How does mark twain use satire to make fun of the south prior to the civil war in Huckleberry finn?

Question

thank you!!!

Answer 1

By showing the absurdity and hypocrisy behind the high ideals that the south embodied at that time. The Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons are noble southern families--distinguished, hospitable to strangers, true to themselves, good-looking, courageous. Their tastes in culture may be sentimental and ridiculous (Emma's poetry and drawings), unlike the vital, realistic qualities Twain evinces in his story, but that is part of their culture and it's relatively trivial.

Less trivial is that all their nobility and honor, their fideltity to their intentions, and their respect for each other (the one family admires the other's courage) doesn't stop them from fighting a war with each other, the cause of which they no longer remember. They go to church together, they pray together, and then they kill each other. It's broad satire on hypocrisy. One of them falls in love with the other, but instead of effecting a reconciliation between the families, as in _Romeo and Juliet,_ it furthers the feud. So much for southern society.