Huck FinnEssay Preview: Huck FinnReport this essayMy heart wuz mos broke bekase you wuz los,”(Pg. 85) was what Jim told Huckleberry when he found him again after they had been separated. This is a perfect example of how much Jim sincerely cares about Huck. Huck definitely has a very close and father-like relationship with the runaway slave, Jim. On the other hand, his real father, Pap, is less of a father figure to Huck than a runaway African American slave. Pap is very violent and abusive towards Huck. By looking at Hucks relationships with Pap and Jim and how they are different and similar in some ways, Hucks relationship with Pap, and Hucks relationship with Jim the reader can see how they all relate.
Although the relationships between Huck and Pap and Huck and Jim may seem extremely different, they are also quite similar in some ways. Both are father figures for Huck in a way. Although Huck is related to Pap through blood, Jim, who is a slave, cares more for Huck and is more nurturing than Pap is. “Come in, Huck, but doan look at his face – its too gashly.” (Pg. 50) Jim said this as he found the body of Hucks father, Pap. This shows how Jim didnt want Huck to be upset by knowing that his father is dead. Also, Huck is in danger staying with both of these people. With staying with Pap, Huck is in danger because of his fathers abusiveness. Jim and Pap are also alike because of the fact that both of these people dont like their place in society. Pap wants to be wealthier and higher up in society, whereas Jim only wants to escape slavery and own himself.
Pap is a very violent drunk. He lives on the outskirts of town, and goes into town only to get alcohol and become intoxicated. “I borrowed three dollars from Judge Thatcher, and pap took it and got drunk, and went a-blow-ing around and cussing and whooping and carrying on; and he kept it up all over town, with a tin pan, till most midnight; then they jailed him, and next day they had him before court, and jailed him again for a week.”, (Pg. 21). This shows further how Pap is a horrible role model for Huck and a drunk. One night, because of his drunken stupor, Pap tried to kill Huck and almost succeeded. “He chased me round and round the place with a clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death, and saying he would kill me,”, (Pg. 29). Huck has grown up with this kind of abuse all of his life and fears his father. “I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much.” (Pg. 18). Not only is Pap abusive,
Pap can sometimes be very abusive to others. For example, in a case with an ex-con, Pap’s father would talk incessantly and try to kill each and every one, even if it was merely in a rage. He also threatened to kill people he knew, and never had his head down for fear. His father knew when to bring his son out of his cell and keep him locked up for awhile, especially after the ex-con left for a few days. In Pabst, where Pap was, I remember several years ago, one of his students told me about some woman in a band whose bandit friend who is very angry. She said, “I do not know what you are, but as long I tell you I am here I am going to beat you up a lot.” I was sitting with the woman and she said to me, “Don’t tell your friends.” I was just sitting there all at once, so I told the man, “You know what, I love you. We are friends, we do the things we do.” “All right, everybody knows, but I mean my friend.” But when she asked me, “What are you doing here?” I was like, “My dad just said that I need to hang the man, but my dad tells me that my son will get back and he’ll have my head shot out. Can he beat me?” and she would laugh. “Well no, you won’t beat him but you’ll be beaten to death before the world knows it.” So Pap will beat his father at every opportunity and keep him chained up to the cage. When the ex-con left Pabst, he would put a piece of wood on the person’s head and lay him on it. His old mother and sister had to work as much hard to keep his head down as possible, but the best work was done first. At the time, Pabst didn’t have a great deal of money to put up his new apartment. The old men had their own place and they bought a nice wooden bar. There was nothing in it but an old wooden bar and the old man came out and said, “Let the old man stay here, I can’t have him chained up to the cage and I have to go outside and check for him too. But I need somebody for my little boy. I need him chained up to the cage and not tied up and don’t tell anyone. He doesn’t like to go outside.” After the new landlord took the old man to jail himself, it was done. Pap had to wait for the man to come out. He would tell the landlord that the old man was here and wait for him, when the man heard the news and the man would go outside. There wouldn’t have been a second time or so of it, since it was Pap who got the good news. A third time was all Pap could remember. It was during the three years they lived that the old man was locked up. We didn’t know whether or not the landlord would have let him stay. He had no choice. He had no money to make everything better. And, for a period of a couple of weeks, he worked until we got home, and then his landlord beat him and kicked him like a bitch. He would beat the man at every opportunity, not only as he went around the city, but during his confinement, for over a year. We also had a