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Huck Finn satire - [mumbling]

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[mumbling]

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you may have noticed that I throw down a lot of shade in my writing. people can be really dense [Mark Twain stands by a river]

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sometimes but it's the way they're ignorant manifest itself that draws my

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attention. everyone thinks they have it all figured out, but really what does

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anyone know ?when I wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I wanted to focus on

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this aspect of human nature, which is what I want to talk about today. the

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purpose of satire is to use humor to expose people's shortcomings. and people

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have a lot of shortcomings I tell you. the book starts with a first-person

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narrative telling the story from Huck's point of view. believe it or not that

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took a lot of effort on my end. the vernacular dialog open racism and

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fourth-grade education ain't easy to fake. but in terms of snark

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value it turns into a goldmine. consider Huck's take on his good friend Jim. I see [mark twain sits meditating by the river]

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it warn't no use wasting words .you can't learn him to argue so I quit. well

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have just lost an argument with Jim there so we blame Jim's race and acted

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like he was quitting. well this is kind of what you'd expect from a kid who

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doesn't know any better. except that's how all races act, not just

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the kids. when they lose an argument they pretend they want to declare victory

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otherwise they'd have to admit they was wrong .yeah that'll be the day. at least

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Huck figures it out which is another good example of satire. he eventually

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changes his tune about blacks in general and Jim in particular . it was 15 minutes

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before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to him but I'd done it and

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i warn't ever sorry for it afterwards neither. I didn't do him no more mean

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tricks and I wouldn't have done that one if I'd had knowed it would make him feel that [exerpt from Huck Finn quoted]

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way. well yeah hooks just a kid and even he

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can figure out how to change for the better so why is it so much harder for

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grown-ups? because yeah silly as Huck can be they

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don't frown him or even worse. think about Colonel

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Grangerford who plays at being nice until his daughter runs off with a rival, or

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the king the Duke who pretend to be royalty when they're really just two-bit

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hustlers. they all fool themselves like Huck does into thinking the world works

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the way they wanted to, until reality comes crashing in and teaches them

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otherwise. the story plays up the difference between what characters think

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and what the reality actually is . well the reader spots the difference and gets

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to laugh at characters for how ridiculous they are. which is why I use

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subjective narrative, where the person telling a story interjects with their

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personal opinions with Huck. well here's one of the other avenues I use to give

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this story a satirical element. it's not just the individuals whose brains are [Twain floats on a raft down the river]

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inferior to those of rocket scientists. it's entire communities communities.

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pressure forces people against common sense as part of some agreed-upon

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foolishness. it's tough to be an outsider and think differently than the people

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you're around .well I hate to keep bringing up slavery but it's kind of the

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elephant in the room here people. and easil dehumanizing elephant. miss Watson [political cartoon depicting a slave market]

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however considers herself a good Christian even though she owns another

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human being, which I'm pretty sure isn't what Jesus would do. but Huck supports

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slavery because he thinks he'll go to hell otherwise. that's why he rats out

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Jim on the Phelps farm. I didn't do it straight off but Layton felt taper down

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and said they're thinking thinking of how good it was all this happened so

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and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. well it's not really on Huck

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it's the culture he belongs to, and eventually he figures out that it's

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wrong. all right then I'll go to hell and torn-up it was awful loss in awful words

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but they was said and I let them they said and never thought no more about

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performance. Huck is separated from the culture that

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tells him that a person will go to hell if they don't turn in runaway slaves . he

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finally figures it out because he has distance from the situation. just like we [people go in and out of a church]

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have distance when we read his foolish thoughts or hear other characters talk

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about their foolish thoughts. this distancing is a satirical miracle if you

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will. I also use irony a lot my writing which is key to satirical greatness.

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well irony takes place when one thing is expected to happen

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and then something completely different happens or is said. like the Phelps

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mistaken Huck for their nephew, or the Kenyan do pretend in their royalty. in

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both cases of situational irony, what characters think or what other

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people think about them runs completely counter to reality. Huck doesn't realize

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it at first but the ignorance and hatred of the people in his life are reasons

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why he eventually refuses to do a reform, and he runs away. he sees foolishness

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everywhere and he can't stand it. what better way to escape a bad situation and

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hop on a raft with another outsider and a head as far away as possible. life on [Jim and Huck jump on a raft together]

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the river never sounded so good. well the more distance Huck and Jim put between

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themselves and rest of the world, the more you can see the nuttiness of the

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culture they left behind. using satire was my way of pointing out the evils of

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slavery, racism and the hive minded efforts of small-town America, meaning

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that the people around each other all tend to think and act in similar ways. you

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know like penguins. while it can feel comforting to stay at home, sometimes a

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journey into the unknown is the only way to gain perspective. and we can surely

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all do with a good dose of perspective from time to time. [mark twain holds a bottle of pills labeled "perspective"]

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