Huck Finn - Hypocrisy of Society

Almost all novels depict morals or the author’s view on any given subject. Although many people start to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn thinking that it is a simple novel on a boy’s childhood, they soon come to realize that the author, Mark Twain, expresses his opinions on multiple important, political issues. Twain touches on subjects such as slavery, money and greed, society and civilization, and freedom. From the time of its publication, Huckleberry Finn has been distinguished as a novel with prodigious political positions and messages. Throughout the novel, Twain continuously shows the hypocrisy and absurdity of civilized society.

Part of the absurdity of civilized society that Twain depicts is that society’s accepted rules and laws are logic defying. One example of this is when the new judge in town allows Pap to keep custody of Huck, but Jim will never be able to gain custody of his own children. Huck would be better off without his father and is only mistreated by him, and Jim’s children would be better off with him instead of being separated and enslaved. However, society is not concerned with the personal welfare of the individual and places them in situations that prove to be harmful. Another example of this is the Grangerford and Shepardson feud. These two families are perceived to be highly civilized and educated, yet they kill people over a meaningless feud that they don’t even know how it started. This shows how ludicrous society can be. Twain also shows that terrible acts, such the Duke and King scamming an entire community, go unpunished but feebleminded crimes, such as yelling drunken insults, led to executions. Sherburn’s speech to the mob about cowardice, lack of logic, and selfishness of the mob mentality captivates Twain’s view on society.

Through the duration of the novel, Twain demonstrates that the uncivilized way of life is better than living in a civilized society. One of the main messages that he delivers is that civilization corrupts people, rather that improving human beings. Huck is able to represent the natural way of life through his uncivilized ways and his desire to escape from civilization. Huck was brought up and raised without any rules, and he has a strong opposition to anything that might “sivilize” him. This is first shown in the first chapter when the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson tried to pressure Huck to wear new clothes, give up smoking, go to school, to study religion and