Saturday, January 3, 2015

What is Twain's attitude toward religion in Huckleberry Finn ?

Twain criticizes Christianity in Huckleberry Finn for its advocacy of slavery. Huck, for example, has learned through the church that slavery is a moral and beneficial institution. The novel satirizes, or pokes fun at, a church theology that approves a social order in which one person can own another. We can see this satire played out most clearly in Huck himself, who continuously battles a sense of guilt for his perceived wrongdoing in helping Jim escape....

Twain criticizes Christianity in Huckleberry Finn for its advocacy of slavery. Huck, for example, has learned through the church that slavery is a moral and beneficial institution. The novel satirizes, or pokes fun at, a church theology that approves a social order in which one person can own another. We can see this satire played out most clearly in Huck himself, who continuously battles a sense of guilt for his perceived wrongdoing in helping Jim escape. In one instance, after he protects Jim from capture, he says he is  "feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong." 


Eventually, Huck has such a crisis of conscience over his part in aiding someone else's "property" to flee that he writes a letter exposing Jim's location. However, he doesn't send it, valuing his relationship with Jim more than the morality the church has taught him. However, in this inverted moral universe, humor emerges from Huck's deeply held beleive that he has, in protecting Jim, committed a sin that will send him to hell.


Twain wrote the novel after the Civil War, when it was easy to see the moral confusion in a church that had supported an evil institution. However, Huckleberry Finn and Twain raise deeper questions about religious morality, criticizing religion and making a strong case for individuals to follow their hearts rather than the dictates of organized faith groups. 

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