"NOTICE", warns Mark Twain before the novel opens. "Persons attempting 2 find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting 2 find a moral in it will b banished; persons attempting 2 find a plot in it will be shot." This means that there is a recurring theme in Huck Finn. This theme is slavery.
In the novel Mark Twain identifies the theme in several ways. One way is to use it as a satire. Another way is to use it in actions, emotions, and character reactions. Satire means to ridicule an event in a form to make it stand out and have a meaning that people can relate to. Like Animal Farm is the satire of the Russian communism. Not everyone can relate to, it but every one finds out about it through school or some type of education. In that novel the author uses animals and their character to mimic certain types of people that were involved in the Russian communism.
Mark Twain : Les Aventures de Huck Finn, illustrat...
Huck and jim on raft
Traditional raft, from 1884 edition of Adventures ...Mark Twain satires slavery in the novel, by several events. The one that stands out the most in the novel is how Jim treats Huck. Huck's real father is abusive when he is drunk and does not care about Huck; he just wants the money. So Jim, being the runaway slave, treats Huck with care, affection, and love. The satire is that a slave is better a father figure to Huck then his real white father. Back then black slaves were not thought of as humans. Mark Twain uses religion to satire slavery. Miss Watson makes Huck think that he will go to hell if he helps Jim out.
During the time period when this novel was to be taking place, people did not feel that black slaves were people or have the same qualities as all human do. Mark Twain, through the novel shows that Jim is a human. One example is when Jim tells Huck the story of him hitting his daughter. Jim had hit his daughter, because he told her to do something and she did not do it, and then Jim found out that the reason she couldn't of done what he said was because she is deaf. Jim says that was the worst thing he had done, and he regrets it. Another example, is when in the end of the novel, Jim risks his freedom to help out Tom. Another example is when Huck plays one of his jokes on Jim. When they spilt up and Huck paddles another way, and Jim looks all over for Huck, and then Huck appears and tells him that he was with Jim the whole time. Jim gets mad at him because, he was worried about Huck. These events show that Jim is a human also, and that neither color nor race matters to real humans.
mark twain Category:Mark Twain images
Illustration of Jim and Huckleberry Finn, by EW Ke...