Mark Twain's Intentions 4/4/13

Informed by what you know about Mark Twain, his culture, and the text itself, what do you think Twain's intentions in writing are?

I think that Mark Twain is trying to display his views on the south as a whole. Originally, I believed that it was only used to critique slavery. However, as the story has progressed, I realized that Huck Finn was used for much more. One big example of this is the speech by Sherburn to the mob at his house. Throughout the entire speech, he critiques all of these people for being cowards. Although Sherburn was born in the south, he also lived up north. During his speech, he berates the mob and critiques everything about them. He looks down upon the people of the south. To me, Sherburn is Mark Twain. He lives a very similar life as they both lived in both areas. Mark Twain put himself in the story as this character, and this character looks down upon the south. Therefore, this entire story is used to show his hatred of the south. He believes they are inferior people to the north.