Fathers and Hypocrites

One thing I really find interesting in the book so far is Huck’s relationship with other characters in the novel, especially with his Pap. Fathers are very influential figures in any child’s life. Their presence or their absence contributes significantly in a child’s upbringing and can play a role in shaping the kid’s personality traits. We see this immediately in the novel when Huck reveals that his father will come back for him one day, contrary to the rumor that his father was dead, and this thought wasn’t making him very “comfortable.” Pap is an alcoholic, the neighborhood ‘sleazebag,’ and a person Huck is afraid of. When they finally meet, Pap criticizes Huck’s new life and makes it clear to Huck that despite such reading, writing, and keeping clean, he still won’t amount to much. When Pap kidnaps Huck and takes him away to an isolated cabin away from the town, we also come to see in how many ways Pap’s character has influenced Huck. The abuse and neglect that Huck has suffered because of his father have led him to become an independent person who is able to fend for himself, whatever the situation. Such resourcefulness is emphasized when Huck makes up his scheme to finally escape from his father’s clutches by carving his way out of the locked cabin and going away on the small boat that had traveled upstream. Pap also contributes to Huck’s sense of personal freedom and adventure. Huck doesn’t want anyone tying him down and telling him what to do; he felt suffocated at both the widow’s and this new internment at Pap’s. What he does want is to live on his own, to seek an adventure with his best pal Tom, and to follow his instincts, wherever they might lead him.

A quote from the novel that I really liked was seen right at the onset on page 4 of the novel: “That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing they don’t know anything about.” I found this interesting because this was exactly how all the people around him acted. The widow’s incessant attempts to try to reform him into a ‘civilized’ person were driving him mad, and sometimes she spoke of schooling him on things she didn’t have a clue about. The hypocrisy in the lifestyles of the small town people was clearly seen. First Moses, who Huck said he didn’t care about because dead people didn’t really affect him, and how she tells him a big old story that he didn’t care about. Then smoking, which she said was bad, but then goes around with her “snuff,” or tobacco, and says that’s alright. Huck is getting pissed off because people around him are usually liars and hypocrites. I find his bluntness and his honesty very amusing.
posted by Prabjot K.