| As it happens in the many outstanding works of | | | | the forest in the cabin away from the outside |
| literature, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | | | | world and people who were willing to help, he is |
| comprises of several themes developed around a | | | | locked there like an animal. |
| central plot. In the case of Mark Twain’s | | | | Under such abusive eye of Pap, Huck attempts to |
| novel, it is a story of a young boy, Huck, and an | | | | romanticize his life free from the intrusions of a |
| escaped slave, Jim with the description of their | | | | judgmental society and outside civilization. Away |
| moral, ethical, and human development during | | | | from the enforced rules of school and town, Huck |
| thrilling adventures down the Mississippi River that | | | | is "free" to exist according to Pap’s rules, |
| brings them into many conflicts with greater | | | | which are liquor and theft. In reality of Huck’s |
| society. The big society however is not | | | | existence under Pap, is one where the presence |
| Huck’s major concern, it’s his father who | | | | of Pap’s fist and racism saturate all of |
| himself is an outsider and a rebel. Pap is the one | | | | Huck’s life —where Huck is abused and |
| who makes | | | | subject to the poison Pap spills onto the whole |
| Huck’s life much more complicated than all | | | | society. Pap is criticizing society for trying to take |
| the rest people in the world. | | | | away his son, but at the same time does nothing |
| Although being a father is an important role and a | | | | to protect Huck, he only makes him suffer and |
| huge responsibility in normal families, Pap shows | | | | feel unwelcome in this life. |
| no such concern toward Huck. The only thing he | | | | Pap shows his inner darkness and inability to love |
| cares about is getting drunk every day until he | | | | his only son in the passage when he tries to get |
| doesn’t remember himself. Pap is a | | | | Huck’s reward money. Pap lies to the judge |
| contrasting figure to Jim who is described in the | | | | that he is a "new and changed man" with |
| book as the agent of goodness and honesty. | | | | different life and his eyes are turned to God now. |
| Huck’s father is the example of all | | | | The next morning, however, judge sees him lying |
| worlds’ immorality and filthiness. Even his | | | | dead drunk on his porch with a broken arm back |
| looks with "long and tangled and greasy hair and | | | | to his old ways. This episode certainly doesn’t |
| rags for clothes" he reminds Huck of his poverty. | | | | depict any fatherly love except Pap’s love for |
| Pap behaves in a very cruel way with Huck, the | | | | spirits and easy money earned by so much hated |
| boy is often beaten up and physically abused. Not | | | | society. He would be an almost a comic figure in |
| only physical disturbance is an issue between | | | | the novel, if his existence didn’t have such a |
| father and son here, Pap is also against | | | | tragic impact on Huck’s poor heart. |
| Huck’s education. He resents Huck’s | | | | The irony of the novel is multileveled and one of |
| ability to read and write, and be emerged in | | | | its illustrations is depicted in Pap’s monologue, |
| religious studies. The world of Widow Douglas, | | | | when he condemns a nation who would allow a |
| who agreed to take care of Huck, in Pap’s | | | | black person to vote. This is an unthinkable |
| sick mind, is a dangerous world. He forces Huck | | | | nonsense to him and yet he has no right to even |
| to stop his education thus to return to his roots | | | | say things like that. He treats his own son worth |
| as Pap puts it. He wants his son to solely belong | | | | than a slave, a morally dead human claims to |
| to himself as a thing not a human being, to do | | | | know what other people should or should not do. |
| only what he orders him. He even keeps him in | | | | |