery and civil war back in those years (Foley 131) Twain satirizes greed. Hucks alcoholic father, Pap Finn makes a comeback into his life, with the only determination of seizing Hucks wealth. This made his father put him in a situation which resembled that of a slave. He even went to the extents of kidnapping his own son and locking him up in a tattered cabin. Luckily, Finn had earlier signed all the money he had with judge Thatcher. This expounds on the ridiculous acts within the society that really added to prevailing vices of early years such as racism and moral corruption (O’Leary, 127). Bercovitch, Sacvan’s "Whats Funny About Huckleberry Finn?" is a good example of literally criticism to Mark twain’s novel. As a prominent American author, he styles the American’s national epic. Mark Twains humor is pokerfaced at its dominant, and the adventure of Huckleberry Finn is his most humorous book. The novel attracts practices from all three phases of his profession, from his early legends of the Wild West to his savage parodies of the Gilded Age (Michelson, 143). Praised by literary critics, authors, and the general reading public, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has a high ranking in the history of American literature. On a global level, it is referred to as a feature among the masterpieces of world literature. However, many parents elevated thoughtful complaints to the teaching of this text. These objections focused on Twains negative representation of Jim and his extensive use of the term “nigger” throughout the text. It inflicted a dark cloud, which was personally attacking in racially mixed classrooms (Shrum, 150). Works cited OLeary, J. "Critical Annotation of "Minstrel Shackles and Nineteenth Century Liberality in Huckleberry Finn’’ - University of Iowa Press (2012). Pg.191. ISBN. Michelson. K. “Racism and Huckleberry Finn:  Censorship, Dialogue, and Change.”  English Journal Vol.82 (November 2008)  Twain. M, and Michael, P. The Annotated Huckleberry Finn: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -New York Vol.21 (2003) Shrum, B, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain" - American Heritage. New York (2006) Foley, H, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain," The Antioch Review. Vol 17 (2011) Read More