Hughes regretted his decision, but he did not want to keep everyone else waiting. This illustrates the common issue of Christians claiming to be followers of Christ, yet attending church is the only religious action they perform. The way that the aunt kept telling Hughes to come and be saved provided a coerced feel to her motives. His childlike innocence of expecting Jesus to literally walk into the church accompanied by bright lights led to his confusion as to why members of the congregation went up to the front of the aisle and Westley only going because he was tired of sitting. He took the faith aspects of religion literally, leading to his genuine confusion.
In the first of his story it was the Widow Douglas that was trying and at the end it was Aunt Sally. Here were two traditional Christian American women that conformed to all the rules of society. In the eyes of society, this made them and their kind civilized. Twain’s satire here is on being “civilized”. What made this an American idea was that Huck Finn, even though he did not know it, was antiestablishment, he did not have to follow the rules set by society.
Twain portrays his main character, Huck, as a boy who questions society and its beliefs. He also criticizes society and shows awareness with his witty satire. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses satire, through his character Huck, to show the hypocrisy and ignorance in adults, and royalty as apathetic and greedy; all while managing to see how man is very inhumane to their own kind. One example society that Twain attacks is adults and their hypocrisy. Huck doesn’t understand why he is forbidden to do certain things, when the person forbidding him does the exact same things.
The Widow and Hypocrisy“ Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn’t. She said it was a mean practice and wasn’t clean, and I must try to not do it any more… And she took snuff, too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself” (2). | Mark Twain is commenting on how people can be hypocritical when it comes to morals. The Widow is criticizing Huck on smoking tobacco and Huck is calling her a hypocrite because the Widow herself takes snuff.
That she needs their forgiveness before she can move on in life. The hypocrisy and bigotry shown in their attitude to the Mrunas, who they feel sorry for, because of ‘the poverty, the darkness, the immortality’. Yet this sympathy does not extend to the blacks in their town as Mrs Farrow points out ‘we can educate them till their blue in the face, we can try till we drop to make Christians out of them but no lady is safe in her bed these nights’. The irony of the ladies belief is shown in Mrs Merryweather calling the Northerners hypocrites explaining that “at least we don’t have the deceit to say yes, you are as good as us but stay away ... we live our way and they [the blacks] live theirs’ Yet they seem insistent to interfere with Tom’s family. What is really significant is that these ladies do not consider themselves to be racist or intolerant.
Brooke Clayton 10/10/2011 AP English Language Thesis Statement Paragraph The issue I am going to address in my essay is hypocrisy and how it is the main theme of The Scarlet Letter. The main example from the novel that I am going to use is the character of Arthur Dimmesdale. He preaches in his sermons that sins hidden will eventually be found out, yet hides the sins that he commits throughout his life. He claims that he loves Pearl and Hester, yet refuses to be seen in public with them. He keeps secrets from the entire community, yet is consumed with rage when Hester tells him the truth about Roger Chillingworth being her husband.
Throughout the story you perceive her as a very religious person, someone who would never give up her faith. Though when she has a gun to her head she seems to start to pick her own religion apart to save her life. An example is when she said “Maybe He didn’t raise the dead”(O'Connor 318) to the Misfit implying that Jesus didn’t come back to life in the Bible. Why would the grandmother say such a thing, people like her have spent sunday after sunday going to church and she just throws it all away in the blink of an eye. It is because they didn’t have that faith to begin with.
It teaches christians how to live with the god; how to have a peaceful life in the community; how to enjoy your life without sin; and how to get more to know God to have the faith in God. Ann gave us an example: some people burned the bible in Indiana, but it didn’t affect what the Christian believe. In Christianity, Bile is a book to tell people how to live, and all words in the Bible are love words from God. Everyone in Christianity believes the Bible. She said, “If you burned the Bible in front of me, I would still love you, I would not have hated you for this terrible behavior because you are still good for me even if you don’t believe in God, and I will still give all my love.
Mable is sitting with Leroy and tells him, "I don't know what is going on with that girl" (621). Norma Jean does not want to feel like a child anymore, and decides that she was unhappy even before the smoking incident. “Everything was fine till Mama caught me smoking, that set something off. I feel eighteen again. I can’t face that all over again” (625).
She gave an example that suicide is never a solution because you continue on with the same problems that need to be worked out. She coped with her son’s death knowing he moved on. She thinks people fear death because of their belief in heaven and hell. Church has always been her coping strategy. Her religion is very optimistic and love based.