Huck Finn in Satirical Night Live

Every Saturday night for the past 35 years, millions of viewers gather around their televisions to tune into Saturday Night Live, one of the best comedy programs of all time. Making fun of elections, current events, and life in general, this show is not only witty but hysterical as well. The key to the program’s success is its use of satire. Satire, defined in the dictionary as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, is constantly used on the show to entertain viewers. However, the meaning behind the satire can be overlooked leaving only the comical parts to come across and not ones that have an actual meaning. In the case of Saturday Night Live, this is a good thing because it would not have the same effect if such parts did come across but in the case of a brilliant novel, missing the main idea due to satire, may not be so great. In Mark Twain’s novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the use of satire, although lighthearted and comical, can often detract from the meaning of the book when looked at on face value, leaving Twain’s deeper main point left behind. One scene from the novel that shows how satire can be rather complex is the scene when Huck encounters the Grangerford family. This scene exhibits that Twain’s use of satire can make the reader easily skip over the deeper morals of the book and take the hilarity of it all on at face value only.

When Huck and Jim fall off the steamboat into the Mississippi River, Huck looses Jim, leaving Huck scrambling to find land. As Huck climbs up out of the river, he finds himself at gunpoint being asked if he has any association with the Shepherdsons, the Grangerford’s arch rivals. After it is established that Huck is not a member of the Shepherdson family nor is he associated with them, the Grangerfords, invite Huck inside and soon find themselves taking care of Huck for several weeks. During this time, Huck learns of the old rivalry that started between distant ancestors of the two families that has caused death, injuries, crimes, and many other troubles over the decades. This is where Twain’s satire comes into place. Twain makes it very clear that the Grangerfords are “civilized” people, owning a nice home, several acres of land, and operating a decent system of trade and transportation with the use of the river.

It was a mighty nice family, and a mighty nice house, too. I hadn't seen no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much style. It didn't have an iron latch on the front door, nor a wooden one with a buckskin string, but a brass knob to turn, the same as houses in town.

Mr. Grangerford is even a former colonel, married with several strapping young boys, two beautiful young girls, and one young woman who passed away several years before who was artistic and creative. “Col. Grangerford was a gentleman, you see. He was a gentleman all over; and