The Hypocrisy of Society

In reading Huckleberry Finn, I found it interesting how Mark Twain brought out the hypocrisy of society throughout the novel. Twain criticizes society for putting up a moral front but not supporting it with moral actions. In chapter 18 on page 171 Huck goes to church with the Grangerfords, and “the men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them hand against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching—all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith, and good works, and free grace, and preforeordestination…” The Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, the infamous feuding and violent archrivals, are going to church listening to a supposedly powerful sermon on brotherly love, not to mention that all the while they are sitting in the pews with rifles in their laps. The immense irony of this scene is meant to depict Twain’s opinion that society is hypocritical in their moral views. People claim to be religious, yet their actions don’t support their assertions. Furthermore, in chapter 23 Jim opens up to Huck, mourning over his children. He tells Huck the story of when he first realized that his daughter was deaf after suffering through a bout of scarlet fever, tears well up in his eyes as he tells the story. Jim asked his daughter Elizabeth to shut the door and when she didn’t respond he became angry and hit her on the side of the head in an attempt to discipline her. When a gust of wind then blew the door shut and the little girl made no response, Jim realized that his daughter was deaf and didn’t respond to him because she couldn’t hear him. The obvious heartache and remorse Jim experiences everything time he thinks of this shows what a kind, loving, and gracious father Jim is, in contrast to Pap, a drunk and abusive father. Twain’s contrast of the black father to the white father shows the hypocrisy of society in that white people believe themselves to be superior to black people, but don’t support their beliefs with superior actions. In this case, Jim is superior to Pap because he is a much better father than Pap. During this time, blacks were treated inhumanely, but ironically in Huckleberry Finn, Pap, the white father, is the inhumane character, and Jim is the humane one. I just found it interesting the way Twain expressed his opinions of society through the irony and hypocrisy of the novel.