Satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Satire the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. synonyms: mockery, ridicule, derision, scorn, caricature

Caricature A caricature is an extreme exaggeration of a character, either through literature or through drawing. Huckleberry Finn uses the literary types of caricature in his descriptions of main characters.

Jim is a great example of a caricature. Throughout the entire novel, Huck makes the audience picture Jim as a stupid black man, which was stereotypical for that period of time. It is a form of caricature because it greatly exaggerates Jim.

Pap is also a good example of a caricature Pap is also a good example of a caricature. From what Huck describes him as, we visualize a hairy very scary looking older man. Huck makes him look like a crazy person, through his words and his appearance. When Huck tells about Pap being drunk in the cabin and ranting about blacks, politics and the government, we assume him to be insane.

Juxtaposition Huck and Jim are an example of Juxtaposition in Juxtaposition: the arrangement of two or more characters, ideas or words side-by-side for the purpose of comparison, contrast, or character development Huck and Jim are an example of Juxtaposition in themselves. Huck is white. Jim is black. Throughout the book we see how they are treated very differently just because of their races.

A scene in Huckleberry Finn that shows the art of juxtaposition very clearly would be when Jim and Huck are discussing the French language. A very humorous situation emerges when Huck begins comparing a Frenchman speaking French to a cat meowing. This entire scene is solely purposed to make Jim look very stupid, and make Huck look wise. “Well, den! Dad blame it, why doan’ he talk like a man? You answer me dat!” I see it warn’t no use wasting words-you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit.”

Parody Parody: poking fun at something by mimicking or imitating it The King and Duke make a huge parody out of all of Shakespeare’s works during their performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

It has been said in history that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is merely a parody of Don Quixote. Tom is apparently a representation of Don. The website I have below goes into much detail on that topic. http://alpha.fdu.edu/~jbecker/americanlit/huckfinn-donquixote.html

Irony Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that ends up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between appearance and reality. There are three types of irony: verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony.

Verbal Irony Verbal irony involves what one does not mean. For example, when in response to a foolish idea, we say, “What a great idea!”  An example is when Ben Rogers says to Tom Sawyer, “how in the nation are these fellows going to be ransomed if we don’t know how to do it to them?” (12 Huck Finn).

Situational Irony Situational irony occurs when things end up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between appearance and reality. In situational irony, both the characters and the audience are fully aware of the implications of the real situation. Huck doesn’t always mean to be funny, but some of his lines show real humor: “At first I hated the school, but by-and-by I got so I could stand it. Whenever I got uncommon tired I played hookey, and the hiding I got next day done me good and cheered me up” (19 Huck Finn).

Dramatic Irony In dramatic irony, the characters are oblivious of the situation, but the audience is not. For example, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we know well before the characters that they are going to die. We know that Pap doesn’t mean what he’s saying to the new judge when he claims he’s “agoing to turn over a new leaf and be a man nobody wouldn’t be ashamed of” (26 Huck Finn).

Hyperbole Hyperbole is an extreme over-exaggeration, such as freaking out over a certain issue.

“If you are anywheres where it won’t do for you to scratch, why you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places.” –Huckleberry Finn “You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skin with my hands. Well, here’s your bad luck! We’ve raked in all this truck and eight dollars besides. I wish we could have some bad luck like this every day, Jim.”

Understatement "A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be Mark Twain is famous for using understatements. An understatement is A figure of speech in which a writer or a speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important than it is "A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscientiously regarded as a thing of beauty.“ -Mark Twain

“Good gracious! Anybody hurt?” “No’m. Killed a nigger.” “It warn’t the grounding-that didn’t keep us back but a little. We blowed out a cylinder-head.” “Good gracious! Anybody hurt?” “No’m. Killed a nigger.” This is an example of understatement in Huck Finn. Even though obviously a man is dead, his death is an solely because he was black.

“But by-and-by pap got too handy with his hickory, and I couldn't stand it. I was all over welts. He got to going away so much, too, and locking me in. Once he locked me in and was gone three days. It was dreadful lonesome. I judged he had got drowned and I wasn't ever going to get out anymore. I got scared.”