Revealed in Chapter 1 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the hypocrisy of the seemingly “sivilized” Miss Watson. Huck describes Miss Watson’s constant critique and says, “…they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed”(3). Presented, is the idea that slaves will reach a state of salvation through prayer. However, revealed is an issue of morality on part of the slave owner. Twain’s invective against slavery is shown because he motions towards a hypocritical claim of slave owners being good people because they simply have their “property” participate in Christian prayer.
Also, in Chapter 1, Miss Watson’s perception of religion being an active role in her life is presented. While being scolded about smoking, Huck says, “Here she was a-bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody…yet finding a power of fault with me for doing a thing that had some good in it”(2). Miss Watson is a faithful Christian who uses pages of the Bible to guide her life. This is the opposite of Huck who, unknowingly, sees only practical applications of religion. Again, a sense of hypocrisy is revealed because Miss Watson’s knowledge of biblical references acts as an excuse for her own actions – she takes snuff but scolds Huck for smoking.
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