Pap vs. Jim in Huckleberry Finn Essay

Upset with Huck’s actions, Jim expresses his grief as if Huck actually lost him. Jim shows his ‘fatherly’ side by scolding Huck, encouraging his conscience into being a kinder person. He shows how thankful he is that Huck was lost because Huck is the only person he cares about on the journey and without him, Jim would have no help and motive to move on. This incident also illustrates how loyal Jim is to Huck.

The relationship between Huckleberry Finn and Jim are central to Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Huck's relationships with individual characters are unique in their own way; however, his relationship with Jim is one that is ever changing and sincere. As a poor, uneducated boy, Huck distrusts the morals and intentions of the society that treats him as an outcast and fails to protect him from abuse. The uneasiness about society, and his growing relationship with Jim, leads Huck to question many of the teachings that he has received, especially concerning race and slavery. Twain makes it evident that Huck is a young boy who comes from the lowest levels of white society. Huck's father, Pap, is a drunk who disappears for

Pap is known as the town drunk. Every dollar he gets he spends on whiskey. He is an angry drunk, and beats Huck during his drinking spells. One night after he kidnaps Huck, he gets very drunk, which Huck describes. He says

The novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, covers the situations and people Huckleberry Finn encounters after he runs away. Huck prevents his alcoholic father from getting his fortune and is able to run away after his father, Pap, kidnaps him and leaves town. It has many colorful characters that exhibit several facets of society at that time in history. It is anti-racist although it uses the word "nigger" frequently. Huck seems to struggle throughout the book with what he has been taught and what is morally right. His main and most consistent interaction is with Jim, a runaway slave. Although he had been taught differently throughout his entire life, he eventually makes the choice to go against what society deems to be right and be Jim's

While he was seemingly content, he refused to be sold to a new master in New Orleans. While Huck does not look down upon Jim the way others do, they begin to act as equals in chapters 8 and 9 since society is not there to influence their actions. Jim does not fear Huck turning him in as a runaway slave since Huck is on the run, too. As question 1 references, the two are parallels. They are both running away from society’s expectations of them. Huck feels as though he will be stuck with his father purely based off shared genetics despite the abuse, and Jim is seen as a lowly slave purely because of his skin color. As the novel progresses, Jim is seen less as a slave in the reader’s and Huck’s mind and more as the father figure Huck lacks. While a superstition, Jim tries to protect Huck from any bad omens by warning him against touching the snake skin with his bare hands. He imposes this kind of caring afterthought that Huck has never experienced. In return, Huck is also quite protective of Jim. Towards the end of chapter nine, Huck is canoeing back to their settlement on the island and expresses concern for Jim being caught. He makes, “…Jim lay down in the canoe and cover up with the quilt, because if he set up people could tell he was a n----- a good ways off,” (Twain). Between chapters eight and nine, Huck begins to genuinely care for

So, this shows that violence actually shaped the entire story. Had Pap not abused Huck on a daily basis before, Huck would’ve had no reason to run away from him. Jim and Huck went on many journeys together, and both escaped their toxic lives from before. I think the meaning of the two running away shows that no matter how bad your life gets, you can always escape and run away to a better place. Both Jim and Huck were abused, and both ran away from their problems. They ended up really good friends because they could relate to one

Huck does not look up to his father in any sense because he is constantly drunk and beating him. As a matter of fact Huck says, “I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much” (26) but as he got older and did not see his dad as much he learned not to be afraid. Pap was never really around and everyone in town knows that. When Pap finally returns, he learns that Huck ahs been attending school and has learned how to read and write. “You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t,” (27) is his reaction when he figures this out. He thinks that it is wrong for his son to be more educated than him so he says, “I’ll lay for you, my smarty; and if I catch you about that school I’ll tan you good” (28) Pap saying that he will tan Huck, gives the reader more background into how much he beats Huck for no reason at all. When I think about Pap and his actions, I think of Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapper because Pap also kidnapped Huck and locked him inside a cabin for days. Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapper, Brian Mitchell, did worse to her than Pap did to Huck but they somehow remind me of each other because both Pap and Mitchell kidnapped, beat, and hid their victims from

After cleverly staging his own murder, Huck manages to escape on a canoe that had drifted down the river, and officially begins his physical journey. Huck makes it to Jackson Island in his canoe, spotting Pap on his own vessel along the way. Upon his arrival, he believes the island is deserted. However, after a few days, he realizes Miss Watson's slave, Jim, was also on the island. He had run away after overhearing Miss Watson’s plans to sell him to someone in New Orleans. Both did not fit in with society at the time, with Jim being a slave, and Huck disliking sophistication, which made them a great pair. The island also represents a safe haven; a place where food is abundant, and they are both safe from the dangers of civilization. They discuss

Huck's father is absent until he finds out that Huck has found some money.  Pap is an outcast full of hate for blacks and pretty much for all of society.  Huck, as a product of his society, speaks the language of his society.  By choosing as his point-of-view a young boy from the slave south, Twain is able to present and challenge the values and assumptions of this time.  Among the assumptions and values of the time that the reader encounters in the book are the strict definitions pertaining to Huck's world and the people who inhabit it:

