Quotes About Misleading Huckleberry Finn Analysis

Navonne Johns once expressed, “A person’s character is shown through their actions in life not where they sit on Sunday” (Quoted in “Quotes About Misleading” 1). Mark Twain shows this religious bigotry through his depiction of the Grangerford and Shepardson family. The two families come to church, and listen to a sermon on brotherly love, while in the next day, kill one another. Contributing to this example, Twain mocks religion through The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with his satirical attacks on organized religion versus religious beliefs, which contributes to the theme of spiritual hypocrisy. Mark Twain ridicules religion in the works of his characters’ actions and beliefs throughout the novel. His first depiction of religion begins
early in the novel. The character, Widow Douglas, taught Huck about Moses.
Widow Douglas gave hints that Moses was not alive, every now and then, so Huck began to stop caring because he does not, “take no stock in dead people” (Twain 2). In this instance, Twain makes fun of the Bible and how the whole testament is composed of perished characters. In addition to the author making fun of the Bible, he continues to insult religion by mocking prayers. about The members of Huck’s town went on a search party for him, and they sent out tools to find the boy. The townspeople used bread with tubes of mercury inside to see if Huck’s body sunk in the river. Huckleberry believes that “somebody prayed that this bread would find [him]”, he assumes an individual needs live a virtuous life to recieve answered prayers, someone “like the widow or the parson prays, but it don’t work for me” (Twain 28). Mark Twain also includes satirical elements in this
novel to portray the erroneous of spiritual characteristics. The character, Miss Watson is satirized through her decisions about her slave, Jim. Miss Watson a self-proclaimed christian, learned that “she could git eight hund’d dollars for [Jim]” and that was a large amount of money that Miss Watson “couldn’ resis” (Twain 33). Even though Miss Watson asserts herself as a godly woman, monetary value interests her over a human itself. The examples of pointing out the dead characters in the bible, mocking of prayers, and the hypocrisy of a holy woman’s traits, contribute to the theme of spiritual hypocrisy. In addition to the aforementioned episodes of religious mockery in the novel, Twain presents additional examples throughout the story.
The onset of the book focuses heavily on religious aspects. Twain portrays humor to show Huck’s young perceptions of religion in the beginning. For instance, Miss Watson tells Huck all about the good place, otherwise known as heaven, and that she wants to end up there. Twain here uses humor with Huck’s silent response, Huck did not see any benefit in going to the same place as Miss Watson, “so [Huck] made up [his] mind [he] wouldn’t try for it” (Twain 2). The author uses the literary element of satire to poke at religious individuals and their beliefs that they need to end up going to heaven. Later on in the story, Twain ridicules church and members of the church. The author uses the Grangerford and Shepardson families to render his mockery of the church. The feuding families, the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, both came to church routinely and they set the guns under the pews, this particular sermon was “all about brotherly love” (Twain 83). This displays irony because the two families are feuding, but they listened to a sermon about having love for neighbors and family when they fight over issues they cannot even reckon. The Grangerfords also discussed how they thought “it was a good sermon” and what it means to do “good works, and free grace” (Twain 83). Twain shows the hypocrisy of church-goers and how it does not matter if
individuals attend church, read the Bible, or listen to sermons, it matters how christian taught values and how that knowledge is used. Subsequently in the novel Mark Twain uses derision once again when Huck is contemplating to send a letter down to Miss Watson to tell her Jim’s whereabouts. The author shows a growth in Huck’s character when he decides it would be best to inform Miss Watson about Jim, and come clean. Huck claims to feel “good and all washed clean of sin for the first time”, he wanted to be a better person and try to become a little more devoted to God (Twain 161). He then thinks about the situation for a prolonged time, and remembers how kind and fatherly Jim acted towards him and changes his mind. Huck cares too much for Jim and tore up the letter, which he believed would send him “...to hell” (Twain 162). Although his actions display love and somewhat similar to christian actions he believes that freeing a slave will send him to hell, which shows warped southern christianity. Twain continues to maintain his mockery of religion through his innocence of Huck in the beginning, his irony of the feuding families who also attend church, and Huck’s decision to stay loyal to his African American friend. In the tale of Huck Finn, Twain mocks religion through the effect of satire. The author derides religion by poking at Huck’s innocence, showing strong loyalty versus slavery, ridiculing sel-proclaimed christian families at war with one another, and displaying how Huck perceives religion. Mark Twain mocks religion and its hypocrisy by using clever examples throughout the novel to portray this satirically. Religion being a dubious subject,can be proven negative easily through the works of a talented writer.