The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Satire
Mark twain is one of the best writers to use satire in his novels. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the author puts in a lot of angry and bemused satire. In this essay, I will tell you some bemused satires and angry satire that the author uses. I will also tell you what I think it means. “Oh yes this is a wonderful government, wonderful why to looky here, there was a free nigger there from Ohio…” (Pg. 32). Pap said this right after he saw a free African American walking by.
Pap also says “He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain’t a man in that town that’s got as fine clothes as what he had…” (pg. 32). He says this after he visited Huck. So what is Mark Twain trying to tell us here? I think he is trying to tell us that the people hate to see a slave walking freely, with better clothes then they have. The white people hate to see a black man living a better life than white people. He is also mocking on how the northern states have outlawed slavery, and how the southern states couldn’t do anything about it.
This is angry satire because mark twain is angry at the people and the people and the government. Tom and Huck found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and they both got 6 thousand dollars apiece from it. Huck at that time lived with the widow but he didn’t like it so he ran away. The author stated “But tom sawyer, he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable” (pg. 3). I think that Mark Twain is saying that when we were kids we were silly.
The author says “Now says Ben Rogers, what’s the line of business of this gang? Nothing only robbery and murder, Tom said” (pg. 11). Mark Twain is trying to tell us that when we were kids we were stupid and had a big imagination. This is a bemused type of satire because it is funny how the kids acted. So far I have told you some of the author’s bemused and angry satires. I have also told you what I think these Quotes mean. Now that you have seen them, the author used a lot more good ones in the novel. Now it is your turn to try to find satire quotes in the novel.
References:
- Mark Twain “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
