ark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

A home is normally portrayed as a dwelling in which a person feels safe and is able to be themselves. In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, Huck, the protagonist, thinks of the river as his home. All his life the shore has had negative connotations, but after he moves to the river, everything changes for the better. While on land, he is brutalized by his father, forced into conformity by Miss Watson, and a witness to a murder. While on the river, he finds his family and learns to relax.

There are many examples of family in the novel, some functional, others figurative. When Huck is on the land, he encounters many different types of families; including his relationship with his father, Pap. Pap has many views about how Huck should be raised, including his belief that Huck should not be taught to read; “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 lay for you, my smarty; and if I catch you about that school, I’ll tan you good” (18). Pap’s reaction to Huck’s education is appalling. As a father, he should only have Huck’s best interest at mind, not concentrating on keeping his child illiterate. Unfortunately, this is not the only example of familial dysfunction we see in the novel. When Huck loses Jim in the water, he washes up and is found by the Grangerfords. This animalistic family is feuding with a neighboring clan, the Shepherdsons, when neither side knows the actual root of the argument. These two families are heartless, and even though they seem civilized enough with their formalities and nice houses, they are savages. Death is a common occurrence, towards which an eyelash never batted. Huck meets his counterpart, Buck, and soon sees how deranged this family really is with the death of Mr. Grangerford. “[Buck] said his father and his two brothers was killed..Buck said his father and brothers ought to waited for their relations-- the Shepherdsons were too strong for them” (97). Even though Huck feels like he fits in with the Grangerfords, he is horrified at the way they view the deaths of their kinsmen. When Buck dies, Huck becomes very upset, solely because one of the few people who he has cared about is dead. Although Huck feels an attachment to the Grangerfords, they do not function as a family and do not treat him accordingly.