Essay About Mark Twains Novel And Social Injustice

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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In Mark Twains novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain develops the plot into
Huck and Jims adventures allowing him to weave in his criticism of society. The two main
characters, Huck and Jim, both run from social injustice and both are distrustful of the civilization
around them. Huck is considered an uneducated backwards boy, constantly under pressure to
conform to the “humanized” surroundings of society. Jim a slave, is not even considered as a real
person, but as property. As they run from civilization and are on the river, they ponder the social
injustices forced upon them when they are on land.
These social injustices are even more evident when Huck and Jim have to make landfall, and this
provides Twain with the chance to satirize the socially correct injustices that Huck and Jim
encounter on land. The satire that Twain uses to expose the hypocrisy, racism, greed and injustice
of society develops along with the adventures that Huck and Jim have. The ugly reflection of
society we see should make us question the world we live in, and only the journey down the river
provides us with that chance.
Throughout the book we see the hypocrisy of society. The first character we come across with
that trait is Miss Watson. Miss Watson constantly corrects Huck for his unacceptable behavior,
but Huck doesnt understand why, “That is just the way with some people. They get down on a
thing when they dont know nothing about it” (2). Later when Miss Watson tries to teach Huck
about Heaven, he decides against trying to go there, “she was going to live so as to go the good
place. Well, I couldnt see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I
wouldnt try for it.” (3) The comments made by Huck clearly show Miss Watson as a hypocrite,
scolding Huck for wanting to smoke and then using snuff herself and firmly believing that she
would be in heaven.
When Huck encounters the Grangerfords and Shepardsons, Huck describes Colonel Grangerford
as, “…a gentleman, you see. He was a gentleman all over; and so was his family. He was well
born, as the saying is, and thats worth as much in a man as it is in a horse…” (104). You can
almost hear the sarcasm from Twain in Hucks description of Colonel Grangerford. Later Huck is
becoming aware of the hypocrisy of the family and its feud with the Shepardsons when Huck
attends church. He is amazed that while the minister preaches about brotherly love both the
Grangerfords and Shepardsons are carrying weapons. Finally when the feud erupts into a
gunfight, Huck sits in a tree, disgusted by the waste and cruelty of the feud, “It made me so sick I
most fell out of the tree…I wished I hadnt ever come ashore that night to see such things.”
Nowhere else is Twains voice heard more clearly than as a mob gathers at the house of Colonel
Sherburn to lynch him. Here we hear the full force of Twains thoughts on the hypocrisy an
cowardice of society, “The idea of you lynching anybody! Its amusing. The idea of you thinking
you had pluck enough to lynch a man!…The pitifulest thing out is a mob; thats what an army is- a
mob; they dont fight with courage thats born in them, but with courage thats borrowed from
their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath
pitifulness” (146-147). Each of these examples finds Huck again running to freedom of the river.