Irony In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

John Locke was a prominent English philosopher who once claimed that children are empty vessels waiting to be filled. Locke's reasoning was that grown-ups had the impact to form and shape kids into being whatever the grown-up wanted. Similarly, Mark Twain, the creator of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, includes numerous literary elements to portray how the grown-ups in the novel impact Huck's point of view on life. In Huckleberry Finn, Twain uses literary techniques of irony and exaggerations that create mockery to expose the flaws of society and how they disfigure Huck’s morals. To begin, irony is the use of words to portray a message that is the complete opposite of the literal meaning. There are numerous times in the novel where Huck's
distorted morals are shown through irony. At the start of the story, Huck and all of his friends look up to Tom Sawyer as an idol. Tom had a tendency to be the instigator when it came to jokes and pranks, and he even told his friends that he will “start [a] band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer's Gang [and] everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath and write [his/her] name in blood" and obviously, Huck and his friends were all ready to join (Twain 15). Tom, and his buddies, went on a variety of adventures and Huck sees Tom as a genius. The irony here is that even though Huck idolizes Tom, Huck is the one that settles on the more reasonable choices. While Tom's adventures were imaginary and silly, Huck was hit with real-life situations and dealt with them as best as he could. Towards the end of the novel when Tom and Huck reunite, Huck still idolizes Tom and “feels astonished” (227), but Tom still sees everything as a fantasy. Even though Huck makes wiser and more astute choices, he still sees Tom as the person to look up to and this shows how Huck’s morals are distorted. Another ironic situation in the story takes place when a rattlesnake bites Jim when he is asleep. As Huck watches Jim in pain, he says that Jim’s “foot swelled up pretty big, and so did [Jim’s] leg; but by and by the drunk begun to come, and so [Huck] judged [that Jim] was all right; but [Huck would] druther been bit with a snake than pap's whisky (59). Huck is stating that he prefers being chomped by a venomous snake rather than spending time with his drunken father. This is ironic because Huck shows how little he cares for his dad. Most kids, especially at Huck’s young age, respect their parents, but Huck portrays distorted morals by admitting that he would rather be physically hurt than be with his own father.