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Twain makes them look extremely pointless and senseless. Mark Twain includes two characters in his novel that are really devoted Christians, Miss Watson and Sills. They both are presented as very good Christian people, but they both do things that go against their belief in the bible. Miss Watson wants to raise Houck with Christian views while she owns a slave and treats him like property. Sills was known for being a very good preacher and living a good life, but he also owns a farm run by slaves. He shows himself as a Christian man but treats other men that are dark skinned horribly.
Mark twain shows how funny religion is since people just act two different ways they don’t always act like a Christian. Lynching and a famous family feud was underway at the time when Mark Twain was writing Houck Finn. The Hatfield and the McCoy were two families that were involved in a fight over a long period to the point where they forgot what they were even fighting for. The Shepherdess and the Grandiose are two families in the novel that are in a family feud, they also can’t remember why they are fighting. These families suffer losses in the form of dead family members.
Twain uses this example o ridicule the family fighting it has no purpose and only brings misfortune. In the novel Shoehorn kills a man because he is being harassed, a mob forms to lynch Shoehorn. The mob goes to his house and is met with him standing on his porch with a rifle in hand; he then accuses them of having no individual opinion and Just following main opinion of the crowd. Mark mentions this event to show how people in his time didn’t think for themselves; they wait for people to tell them what to do and what to think. Romantic literature is also included in twain’s efforts to explain a topic while also poking fun at it.
In the beginning of the novel Houck is led to a cave by Tom Sawyer who plans to form a gang. Tom sawyer has read many books that include stories of bandits doing certain things in certain ways and therefore he insists his gang will do the same. Tom Sawyer suggest they take people for ransom but none of the boys know what ransom meaner and assumes it meaner keep them until they die. Mark Twain shows how Romantic literature sets a standard that many times is impossible to reach. We grow up with these extravagant expectations and are never happy because we never reach them.
Later on in the novel Houck sees a paddle boat that has nun, the boat’s name is the Walter Scott. Walter Scott was a famous Romantic author and by the sinking boat being named after him twain shows that romantic literature is dead. He shows his opinion on romantic literature, which is that it is too over exaggerative and is dead. Mark Twain also makes fun of those who are greedy in the character of Pap and the way people treat others that are rich. Pap is the town drunk, he visits Houck, his only son, to take his money and beat him for trying to learn.
He takes whatever money he can from Houck and uses it to get himself drunk and ends up in Jail, he peps repeating this routine out of greed, no one can be better than him especially not his son. Later on in the novel a man comes to the harbor with Miss Hooker who is the niece of a very rich man, as they walk around everyone stays away and teats them badly since they are new and no one knows who they are. When everyone finds out who they are and that they are extremely rich then they all go out of their way to be nice to them. Twain shows how greed can have a hug influence on how someone acts towards another person.
Melodramatic art and poetry is also made fun of in Houck Finn. Melamine Grandfather wrote long and silly (not on purpose) poems on Just about anything, one which was called “Ode to Stephen Dowling Bots, Decade. ” described the sad death of Stephen Dowling but turned out to only to be obscure and not very respectful to the deceased. It shows how people get over dramatic and show it off as “Art” when they should focus more on the event itself. The characters of the Duke and Dauphin make themselves to be very smart and clever men who think themselves higher than Houck because they trick people and they trick they’re clever because they “know’
Shakespeare; this isn’t true since they mess up all the lines and mix plays. This pokes fun at people who use knowledge of poetry or art to make themselves feel higher or better than anyone else, when they actually are not. Even though The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written as a children’s book Mark Twain gave it deeper meanings and comedy that an adult reading can catch on with and enjoy the book as well. He includes many subjects affecting his world and uses wit and cleverness to show the truth and poke fun at religion, greed, civilization, melodramatic art and poetry, and romantic literature.