satirical+event+from+the+novel

__Scene: Huck and the Dauphin visit a mass revival__

In this scene from the novel, Huck and his companions the duke and the dauphin stop at a town to con it. They hear that the whole town has gone to a "revival" in the woods, so the Dauphin and Huck go look. At the revival the two watch a preacher work up his audience with religious vigor until many of them start yelling incomprehensibly and rolling on the ground. The king then seizes his oppurtunity and preaches to the people that he used to be a pirate in the Indian Ocean, but mended his ways. The king cries for his fellow pirate brethren still living such an evil life, and the audience in their compassion take up a collection for him. The king and Huck then leave with the money for "the Indian Ocean".This scene bitterly critiques the practices done at the mass revivals of the Second Great Awakening, which occurred in the early 1800's. Twain shows his contempt for the grifting that was done on innocent people. Twain does not necessarily critique the gullibility of people into giving away their money, his focus is on the malicious deeds of the conmen. Twain does not restrict the blunt of his blows to the obvious conman traveling with Huck, he leaves room to believe that the "preacher" leading the revival might also be trying to recieve hefty donations from his audience. Obviously, Twain did not favor scamming people out of their money, even for religious causes.

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