Huckleberry Finn Satire Analysis

Satire and irony have a long and storied history in European literature. This year, we briefly analyzed Voltaire, a French writer and poet who used these literary devices to criticize the unjust society in which he lived. The American heir to this European tradition is Mark Twain, who was one of the first American writers to be known and read all around the world. Twain uses the powerful tools of satire, situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony to make incisive commentary on a variety of topics. We see this clearly in his masterpiece, Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain uses satire in order to highlight the gluttony and corruption of eighteenth century culture. First we see, Miss Watson, a “pure christian woman”, who nevertheless owns slaves and treats them as objects. Indeed, it was only at her death that she freed Jim. Secondly, Twain uses satire to criticize religion. He does this by instilling Jim’s character with many religious superstitions. Third, he uses satire to criticize the greed and gullible behavior of his society through the characters of the Duke and the Dauphin. The Duke and the Dauphin aren’t only conning the general population out of money with their “shows.” They also manage to trick Huck and Jim, who are the smartest, wisest characters in the story. By do so, Twain is making clear that everyone can be duped at times.
He didn’t publish it for money- no, he published it because he was angry with the utter failure of the Reconstruction. He wanted to help show white people that every black man and woman could feel pain and loss, as much as they could. We see this in Jim, a black man who loses his wife and children to the dark abyss that is slavery and racism, and cries every night about how much he misses his family. This helps not only Huck to realise that black men are human, but also readers who see through Huck’s