The journey taken by two friends is rarely thought of as anything more than just an exploit. Huck, the main character, is considered an uneducated boy who is constantly under pressure to conform to the civilized' aspects of society. Then there is Jim, who accompanies Huck and is a runaway slave seeking freedom from the world that has denied it to him for so long. However, Mark Twain uses his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to reveal and poke fun of many problems facing American society. Satire, which is irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity, is the key tool in which he demonstrates many of the problems that plague civilization today.
In the beginning of the story, Huck sneaks away from his home to play with Tom Sawyer and his friends. The boys start a gang and Tom Sawyer decides that every one in the gang must take an oath. "Now we'll start this bang of robbers and call it the Tom Sawyer's Gang. Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name in blood- (15). Through these words Twain is depicting society's fascination for ceremony an somber things and how people are drawn into them. The oath that Tom had written basically said that every boy in the gang had to promise to be loyal, and never reveal and of the gang's secrets. Then the insignia of the band of robbers is revealed "till he had killed them an hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign of the band- (16). Religion was an fundamental part of civilization in Twain's time period and by using religious hypocrisy he exhibits his objection to the blind faith that society places towards religion. Later on in the band of robbers meeting Tom states what crimes the band is going to carry out, he then bring us the topic of ransoming. "Ransomed? What's that? But per'aps if we keep them till they're ransomed, it means that we keep them till they're dead- (17).
