Satire in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
...erritory. Huck reflects society’s thinking to himself when he says, “It was according to the old saying, give a nigger an inch and he’ll take an ell”(Twain 67). Twain satirizes white society and their racism again showing the stereotypical attitude that if one shows kindness to a slave, he will demand or expect more. In conclusion Twain’s effective use of satire is most definitely evident when he satirizes racism. The next target of Mark Twain’s satire was greed. Greed was shown throughout the story in almost every area of the life Mark Twain portrayed in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The first and foremost best example of satire and greed would be with Huck’s dad Pap Finn. Pap Finn had not been around for Huck in a long time, and when he heard that Huck had money he came around looking for him, greed is shown when he says, “I’ve been in town two days, and I hain’t heard nothing but about you bein’ rich. I heard about it away down the river, too. That’s why I come. You git me that money tomorrow – I want it.”(Twain 15). This shows Pap Finn only cares about the money and does not care at all about his son. This is a great example of satire accompanied by greed. Another great example of greed with satire would be the duke and the king and all of the stunts they pull for money. The worst stunt that they attempted to pull was when they pretended to be Harvey and William Wilks. They dress up and act like they are Anglophiles all because of their greed for money. This is most evident when the duke and king find the inheritance and are looking at it, Huck goes, “Most everybody would a been satisfied with the pile, and took it on trust; but no, they must count it. So they counts it, and it comes out four hundred and fifteen dollars short.”(Twain 125). This is one of the prime examples of greed and satire. They are cheating these girls not only out of land, possessions but also money, and when they find the money they need to be sure it isn’t less then what they are told. These are just a few examples of Twain’s use of satire with greed in the book; there are many other examples that you can find throughout each chapter. The last and final use of satire was used to criticize society itself back during Twains time period. This is shown very well when Huck and Jim are on their raft floating down the river, and two men with guns stopped them looking for runaway slaves. Huck has a thought to turn Jim in but then realizes he can’t do it, so he makes up that his Family is sick on the raft and asks the men to pull them to shore. The men reply, “Keep away, boy – keep to looard. Confound it, I just expect the wind has blowed it to us. Your pap’s got the small pox, and you know it precious well.”(Twain 68). Then the two men feel bad so they attempt to amend things when they say, “I reckon your father’s poor, and I’m bound to say he’s in pretty hard luck. Here- I’ll put a twenty dollar gold piece on this board, and you get it when it floats by.”(Twain 69). This is a great example of satire and how the people of society only care about their well-being but try to fix things by sending money because they feel bad. This exact situation can be transferred to other things in life like philanthropy instead of actually going and helping the people you donate the money to. Twains use of satire in this scene of the story is a great example of what Twain tried to do in converting situations that happen in this story to what happens everyday in real life society. Another good example of satire in society itself was after the duke and kings first attempt at money with Romeo and Juliet failed they used the royal nonesuch. The posters they used to advertise where the key reason. When Huck says, “Then at the bottom was the biggest line of all – which said: LADIES AND CHILDREN NOT ADMITTED.”(Twain 113). This is satire because...