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Mark Twain
Rachel Cox
Junior Project
Mark Twain’s Satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The fictional book hit on religious views and racial beliefs that defined the South when the book was published. Twain writes with the individual characters speaking in their own Southern language and not just through Huck. This makes the ridicule more effective. “Huck’s early rejection of Heaven, his later decision to accept damnation- are further instances of Twain’s dialectical counterpoising of the frivolous and the profound”[19]

Huck gives numerous examples of why he finds prayer useless such as “why don’t Deacon Winn get back the money he lost”.(Pinsker) Basically saying if prayer is going to work shouldn’t it work for a highly regarded person of the church? Of course, the examples are for material things and not of spiritual origin so maybe the reader will forgive the young boy for foolish thoughts.

[1] Pinsker, Sanford. 2001. “HUCKLEBERRY FINN AND THE PROBLEM OF FREEDOM”. Virginia Quarterly
Review 77, no. (twain 1976)4: 642. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost(accessed January 10, 2013).
[2] Egan, Michael. 1977. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn Race, Class, and Society. Sussex University Press
[3] Crump, Sarah. 2000. Satire in Huck Finn & the World. https://sites.google.com/site/satireinhuckfinntheworld/satire-in-huck-finn/analysis. (accessed January 8,
2013).
[4]Twain, Mark, 1976. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn .In The Unabridged Mark Twain. 748 – 656. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press.
[5] Crump, Sarah. 2000. Satire in Huck Finn & the World. https://sites.google.com/site/satireinhuckfinntheworld/satire-in-huck-finn/analysis. (accessed January 8,
2013).
[6] Twain, Mark, 1976. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn .In The Unabridged Mark Twain. 748 – 656. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press.
[7] Crump, Sarah. 2000. Satire in Huck Finn & the World.
https://sites.google.com/site/satireinhuckfinntheworld/satire-in-huck-finn/analysis.
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