Huck Finn Pap Character Analysis

Society plays the world’s critic. Every action, opinion, and view on life is taken and expressed the way that “the people” think. Of course there are good aspects of society, which are the virtuous people who bring positivity. One also cannot forget about the negative side, which completes the balance. In the story The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain’s thoughts of the American slave period is shown through several characters. Pap, in particular, portrays Twain’s negative view, expressed through his poor parenting to Huck, his racist actions, and drunken character traits. The first impression readers get of each character forms the foundation of what the character is all about as the story goes on. Right off the bat, Pap’s physical
Everything that he is about is shown through his actions with Huck too. Generally, Pap has no mercy with Huck. Ignoring his child’s physical needs, Pap constantly beats Huck and threatens him if he does not get his way. While fighting for custody with Widow Douglas, Pap threatens Huck about getting money from the judge. The following quote says, “He said he'd cowhide me till I was black and blue if I didn't raise some money for him. I borrowed three dollars from Judge Thatcher, and Pap took it and got drunk, and went a-blowing around and cussing and whooping and carrying on;” (Twain 21) It’s clear as to why Huck would want to run away. His relationship with his father is far from healthy. While in his watch, Huck tries to imagine life without a judgmental society and civilization in general. Although Pap is a minor character in the story, he plays a huge role later on when his body is found in the floating house. Jim not telling Huck that the body was his father's suggests that Jim is a better father figure in Huck’s life than Pap ever was. So, in a way, Jim filled the void of an absent father and taught Huck valuable lessons in the process. In conclusion, Pap’s minor role in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn assisted Twain in showing that society was selfish at that time and did not care about others. Not only did Pap possess negative character traits, but he was also a horrible father to Huck. He was selfish in the way that he constantly put his own insecurities onto someone else. In the end, Huck just wanted to be accepted by someone who cared for him. Luckily, Jim could make the missing part of his life complete. Sometimes one must go through tragedy to achieve prosperity, and Huckleberry Finn does just