The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn : Pap As A Father Vs. Jim

Jim's true role in Huckleberry Finn has long been argued. Some critics believe that he acts as a father figure for Huck. Others believe various other things. However, Jim's real role in the novel is to provide Huck with an opportunity for moral growth because, through his friendship with Jim, Huck learns a great deal about humanity.

For quite some time, Huck’s father disappeared from town only to arrive later when he heard that his son had acquired a small fortune. He then threatens to beat Huck “down a peg” so that he would remind him of his status in the family only hoping to get the fortune for his booze. Things only get worse when Pa learns that Huck has become the first member of the family to learn to read, and consequently takes him away from town down the river into a small cabin. Cleverly, Pa doesn’t want to abandon Huck just yet for he continuously threatens the Father about the fortune he has hidden until Huck finally fakes his own death. Pa would be a fine example of a specimen who was unworthy of his breath by the way he treated 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

T.S. Elliot said, "Huck is alone: there is no more solitary figure in fiction. The fact that he has a father only emphasizes its loneliness; and he views his father with a terrifying detachment" (329). Most parents like to see their children excel in life and become productive members of society, but Pap is thinking only about himself. Instead of wishing the best for his son, he is angry because he is becoming a better person than his father. This man would be an awful influence on any child, and should be kept away from Huck.

Though not technically an orphan, Huck seems to wish he were, as he provides insight to his indifference towards his father: "Pap hadn't been seen for more than a year, and that was comfortable for me; I didn't want to see him no more" (226). Upon returning, Pap inflicts such physical and mental abuse on Huck, including captivating him, that Huck resolves to not only flee the situation, but also kill his father, after being threatened with a knife. "I slipped the ramrod down it to make sure [the gun] was loaded, and then I laid it across the turnip barrel, pointing towards pap, and set down behind it to wait for him to stir" (237). Huck clearly resents the man enough to want to kill him, yet can not do so: though Twain employs weariness as the preventive factor, Huck's inaction despite his desire epitomizes his conflicted nature.

Even though Pap is Huck’s biological father, he is everything a father shouldn’t be. For example, he constantly leaves Huck home alone, confined in his cabin for a long period of time. "Every little while he locked me in and went down to the store, three miles, to the ferry, and traded fish and game for wiskey and fetched it home and got drunk and had a good time, and licked me."(Twain 35) This quote not only shows that Huck was left on his own, it also shows that Pap is not a suitable father because of his drinking problem, and also his abusive behavior. His drinking problem is not only a waste of money, but it is a dangerous addiction not only for Pap’s health, but for Huck’s. "He chased me round and round the place with a clasp knife, calling me the Angel of Death, and saying he would kill me, and then I couldent come for him no more. I begged, and told him I was only Huck; but he laughed such a screechy laugh, and roared and cussed , and kept on chasing me up." (39) This quote shows that during one of his hallucinations, he almost kills Huck. Alcohol

The first contrast between Jim and Pap is the initial reaction Huck has when encountering them. When Huck is on Jackson’s Island, presumably alone, but then comes across a smoldering fire, he is at first frightened, but once he sees that the other refugee is Jim, he pops right out of the bushes and greets him. He is glad for his company. However, when signs of Pap being around are apparent, Huck is seen to panic, and rushes off to rid himself of his fortune. He knows that Pap is greedy enough to steal from anyone, even his own son. When they come face to face, it becomes clear that Huck is afraid of his father, who used to beat him while in a drunken state. During this confrontation, it becomes clear that Pap resents that Huck is being educated, and feels threatened by it. On the contrary, Jim teaches Huck what he knows, and is proud of him for thinking up schemes, such as faking his death to escape his father’s grasp. As Jim and Huck travel together, Jim shows more consideration and a protective nature for Huck, and he tries to act, as much as he can, as a shield between Huck and the corrupt world, which is something Huck’s father never did. On the contrary, Pap exposed Huck to more corruption than most others his age, such as Tom Sawyer, were expected to have been exposed to.

Huck has had enough with their failed relationship, deciding he can handle such an atrocity, he decides he will run away from his monster of an alcoholic father. Pap will never be able to have a relationship with his father, because he was probably drunk, got into an argument and was shot and killed. Alcoholic parents’ actions often hinder the child’s ability to tell what is right from wrong.

This is in contrast to the way Huck’s father is depicted, who Twain describes using all of the above characterizations and more. The reader views Jim as a good friend a man devoted to his family and loyal to his

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.

Huckleberry Finn provides the narrative voice of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Huck’s honest voice combined with his personal vulnerabilities reveal the portrayal of family in the novel. Although many themes and topics can be found in this novel, the topic of family is very important because in the end, Huck’s new family provides peace for the confused, ignorant boy Huck was in the beginning of the novel. Through his travels, Huck accumulates his “floating family”. Through Huck’s adventures, he finds not only people to join his “floating family”, but places that feel like home for Huck as well.

One component of these chapters that I felt was extremely prevalent was the character development of Huck. There were multiple instances when Huck had to make certain decisions that would effect him in the long run, and with most of those decisions came a moral struggle. It seemed as if within these chapters, Huck is trying to find out who he truly is as a person. One example of these moments is in chapter 16 when he is having an internal battle, trying to convince himself that helping Jim gain his freedom is in fact the right thing to do. The quote reads, “I couldn't get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn't rest; I couldn't stay still in one place…I tried to make out to myself that I warn't to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from his rightful owner” (Pg. 87). In the quote stated above you can clearly see the internal struggle that Huck goes through, trying to find himself along the way. He looks at the situation with 2 different perspectives, one of them being that taking Jim to gain his freedom is immoral and the wrong thing to do, the other being taking Jim to gain his freedom is the right thing to do. Although Jim knows that either way he will feel guilty but he ends up choosing to take Jim's side because of his loyalty. Jim shows his appreciation to Huck by saying things like, "Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his promise to ole Jim”(Pg. 92), causing Huck

Child abuse had a great on effect Huck’s whether if it had to do with where he is living or a decision he has made. Huck has been abused for most if not all of his life by his father, Pap. Huck stated, “I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much” (17). This quote shows how Huck had to deal with Pap’s abuse before and could not help himself. It shows that Pap has poor ethics shown by beating his child simply because he can. This is an immoral act on Pap’s part because he believes he can control Huck’s life including his life choices and his possessions. Pap says, “I’ll take you down a peg, before I'm done with you” (17). Pap continues to torment and threaten Huck even though he has not been around of the most recent parts of Huck’s life. Pap’s ideologies have not changed since Huck was younger. Pap’s ideals consist of being able to do what he wants when he wants. This was apparent when he tries to threaten Huck and put himself above Huck. In the 1800s community leaders felt responsible for helping orphaned or abandoned

While Pap may have been Huck’s father by blood, he did none of the things that would even remotely make him a “real” father. From Pap, Huck learned nothing but about how immoral and vicious humans can be. Every time Pap is drunk, he terrorizes Huck, so much to the point that Pap’s drunkenness