Satire
In
The
Adventures
Of
Huckleberry
Finn
Caricature
A caricature is an extreme exaggeration of a
character, either through literature or through
drawing.
Huckleberry Finn
uses the literary
types of caricature
in his descriptions
of main characters.
I believe Huck uses
this form of satire
when he describes
Jim, the King and
the Duke, and of
course Pap.
Jim is a great example of a caricature.
Throughout the entire
novel, Huck makes the
audience picture Jim
as a stupid black man,
which was stereotypical
for that period of time.
It is a form of caricature
because it greatly
exaggerates Jim.
This is a website that speaks about Jim. It backups how I think he
is a caricature.
Pap is also a good example
of a caricature. From what
Huck describes him as, we
visualize a hairy very scary
looking older man. Huck
makes him look like a crazy
person, through his words
and his appearance.
When Huck tells about Pap
being drunk in the cabin and
ranting about blacks, politics
and the government, we
assume him to be insane.
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is when a person parallels two different things
in humorous ways.
Huck and Finn are
an example of
Juxtaposition in
themselves. Huck
is white. Jim is
black. Throughout the book we see how they are treated
very differently just because of their races.
Huck and Jim look like twins in this picture. They are lying together, and look like
they're in the same position. They look like their minds are connected.
A scene in Huckleberry Finn that shows the art of
juxtaposition very clearly would be when Jim and
Huck are discussing the French language. A very
humorous situation emerges when Huck begins
comparing a Frenchman speaking French to a cat
meowing. This entire scene is solely purposed to
make Jim look very stupid, and make Huck look
wise.
“Well, den! Dad blame it, why
doan’ he talk like a man? You
answer me dat!”
I see it warn’t no use wasting
words-you can’t learn a nigger
to argue. So I quit.”
Juxtaposition is used in many pages of Huck Finn.
This article from a website that I have below is an
example of how Jim’s humanity is hid “behind the
Minstrels mask.”
This website speaks more about Jim behind the minstrels mask.
Jim is portrayed to
look stupid in
almost every way
that Huck speaks
about him. For
example, in this
picture he’s
positioned in a way
that's lower than
Huck which makes
him look inferior.
Parody
The King and
Duke make a huge
parody out of all of
Shakespeare’s
works during their
performance of
Shakespeare’s
Hamlet.
These are additional examples of Satire in our everyday lives.
It has been said in history
that The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn are
merely a parody of Don
Quixote. Tom is apparently
a representation of Don.
The website I have below goes into much detail
on that topic.
This website talks about how Don and Tom are really
related
Mark Twain's parody is of that form of obituary poetry which was
popular in the late nineteenth century. Twain's fictional character,
Huckleberry Finn, tells of an obituary poem by the deceased
Emmeline Grangerford (who dies before her fourteenth birthday
according to the author) and as printed in the Presbyterian Observer.
"Buck said she could rattle off poetry like nothing. She didn't ever have to
stop to think. He said she would slap down a line, and if she couldn't find
anything to rhyme with it she would just scratch it out and slap down another
one, and go ahead. She warn't particular, she could write about anything you
choose to give her to write about, just so it was sadful. Every time a man died,
or a woman died, or a child died, she would be on hand withher `tribute'
before he was cold. She called them tributes. The neighbors said it was the
doctor first, then Emmeline, then the undertaker--the undertaker never got in
ahead of Emmeline but once, and then she hung fire on a rhyme for the dead
person's name, which was Whistler. She warn't ever the same, after that; she
never complained, but she kind of pined away and did not live long."
http://www.monash.com/buffy_parody.html
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is an
extreme
over-exaggeration,
such as freaking out
over a certain issue.
The video clip I have
is a hyperbole by
Hilary Clinton. I think it
is a good example of
what a hyperbole truly is.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=162954&title=moment-ofzen-hillarys-hyperbole
“Tom’s most well, now, and got his
bullet around his neck on a watchguard for a watch, and is always
seeing what time it is, and so there
ain’t nothing more to write about,
and I am rotten glad of it, because if
I’d a knowed what a trouble it was
to make a book I wouldn’t a tackled
it and ain’t agoing to no more. But I
reckon I got to light out for the
territory ahead of the rest, because
Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me
and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I
been there before.”
Hyperboles are used very often
in our everyday lives and we
don’t even realize it. These are
some great examples of
hyperbole poems:
What happens to a dream
deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
good example of a hyperbole is a Taco Bell
like a heavy load.
commerical that exaggerates the quality of their
food.
Or does it explode?
This is another poem that is considered a hyperbole.
Understatement
Mark Twain is famous for using understatements. An
understatement is when little emphasis is put on
something that is more important. It is when an author
makes something seem less important.
"A soiled
baby, with a neglected
nose, cannot be
conscientiously
regarded
as a thing of beauty.“
-Mark Twain
This is Watson and Crick's famous understatement.
“It warn’t the grounding-that didn’t keep us back but a
little. We blowed out a cylinder-head.”
“Good gracious! Anybody hurt?”
“No’m. Killed a nigger.”
This is a great
example of
understatement
in Huck Finn. Even
Though obviously a
man is dead, his
death is an
understatement
solely because he
was black.
“But by-and-by pap got
too handy with his
hickory, and I couldn't
stand it. I was all over
welts. He got to going
away so much, too, and
locking me in. Once he
locked me in and was
gone three days. It was
dreadful lonesome. I
judged he had got drowned and I wasn't ever going to get out
anymore.
I got scared.”
Did you know that Huck Finn is connected to Dark American Culture?
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