This could be connected to the point where Jim tosses a rag over Pap’s dead body. This rag that Jim places on Pap’s face is a symbol for the exchange of fatherhood over Huck. Jim believed that Huck could be a chance to redeem himself. By covering up the old father and being the only grown man at the moment of transition, Jim shifts into a state of fatherhood. Jim first displays his fatherly archetype when Jim and Huck come upon the tilted house with the body inside. Twain writes, “It’s a dead man. Yes, indeedy; naked too. He’s been shot in de back. I reck’n he’s been dead two or three days. Come in, Huck, but doan look at his face - it’s too gashly” (Twain 56). After Jim discovers the dead body, Jim allows Huck to come into the house, but he warns Huck to not look at the body. Huck states that he doesn’t need any warning because he is already disturbed at the dead man, but the next day, Huck wants to talk about the man’s mysterious death. This is unusual for Huck to be so interested in, as he stated earlier that he “[doesn’t] take no stock in dead people” (Twain 2). At this point, Twain uses Huck’s intuition in the unusual death to point out the large significance in it, which Jim also picks up on. When Jim sees paps “gashly” face, he discerns the fact that there is an open patriarchal position for Huck.

Throughout all these situations that Huck goes through, Jim has supported him, even when Jim was not with Huck at every time. Jim first met up with Huck on the island. Jim escaped Widow Douglas’s home because he was to be sold down south, which would separate Jim from his family forever. Jim is hands down the most important person to Huck throughout the novel, putting himself in a category as one of Huck’s new family members. Jim has been associated as Huck’s father figure. During their time together, Jim and Huck make up a sort of alternative family in an alternative place, apart from society. Huck escaped from society for adventure and a new life, while Jim has escaped from society so that he wouldn’t be separated from his family by being sold down south. Jim is based off of his love, whether it’s for his family or his growing love for Huck. Jim was thought of by Huck as a stupid, ignorant slave in the beginning of the novel, but as Huck spends more time with Jim, Huck realizes that Jim has a different kind of knowledge based off of his years as well as his experiences with love. In the incidents of the floating house and Jim’s snakebite, Jim uses his knowledge to benefit both of them but also seeks to protect Huck. Jim is less imprisoned by conventional wisdom than Huck,

In the beginning of the novel mostly, Pap is a major character for many reasons. He is a static and flat character who never changes from his abusive, ignorant, alcoholic and racist self. Although he is not physically present in most of the story, he is present in the thoughts and actions of Huck. Growing up, Pap was never the dad Huck wanted and needed him to be; he was never there for him and even used him to get what he wanted at times. The novel states, “..and he went to Judge Thatcher's and bullyragged him, and tried to make him give up the money; but he couldn't, and then he swore he'd make the law force him,” (Twain, 50). This quote explains how Pap tried to get his sons money for one reason; alcohol. Pap will do anything he possible can to get his alcohol because he is an addict. He will steal, lie and even abuse his son to get what he wants. For this reason, Pap is also an antagonist throughout the novel. Huck is always fighting against his father; both physically and mentally. So Pap Finn is an addict, but there are good qualities to him, right? It’s not too hard to realize that this statement is false. Fathers are supposed to want what’s best for their kids, but Pap is not the same. Pap says to Huck, “You've put on considerable many frills since I been away.  I'll take you down a peg before I get done with you.  You're educated, too, they say—can read and write.  You think you're

The foundations of Huck and Jim’s relationship are laid early in the novel. When Huck’s abusive father, Pap, reenters the boy’s life after a lengthy absence, he forcibly seizes control of Huck. Pap soon claims official guardianship of his son in order to command Huck to work for him and to make money for him (Twain 33). Papa kidnaps Huck and takes him into what can be considered as slavery, even though he does not

A father is a protector, teacher, a role model, and someone who is there when they are needed, no matter the circumstances. Pap is Huck’s blood father though he was nothing like a father to him; instead Jim was the true father to Huck. Through characterization Jim was shown to be more of a “true father” to Huck than Pap, displaying how an African American is capable of being even better as a father than a white man and that race does not define humanity.

“I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much.  I reckoned I was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken—that is, after the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched, he being so unexpected; but right away after I see I warn't scared of him worth bothring about,” (Twain, 29). Not only is he a horrible father, he’s not that great of a person either. He’s a very racist man. Granted, this book takes place in the 1830’s where pretty much everyone in the south was a racist or a slave owner. He has more weaknesses than strength. A person could even argue that he has no strengths. He isn’t sober, he isn’t tolerant of other people, he isn’t nice to Huck, he isn’t even honest. He’s the exact opposite of all those things and that never changes. Pap is definitely one of the antagonists in this story, he’s a constant stressor in Huck’s life and he serves no other purpose but that. He’s a very good example of a flat character type, he doesn’t change throughout the whole book except for when he goes from living to dead. ““Nemmine why, Huck—but he ain't comin' back no mo." But I kept at him; so at last he