Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn

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The Use of Satire as Racial Commentary in Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn
Introduction
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a fictional novel written by Mark Twain and publish back in 1884 talks of Jim and Huckleberry Finn and their journey down the Mississippi river in the United States. It is worth noting that Jim is an African-American adult who escaped from the miseries of slavery and is trying his level best to attain personal freedom (Twain 11). On the other hand Huckleberry is 13 years old Caucasian male who throughout his life has acknowledged that the issue of slavery and racism is natural and those fighting it are wicked. However after the two became friends, Huck decided to help Jim to escape to gain freedom. It is worth noting that the desire of Jim to escape from slavery is as a result of the rumor he had his care taker say. Miss Watson, Jim care taker was planning to sell him for $800, this terrified him. The author paints Jim as one individual who feel pain when the thought of being separated from his family strikes him, this contributed to his thoughts of escaping from slavery (Twain 34).
The love he depicts towards his family left Huck puzzled making the later realize that even back people have strong love for their families just like the whites. The novel is full of examples depicting the themes of slavery and racism. Mark Twain has used irony, satire, and subtlety to make his case. It is the aim of this paper to critically examine the use of satire as racial commentary in the novel. According to Connery & Combe, 23 artists are successfully employing the concept of satire to make their points as well as entertain their audience. Ideally satire has been thought of as a genre in literature where vices, follies, social ills, shortcomings, ridicule among others are presented in a funny way with the aim to shame perpetrates with the ultimate goal of improving the entire society. It is worth mentioning that despite the fact that satire should be funny the primary objective of its use is to criticize society in a constructive manner. Major characteristics of satire include irony as well as sarcasm (Connery & Combe 18).
Use of satire as racial commentary in Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain has managed to usefully use satire while making commentaries concerning racism and slavery. By employing this technique Twain tells the audience a story that is not only entertaining, but also socially significant and relevant mainly concerning racism and slavery. At the time of writing the novel, the concept of slavery was heavily associated with the black. Satire is evident from chapter one of the novel. Twain clearly shows readers that Huck who was a Caucasian boy together with Tom Sawyer got $6,000 each after finding stash of gold hidden in a cave by robbers. The money was banked where it gained a dollar interest per day.
A widow called Douglas adopted Huck with the aim of ‘sivilizing’ him but o...