It is through Huck's good nature and innocence that we come to see the full extent of the meanness and dishonesty of his society.
In Mark Twain's novel, "The adventures of Huckleberry Finn- the writer sets out to explore and expose the meanness and dishonesty of the Southern society in the 1830's. It is through the good nature and innocence of Twain's main character, Huckleberry Finn, which we come to see the full extent of the corrupt and hypocritical society.
The text, which was published after the civil war, paints a bleak picture through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy of the antebellum period (30's and 40's) where Twain is comparing the unified Northern society who has abolished slavery against Southern confederates who are opposed to freement of slaves. For the Southern communities they are heavy dependencies on the plantation farms, run by the slaves. Throughout Huck's descriptions of the journey, Twain is constantly critical of the small town communities, exposing that they are lazy, crude, people who's sense of moral justice is wrong. He comments on the hypocrisy of society and is particuly evident in the lives of the King and the Duke when we see their fraudulency and how they use language to manipulate people. .
The first incident of fraudulence on the part of the King and the Duke is that of convincing Huck and Jim that they are royalty. But "it didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn't no kings nor dukes, at all but just low-down humbugs and frauds."" The reader is aware of Huck's thoughts and Twain shows the readers that Huck is aware that they are frauds but does not say anything to Jim because "what the use to tell Jim these warn't real Kings and Dukes? It wouldn't a done no good- showing the white persons view towards the niggers' and reflecting that although Huck shows resistance to his society which is symbolised when Widow Douglas "put me in those new clothes- but could not do anything but "sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up,"" he still has the values of his society within him.