Huckleberry Finn

Term Paper Title	Huckleberry Finn
# of Words	619
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	2.48

Huckleberry Finn

       "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" can be considered a great novel because of its social criticism, its authenticity, its relation to God and the supernatural, and by the way it was written.
     Huck Finn can be considered a great novel because of its social criticism which is shown through satire.  Satire is used to criticize something that the writer deems socially wrong.  Mark Twain uses satire to criticize man's cruelty to man and religious hypocrisy.  Twain criticizes man's cruelty to man mainly through the treatment of slavery throughout the novel.  Twain's criticism of religious hypocrisy is shown when Huck stays with the Grangerfords in chapter 17.  In the chapter, the Grangerfords took their guns along to church, ready to continue the feud on the way to or from the religious sanctuary.
     Another way Huck Finn can be considered a great novel is because of its authenticity.  Many of the events in the story follow closely to events taking place during the time that Mark Twain wrote the novel.  A good example of this is slave trade, that was a part of every day life in the Southern states, and, as in the novel, no one thought negatively about it.  Another example is that feuding families, such as the Grangerford - Shepherdson feud was not uncommon at the time.  Another aspect that adds to the authenticity of the novel is the emphasis placed on superstitions.  During the novel, we learn of some of the superstitions of the time.  Some include looking at the moon over one's left shoulder, shaking a tablecloth  after sundown, and handling snakeskin.  This adds to the authenticity because small children and the uneducated would place great meaning on these superstitions.
     Huck Finn can also be considered a great novel because of it's relation t...

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