Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Character analysis
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Character analysis
Challenges with moral education
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Family is the single most important influence in a child 's life. A child’s first memory is of their family, and they look to their family to provide and protect them. The first relationship a child ever has is with their family members so it is crucial that those relationships are healthy and positive ones. Children thrive when family members encourage their growth and development making them want to achieve their goals. When making decisions, family can influence their children enough to weigh in on their conscience and make the right decisions. Good or bad, families pass on their traditions and values down to their children if they know it or not. Children that grow up in a negative environment have a lesser chance of overcoming that negativity and making it in the world much like the main character in The adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
At the beginning of the novel Twain makes Pap, Huck’s father, out to be the town
Pap enters the story as a complete mess, skin pale as a ghost, wearing worn-out clothes and desperate for money. He 'll do anything to get more whiskey, including lying, stealing, and abusing his power as a father. Throughout the novel Pap physically and emotionally abuses Huck. For example, he pokes fun at Huck trying to become educated or anyone educated for that matter especially black folks. Pap is so outraged that a black person is educated, well-dressed, and allowed to participate in the political process that he just refuses to vote. He goes as far as saying, “And what do you think? They said he was a p 'fessor in a college, and
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).
Mark Twain uses characters that are very similar to him as a person. Huck's father, Pap, is a person like Twain. Pap is a drunken man that is very temperamental. He tells Huck of all the things that Pap feels is nonsense. Pap is always trying to be a powerful figure in Huck's life. Mark Twain probably uses Pap in the book to show readers that he is the same type of person. Twain uses this book to show that he is racist person, and used Pap to show that he is a power thirsty person as well.
acts mean towards Huck, even though Huck is his own son. Not only is Pap
As a result, Huck's values towards education are uncertain. Pap Finn, as a figure of the lower class, does his part to confuse the growing morals of his son. Together with Pap, the King and the Duke do their share to put moral ideas into the immature mind of Huck. The King and the Duke earn their living pulling scams on their fellow Americans. For instance, they advertised the "Royal Nonesuch" as a "thrilling tragedy" and charged the farmers in the area fifty cents to come and see it (121).
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...
“In this novel, Twain uses Huck as a relatively naïve narrator to make ironic observations about Southern culture and human nature in general” (“Mark Twain” Novels 1:16). Twain uses Huck as the first-person narrator in his novel. Twain presents his topics using “the colloquial, philosophical, self-deprecating, stubbornly boyish, provincial, sensitive, but always tough and realistic voice of Huckleberry Finn” (Bloom 10). Adults and children see things from a different perspective, and Huck is definitely believable as a young boy. Children are easily believed by others, and Twain appears to know this better than most. Through Huck’s words and narrative, the reader is pulled into Huck’s feelings. Huck’s conflicts become the reader’s conflicts, and Huck’s way of solving his conflicts is not only believable but is agreeable to the reader as well. Wit...
Pap is Huck’s father, but Huck does not like him because he is abusive, a drunk, and does not treat huck good at all. Still he taught Huck so much in his life. One of the things he teaches Huck is how to borrow, “it warn’t no harm to borrow things if you was meaning to pay them back some time”. But of course he would never pay them back. Pap also teaches Huck that you don’t need to go to school, but Pap is just afraid that Huck will become smarter than him.
Huck first expresses his maturing when he finally gets away from pap when faking his own death. Huck had many reason to leave such as Pap being drunk and abusive all the time. Pap was always obsessed with money so he would always hit Huck for a change of getting whatever money the poor kid
One of the greatest influences on a person lis their family. For the duration of a person’s childhood, the majority of time is spent with family members. A family sustains a child’s livelihood and they work to determine how a child will mature in the hope of sustaining a successful future. Over this period, family members’ opinions and views wear off on the individual, causing a change in perception. Therefore, while maturing as a youth, family members hold a significant influence on sculpting a person’s perception.
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.
Society is not always right. In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a young boy by the name of Huckleberry Finn sets off on a journey along the Mississippi River to get away from his previous lives. One of the main themes in the novel is the conflict between society and the individual. During his time with Widow Douglas, a friendly woman who adopts Huckleberry Finn, he is taught about the importance of education, what is morally right in society, and how to be civilized. On the other hand, Pap, Huckleberry’s father, taints Huckleberry’s mind with his views which differ drastically from Widow Douglas’s guidelines. The moral dilemma that Huckleberry Finn faces between moralities illuminates the main message of individuality.
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
To put it in simpler terms, Huck belongs out under the stars where he will not be bound by the community. The next impedance in which Huck is faced with is the untimely return of his drunkard father. His father was merely stopping to steal money from his son. So since he did not care for his son much, Pap did not feel the least bit inclined to treat his son with any respect. So Huck once again faces confinement, except this time it is in a log cabin.
A father's attributes are meant to be examples for which his offspring can base their own lives. Pap attains non-of these attributes. Pap is an ignorant drunkard who attempts to swindle and scam any possible person. He goes so far as to even filch from his-own son. Pap views Huck as someone upon whom he can assert himself. He attempts to drain Huck of all characteristics that would make Huck superior to himself. "You're educated, too, they say; can read and write. You think you're better'n your father, now, don't you, because he can't? I'll take it out of you... Ain't you a sweet-scented dandy, though? A bed; and bed-clothes... and your own father got to sleep with the hogs... I bet I'll take some o' these frills out o' you before I'm done with you."(21-23)
A family must establish a set of values and morals that the members should try to live and abide by. It does not mean writing them down on paper and following them as if they are laws, but it simply means taking a practical approach to raising a family. The best way to ensure that these morals are followed by the children is by having the parents follow them as well. Children learn by modeling the authorities and in every family, the authorities are the parents. The parents are ultimately responsible for their children’s behavior because the children act accordingly to what they are taught and what they witness. If the parents set a bad example for behavior, chances are that the children justify any wrong behavior by arguing that that is how their parents act.