Mark Twain was known as a humorist and in fact, humor was a tool he used to strengthen his points about what he saw as the major problems of the day.  Living at the time of the Civil War, he clearly saw and chose to address such problems as slavery, child abuse, religion and feuds.  In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain expresses his loathing for some of these serious social problems and yet in general, he never loses his humorous touch.  Nonetheless, when he deals with the ills of society that particularly anger him, he chooses not to use humor; rather this is reserved for other areas of his work.

One of the social problems that Mark Twain addresses in Huckleberry Finn is child abuse.  Huck is abused by Pap many times during the book and is even locked into a cabin by Pap.  ...