Huck Finn This story started out sometime in the mid-1800s in the small town of Hannibal, Missouri. A few months earlier Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn discovered a chest full of gold. The two adventurous boys split the twelve-thousand dollars, and Judge Thatcher was keeping their money safe in a trust. In the meantime, Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson, realizing Huck's unsophisticated ways, took him into their home to try to "sivilize" him. Huck learned to read and write and even acquired some religion, but he didn't like it too much that Miss Watson continually tried to vanquish his smoking and swearing. One day Huck saw footprints in the snow and realized that his father was back in town. This made Huck very uncomfortable because his father stayed drunk and beat him whenever he felt like it (which was most of the time). Huck knew the only reason his Pap came back was to collect his son's money. After finding out about his Pap, Huck went quickly over to Judge Thatcher's house to sign away the right to his share of the twelve thousand dollars. Since he had no money now, he figured his father wouldn't bother him. A few nights later, Huck found his Pap, looking very rough and ragged, sitting in a chair in his room. Pap was very angry with Huck for becoming smarter than his father and threatened to beat him if he didn't quit learning. Pap took Huck's only dollar and left, but showed up the next day at Judge Thatcher's house claiming to be Huck's legal guardian. Pap demanded the money that was in Huck's name, but the judge refused. A while later, Pap became desperate and kidnapped his son. He took him to a one-room log hut where Huck was kept locked up whenever Pap had to leave. Huck didn't like this too much, nor did he like the daily beatings he received when Pap was drunk. Despite this, Huck rather enjoyed not having to be civilized anymore. One night after Pap threatened to kill Huck, the boy decided he had taken enough; he was going to escape. The next night while Pap was in town, Huck found a saw and cut out a piece of one of the walls. He crawled through the hole and replaced the piece of wood so that Pap wouldn't notice it.
Huck’s situation is so extreme (the mental and physical abuse from Pap) that he cannot take it anymore. He does what he thinks is best; Huck listens to heart rather than his conscience. In order to get away from Pap, Huck organizes an elaborate plan to arrange his own death and run away – both denounced by society - from the prison cell (cabin) and Pap. Huck, for the first time in his life, had felt what it is like to be free: “The sky looks ever so deep when you lay down on your back in the moonshine; I never knowed it before” (Twain 46).
Tom gives him forty dollars for being such a good prisoner. He is so excited and says that he 's rich; he knew he would be rich again one day because of his hairy arms. Tom suggests that they all go and play around in outfits among the Injuns. Huck says that he would like to but he doesn 't have the money for an outfit. And he doesn 't want to go home to get money because he thinks Pap probably stole it all already. Jim tells him that isn 't possible and Pap isn 't going to be coming around ever again. He tells Huck that the dead man he found covered up was
Huck's Pap thought that he was trying to out do him, because he went to school. You've put on considerable frills since I've been away. I'll take you down a peg before I get done with you. You think you're better than your father, now don't you, because he can't? I'll take it out of you.
Since the beginning of time people have been living on their own. They have been relying on themselves to survive for centuries. In many books the characters also must rely on themselves, as Huck Finn does in Mark Twain’s book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck Finn is a book about a boy growing up , and his flight down the Mississippi River. Through his actions and thoughts Huck is able to survive the dangers of the river and in doing so develops self reliance and independence as well as non-conformity to what is acceptable to society.
Throughout the book it is obvious that there are characteristics that Mark Twain either detests and despises, or respects and values them. Twain quite obviously is making fun of the undesirable characteristics such as the natural curiosity of people and also the greed for money. Although there are not many values that he respects, there is one that is shown in this book, friendship.
You Can’t Pray A Lie is a pivotal excerpt taken from Mark Twain’s classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Like Twain’s other works, this example of moral truth and consequence undermines the basic sense of human values. Set in the 1880’s on a raft upon the Mississippi River, Huck is caught in a battle of personal conflicting views. It is through his interactions with Jim, a runaway black slave, that he faces the realization that being ultimately true to himself means that he cannot “pray a lie.”
