Mr. Sjoerdsma
AP English P.4
9/4/13
Satire in Huckleberry Finn
During the mid-1800’s there was many “imperfections” in the world, and Samuel Clemens better known as Mark Twain decided to write a book to ridicule some problems concerning religion, greed, civilization, romantic literature, and Melodramatic art. Huckleberry Finn goes on a very complex and intense journey which helps him build a perspective on life as opposed to the ones dictated by those older than him. Throughout Huck encounters situations with problems that mimic actual problems in Twain’s world. Twain makes them look extremely pointless and senseless. Mark Twain includes two characters in his novel that are really devoted Christians, Miss Watson and Silas. They both are presented as very good Christian people, but they both do things that go against their belief in the bible. Miss Watson wants to raise Huck with Christian views while she owns a slave and treats him like property. Silas was known for being a very good preacher and living a good life, but he also owns a farm run by slaves. He shows himself as a Christian man but treats other men that are dark skinned horribly. Mark twain shows how funny religion is since people just act two different ways they don’t always act like a Christian. Lynching and a famous family feud was underway at the time when Mark Twain was writing Huck Finn. The Hatfields and the McCoys were two families that were involved in a fight over a long period to the point where they forgot what they were even fighting for. The Shepardsons and the Grangerfords are two families in the novel that are in a family feud, they also can’t remember why they are fighting. These families suffer losses in the form of dead family members. Twain uses this example to ridicule the family fighting it has no purpose and only brings misfortune. In the novel Sherborn kills a man because he is being harassed, a mob forms to lynch Sherborn. The mob goes to his