Religion, Slavery, and Democracy in Huckleberry Finn :: Adventures Huckleberry Huck Finn Essays

Religion, Slavery, and Democracy in Huckleberry Finn This essay will analyze the themes of religion, slavery, and state in the concord Huckleberry Finn by Mark duette. By exploring these themes that lie behind the books veneer, we can understand bracings objective for makeup this book. Religion is sarcastically reflected in Huckleberry Finn by Twains sense of storyline and the way his characters talk. A predominant theme, and probably one of Twains favorites, is the mockery of religion. Twain tended to attack organized religion at every opportunity and the sarcastic character of Huck Finn is perfectly situated to allow him to do so. The attack on religion can already be seen in the first chapter, when Huck indicates that hell sounds like a lot more fun than heaven. This will save throughout the novel, with one prominent scene occurring when the King convinces a religious community to give him money so he can convert his plagiarist friends. Twains skeptical take on religion can be elicited because superstition is a theme that both Huck and Jim pick out up several times. Although both of these characters tend to be quite rational, they quickly become irrational when anything remotely superstitious happens to them. The role of superstition in this book is two-fold First, it shows that Huck and Jim are child-like in spite of their otherwise extremely mature characters. Second, it serves to foreshadow the plot at several key junctions. For example, spilling salt leads to Pa locomote for Huck, and later Jim gets bitten by a rattlesnake after Huck touches a snakeskin with his hands. Another theme that is dealt with in this book is slavery. In fact, slavery is one of the main topics that has been frequently debated in regards to Huckleberry Finn since it was first published. Twain himself was vehemently anti-slavery and Huckleberry Finn can in many ways be seen as an allegory for why slavery is wrong. Twain uses Jim, a slave who is one o f the main characters, as a way of showing the human side of a slave. Everything about Jim is presented through emotions Jim runs away because fly the coop Watson was going to sell him South and separate him from his family Jim is trying to become free so he can buy his familys freedom and Jim takes care of Huck and protects him on their journey downriver in a very materialistic manner.