The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by the famous Mark Twain, is a great example of satire that uses humor to reflect Twain’s opinions. He makes things seem so stupid and idiotic so that the readers also side with him in the many lessons he is trying to prove, because it seems the logical way to think when he makes things so foolish. Not many people think about the comical side of Twain’s novel, and just focus on the lessons. But they never focus on how the lessons are expressed and in Huck Finn’s case; it is through humor that Twain illustrates change.The Band of “Robbers” was the first thing Twain used to describe the aspects of society he disliked.
Huck Finn was a boy who grew up believing everything society had taught him, and society would determine what was right or wrong, not Huck himself. However the society focused so much on books that the kids cannot think for themselves. In a gang of robbers, you’re not supposed to follow the rules, but yet these boys say they must follow everything that is in the books. If it is not in the books, then they are not going to do it, regardless of if it is right or a better option (page 8-10).
Mark Twain makes Tom Sawyer’s gang look very childish and imaginary, persuading his reader through his satirical expressions to think the opposite of what he wrote.Mrs. Watson, an extremely religious woman who tries to reform rapscallions, owns slaves. She then tries to split up Jim with his family and sell him down to Orleans (page 43). Twain uses hypocrisy to show how stupid and two-faced it is for this woman to do what she is doing.
She is supposed to be a kind-hearted woman who acts the way her god wants her to act, but unless there is some extremely racist god who made blacks just to be treated horribly, she totally goes against what God would want her to do. Mark Twain uses this form of satire to show how people think of blacks and to make Mrs. Watson’s actions not credible because of her profound hypocrisy.Pap Finn is an alcoholic, abusive, uneducated, white man who is extremely racist towards blacks. He even tries to steal money from his own son just because he does not have any of his own (page 20-21).
There is a reason that Twain made Pap Finn such a dislikable character, because since Pap Finn is such a pathetic man and still thinks he is better than any black man, it makes him look incredibly dumb. If Pap was a very religious, intelligent, clean-cut man who made a good living, readers would probably look up to him, and ultimately support his values. Since he is such a dark character, nobody supports his values which have nothing in common with Twain’s values.The Duke and the Dauphin, the most treacherous and dirtiest characters in the story, have many despicable characteristics that are portrayed through satire. Throughout the whole story, these two con-artists are scandalizing people out of their money, and just do things that most people could never think of doing because it is so fowl and uncommon. It seems extremely suspicious that a “duke” and a “dauphin” would waste their time sailing around with a kid and a slave, who they happened to meet while on a river.
A “duke” and a “dauphin” should be living in a palace, not wandering the rivers. To just think that two people could be so heartless that they plan to rob a family who just experienced a tragic death, and pretend they are related to them, is just so out of the ordinary that it is hard to believe. Mark Twain uses these characters to frown upon thievery and cheating others.Mark Twain wrote his many hypocrisies of society as a form of satire, to achieve what he wanted to show to the reader. In many instances, he uses comedy to show readers the foolish side of things, which happens to always be the side Twain does not support.
Through all the characters and events that take place in the story, Mark Twain uses his humor to illustrate the change he wants to see in society.
