“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a novel by American writer Mark Twain. In the story, a boy named Huckleberry Finn runs away from his hometown with an escaped slave named Jim. During their adventures, they meet many new people and places they have never seen in their hometown, and each place, most of which, is the hypocrisy of each human being. Hypocrisy is the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense. Hypocrisy was illustrated in the Grangerford family, the mob, and the people watching the three-night.
The Grangerford family in “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is one example that depicts hypocrisy. There are going to be arguments between people, which does not relate to how they treat other people. There are times when the arguments get violent and the difference between how the family behaves towards each other versus how the family behaves with others would become greater and more visible. Though they are a respectful and polite family, they act differently from what they perceive when they come around with the Shepherdson family. They loathe the other family in any way possible, which shows the family’s hypocritical behavior. Although they do present themselves as devoted Christians, going to church once a week, they act completely opposite of the Bible, which states that Christians are non-violent. The Grangerford family and their enemies brought guns with them to church. The Grangerford family take advantage of the firing of a gun whenever possible when coming across with the enemy family. The two people are fighting against a band of adults and Huck discovered that one of them is Buck, hinting that the adults are probably the Shepherdsons. People can act differently from what they perceived.
The mob were brave towards certain people, such as women who they think cannot defend themselves. The people would be afraid of those who can defend themselves, such as Colonel Sherburn. The average people doesn't want to be involved in trouble and rather go on with their original ideas. They just want to be passers-by, and lookers-on. Sometimes people are afraid of the consequence of a lynching, the revenge from the person's friend who would come to hurt or kill them. Since Colonel Sherburn killed Boggs, the entire town was enraged and formed a mob. Everybody wanted to lynch Colonel Sherburn for this act of violence. Though they may have a strong will in mind, they didn’t express physically. The mob did arrive at Colonel Sherbun’s home, but they were quickly intimidated and retreat when Colonel Sherbun came out with a double-barrel gun, showing his true power of a gun against them. The newspapers exaggerates the actual term of bravery on the mob, making them so confident that they are extremely brave to fight against any criminals and devils. The people of the mob aren't actually brave. They need someone to lead them to do something in a mass, and no one wants to be that someone, the leader or the person who takes responsibility. The only time to be brave is when they come together as a group so that they won't be punished or revenged individually. They follow the majority and hide in the massive. They will start backing down once they are separated. The mob learned that they don't have the required amount of bravery to lynch a man, such as Colonel Sherburn, so they departed. The average people are usually cowards, afraid of things.
People watching the 3-night show displayed an example of hypocrisy. There will be times when people do not like the actions and want to give a bad rating of it. But sometimes, people will still spread the word of it, just so that they can be equal. The audience was tricked by the duke and paid for their terrible performance. They were so agitated that they were going to harm the king and the duke. However, a young man steps up and reminds them that they can do the same cheating method to other people so they won’t feel embarrassed. His words resonated with many others, so everybody went to spread the “exceptional” rating of the show to others. Though the people watching the first night of the show, they were mad that they were tricked, but was soon convinced not to hurt them, as a man tells them that they can trick the entire town to be sold.The people watching the following nights were also tricked into watching and ended up being sold by the king and the duke for their bad performance. This example exhibited hypocrisy because the audience engaged in the very thing that they exactly despised.
The three examples in “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” all illustrated hypocrisy. The Grangerford family exhibited hypocrisy, as they show kindness and generosity to other people, but violence and hatred towards the Shepherdsons. The mob in the novel is also an example of hypocrisy, as they have a strong idea in their mind, but acts cowardly. Lastly, the people watching the 3-night show displayed hypocrisy, as they despised the show, but still recommended the others to watch. These three examples are hypocritical because the people acted differently from what they perceived. Different styles of expression, same theory (20w min). Even though the three examples used different styles of hypocrisy, they still stick to the same theory which is the urge to act virtuously while pursuing opportunities to detour embracing behaviors.
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