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Satire in Huckleberry Finn

The use of satire by Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , is used to attack what he sees as the hypocritical views of the mid-western society. The satire makes fun and criticizes something foolish or bad that happened in the book. Some elements of satire that develop in this book are the satire of gullibility, satire of religious hypocrisy, and satire of racism. He took it upon himself in this new novel to expose the problems which he saw in society, using one of the most powerful methods available to him.
One expression of human failure that Twain satirizes is gullibility. Gullibility was most seen in the characters of the king and the duke. The Wilks girls believed that the King and Duke were actually their uncles, even after Doc Robinson told them otherwise and even tried to prove it to them. ”Say looky here; if you are Harvey Wilks, when ’d you come to this town?’(197). Twain is satirizing the fact that some people fail to listen and they are fooled beca...

Posted by: Joel Chibota

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