Huck Finn Essay - Hypocrisy is Annoying
Hypocrisy is often annoying, but it is the beginning of change. For instance,
Alex, an acquaintance, did not want his brother to be better or worse than
he was. He feared for his brother if his brother was not doing as well as
he did in school. He loathed being viewed as being the less smart brother.
In the end, he decided that it did not matter if he or his brother was better
as long as his brother was successful. Mark Twain, a satirist, often wrote
about the hypocrisy he saw in American and foreign societies. In his novel,
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he wrote about the religious and superstitious,
societal, and moral hypocrisies he found in American during his time, which
represents the time of change of the views of Huck Finn.
The religious hypocrisies challenge the practicality of it. For example, Huck
questions the use of praying. "I says to myself, if a body can get anything
they pray for, why don't Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork?"
(Twain, 8). He tries praying because he believes that he might get something
out of it. Later, Miss Watson tells him that it is meant to help other people
and he decides that praying is useless. Similarly, the superstitious hypocrisy
of Huck makes him partially believe in the superstitions. He does not believe
that bees would not sting idiots because he tried the bees many times and
they did not sting him. (Twain, 34). However, he does the routine of turning
three times and crossing his breast, and then tying a lock of hair with a
thread to ward off bad luck when he kills the spider. (Twain, 3)
Societal hypocrisies cause change in the views of Huck concerning what is
it likes to be "sivilized." Huck recognizes that being civilized
in the view of his society would be unreasonable. For instance, the feud of
the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, people who are suppose to be civilized.
Buck, a person in the Grangerford family who had sheltered him, tells him
about how the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons have been killing each other and
do not even remember how it started. This continues on because one of the
groups murders somebody and the other group tries to get end by murdering
again. (Twain, 82). In addition, he meets two lairs, the false king and duke,
who were suppose to be civilized people, lie to others about the tragedy show
they were going to see, and showing the clowning instead. (Twain, 114-5) These
two liars end up betraying Jim, by selling him for forty dollars, just because
he was a slave. The societal hypocrisies lead to the moral hypocrisies.
Moral hypocrisies change Huck's view of Jim. He writes to Miss Watson to try
to save Jim from slavery in the South with strangers because the false king
and duke had sold him, after all the time that they had spent together and
doing so much for them. (Twain, 160) He betrays Jim to try to save him. On
the other hand, that was not needed. Miss Watson freed Jim in her will because
she felt guilty that she was going to sell Jim down the river. Huck tries
to save Jim, with Tom Sawyer, by stealing him away. Tom Sawyer, knowing that
Jim was free already, goes along with the plans to rescue Jim, for an adventure,
while Huck does it because of he cares about Jim. (Twain, 217). Tom is the
more civilized than Huck in the eyes of their society. Is it right for Tom
to search for adventure at the expense of Huck and Jim?
The religious and superstitious, societal, and moral hypocrisies cause Huck
to change many of his views about his morals. The religious and superstitious
hypocrisies that he had cause to to question the practicality of religious
things and if superstitions were true. Societal hypocrisies lead to the moral
hypocrisies causing Huck to know that he does not want to be "sivilized".
"…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." (Twain, 220). These kinds of hypocrisies could be
found in Oakland, 120 years after this book was written. For instance, moral
hypocrisies even concerning the daily lives of people, such as how they could
do something without betraying another.
12-01 SC