Huck Finn, the main character of Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, travels down the Mississippi River in search of personal truth and freedom, which ironically he achieves by living a lie. Huck's journey causes him to wear a variety of disguises and masks to survive. Unfortunately however, the people he meets along the way wear disguises which they use to deceive and cheat the same society that Huck and Jim, a runaway slave, are trying to escape from. Jim must use his own cleverness, Huck's protection and disguises in order to avoid getting caught by society. Together, all these characters use disguises, which are lies in physical forms, to their advantage. Huck's motive is to escape the rules of a restricting society. The King and the Duke are con men who want only to cheat society and take what isn't theirs. Jim uses disguises for survival, to escape from social prejudice and unfair punishment.
When taking a look at Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, racism is a large theme that seems to be reoccurring. What some may think to be racism in Twain's words, can also be explained as, good story telling appropriate to the era the story takes place in.
Huck rejects lying early in the novel, a testament to his successful training bestowed upon him by the Widow Douglass and other townspeople. Huck begins the story by lecturing the reader that The Adventures of Tom Sawyer contained lies about him, and that everyone has lied in his or her lives (11). Huck’s admittance of the lies contained in the previous book about him demonstrates his early dedication to truth in the novel. Later, Tom forces Huck to return to the Widow Douglass where he continues learning how to be “sivilized” (11). When Huck returns, the Widow Douglass teaches him the time when lying is appropriate, improving Huck’s sometimes unreliable moral directions. After Huck spends enough time with the Widow Douglass and her sister, Miss Watson, Huck begins enjoying the routine of his new life (26). Huck, a coarse character prior to the beginning of the novel, enjoys his education more and more, and displays promise for a cultured future. Prior to the arrival of Pap, Huck sells his money to Judge Thatcher avoiding telling his father a lie (27). Even though his father is an appalling man and an alcoholic, Huck respects him and avoids lying to him by selling Ju...
Huck Finn thinks about his father in an unusual way. Huck does not like his father, which makes sense because his father is a greedy drunk, however Huck still looks up to his father as a role model. Pap is not a good role model for Huck because of his history of abusing Huck and his random disappearances. When Pap tries to gain custody of his Huck, the judges side with him just because he is the father. This is shown when Huck says “The judge and the widow went to law to ge...
Pap - Huck’s father who comes back to town when he learns about the reward.
-The man vs. man conflict is brought up many times throughout this story. The first that is posed is the conflict between Huckleberry and Pap. Pap is Huckleberry’s abusive biological father, and an alcoholic to boot. He first comes in and tries to steal his son’s fortune, just so he can get drunk. Huckleberry is kidnapped by his father for a short time, and during this is beaten many times. Huckleberry eventually escapes as he saws his way out of a shed with an old saw he finds. He then kills a pig to fake his own death and smears blood all over the shed so the story is more believable.
Almost immediately we are introduced to the drunken, deranged man who is Huck?s father, Pap. Pap is an alcoholic who roams from place to place buying up booze and sleeping wherever he can. Huck has never viewed him as a real father figure because Pap has almost never been there for Huck, except when he is ?disciplining? him. Pap is uneducated and disapproves of Huck attending school. Pap tells Huck, "you're educated...You think your're better'n your father, now, don't you, because he can't?" (14) Huck puts up with Pap?s numerous beatings because he does not want to be the cause of any more controversies between himself and Pap. Huck explains, "If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them have their own way" (95). Pap?s addiction to alcohol is how Twain views the affect that alcohol can have on a person. He believes that alcohol is a money waster, can affect the sanity of people, and how it can turn even decent men into complete scoundrels.
In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pap is a horrible parent to Huck, and constantly berates him. When he hears about Huck's new 6000 dollar fortune, he comes back to town to get back his son and the money. He is furious when he finds that he cannot get the money, and he becomes even more enraged when he finds out that Huck is going to school and living a civilized life. He says to Huck