Henry Stark

7) How is Huck’s trip down the river actually a passage into manhood?

Huck experiences many lessons that contribute to his maturation into a man. Huck

begins the journey as young immature boy that “ransomed” unsuspecting “Spaniards

and A-Rabs” in the murderous Tom Sawyer gang. He and his friends’ wild imaginations

propels them to splendid boyish times. Once Huck realizes he needs to escape from

Pap’s suffocating custody he develops an expert plan of escape. Huck draws up a very

sophisticated and complex plan, “I took the ax and smashed in the door. I beat it and

hacked it considerable a-doing it. I fetched the pig in, and took him back nearly to the

table and hacked into his throat with the ax, and laid him down on the ground to bleed

(33).” He fakes his own murder in order to trick Pap and the townspeople into only

searching for his body. This was Huck’s first step into manhood. He became fully

independent at this point and had no intentions of going back to his former life. Huck

and Jim face many decisions along their journey down the mighty Mississippi. They

faced a moral dilemma of whether it was right or wrong to steal food in order to survive,

“Jim said he reckoned the widow was partly right and and pap was partly right; so the

best way would be to pick 2 or 3 things from the list and say we wouldn’t borrow them

anymore (65).” Huck shapes his morals in the journey facing situations such as

ransacking the floating house, helping the frauds, and then turning the frauds in to Miss

Mary Jane. He learns how to talk his way out of situations. The cumulation of the all the

adventures Huck and Jim face on the river help Huck grow intellectually, morally, and

socially.

10) How does Twain use satire to expose and criticize human failings?
Twain incorporates numerous instances of satire with the Shepherdson and

Grangerford feud, the King and Duke, the issue of slavery. Twain creates a parody to

the Hatfield and McCoy feud with the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords. No one knows

why or who started the 30 year old feud, “What was the trouble about, Buck?-land? I

reckon maybe-I don’t know. Well who done the shooting? Was it a Grangerford or

Shepherdson? Laws, how do I know? It was so long ago (108).” Twain criticizes the

human failing of fighting over pointless things, which can be a fight between two friends

or a whole multi-nation war. Twain then attacks human’s greedy nature with the

incorporation of the King and the Duke. The King and Duke never miss an oppruinty to

try to rip someone off, whether it be via a phony play or pretending to English heirs to a

dead man. The King and Duke put on such a realistic act pretending to be the brother of

Peter Wilkes that Huck states, “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human

race (162).” Greed drives humans to many low levels and Twain satirizes the lows with

addition of the King and the Duke to the book. Another human failing Twain satirizes is

the issue of slavery. Miss Watson, the supposed savior and model Christian women

owns slaves. Twain shows her to be a hypocrite to her Christian faith with her treatment

of Jim, “She pecks at me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she

wouldn’ sell me down to Orleans…I hear old missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me

down to Orleans.” Miss Watson lies to Jim, which is a sin, and goes back on her word.

Twain uses Miss Watson to satirize the ridiculous logic people possessed in his day.

Overall Twain uses a multitude of satire to expose and criticize human failings.