Unadmirable characters in Literature are used to shine characters in a brighter light and by comparing them to another character allows a greater appreciation of that character. Mark Twain uses unadmirable characters in a similar way. The main difference is that the characters show traits that Huck wishes to purge from his life. In the adventures of Huckleberry Finn Huck encounters many people who he clashes with due to his personality. Three prominent examples of those who aren’t admirable are Pap, the Duke and the Dauphin, and Colonel Sherburn and Boggs.
Foremost, Pap is the embodiment of failure and self-destruction due to his incessant need to continue the chain of addiction and abuse in his family, primarily Huck. He is depicted as someone of seemingly ghastly figure when first introduced in the book, which is later described as the result of his endless drinking. This man has absolutely no regard to his or Huck’s wellbeing at any point of the story. In
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Mark Twain uses Boggs and the mob to illustrate the hypocrisy of Southern society and the difference between societal morality and true morality. Colonel Sherburn gave ample warning to Boggs, after he was insulted, that he was going to shoot him. Boggs, being drunk, ignored the advice and remained at that exact spot. When Sherburn returns and sees him again, he draws his gun and shoots the man, leading to the formation of a mob that confronts him at his house. Once they are all gathered the colonel holds them at gunpoint and gives a speech about the group of cowards that is a mob saying, “The pitifulness thing is a mob; that’s what an army is-a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it. Is beneath pitifulness. Twain is sending a blaring message to Americans saying that the war they are fighting is pointless and unnecessary, and that the Confederacy is an association of
Twain writes from Huck’s perspective saying, WELL, pretty soon the old man was up and around again, and then he went for Judge Thatcher in the courts to make him give up that money, and he went for me, too, for not stopping school.” Which explains Pap’s ability to be father and his tendency to be selfish and put himself before anyone else including his own son.. Another example of how Twain sets up Pap to be a disgusting character is chronic alcoholism. In chapter six Pap kidnaps Huckleberry and forces him to stay in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere. After getting drunk and passing out Pap starts to hallucinate and chase Huck around the cabin calling him the Angel of Death.
Pap speaks to the mercilessness and seriousness of human progress, which undermines to crush Huck. Pap in the long run abducts his own child compelling Huck to make an involved departure arrangement which included faking his own particular death. Unexpectedly, the same acculturated people who are not excessively worried over Huck's torment because of Pap are extremely inquisitive and amped up for finding his dead
Unlike Adam and Eve’s battle of the sexes, Twain highlights how a group of men in a militia are a slave to their pride and naiveté. They have a preconceived idea that with war comes glory, but they do not consider the truths of it. Instead of understanding war as bloodshed and deadly, the narrator is a “naïve young man whose alliance is less with the Confederacy than with the romance of soldiering itself” (Ladd 45). As young men, they see fighting and war as a masculine act to be part of. Their guns are a phallic imagery that symbolizes their masculinity, but it is the very same object that makes them realize what war truly is when they accidentally kill a man.
He wants to improve the moral condition of Pap which, of course, backfires and only allows him to torment Huck further. However, Judge Thatcher was not only one who had “good intentions” toward Huck and
But when Pap disappears, the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson take Huck in and attempt to civilize him by giving him new, clean clothes, teaching him to read and write, and teaching him manners. Huck’s immaturity is evident in the beginning of the story with accounts of Huck’s shenanigans with Tom. He ruins his fresh clothes, sneaks out at night, gets in fights, joins a “robber gang”, and goes on adventures with his friends. His actions show that his morals aren't present and he could care less about trying to do the right thing and be a good boy for the Widow and Miss Watson.
And this is a great example of symbolism. Mr.Twain represents Mr. Sherburn and the mob is the rest of the audience who is hateful and bigoted and also that deny the African American people to receive equal rights. And through Symbolism we see that Mr.Sherburn is right about the mob and their lack of courage. He explains how all of them are pitiful and how they are all cowards. And this is true for them and the people in real life who hunt, mistreat, and even kill African American people they are all cowards, they don’t have honor.
By using improper, and in articulate diction, Twain exposes the stereotype that slaves are not able to be fully competent. When Jim cannot fathom the fact that there are people who speak all sorts of different types of languages he says it in a hard to understand manner. Jim says, "Well, it 's a blame ridicklous way, en I doan ' want to hear no mo ' 'bout it. Dey ain ' no sense in it" (The Adventures Twain 39). In Jims attempt to speak it is very hard to understand.
At many points early in the book, Miss Watson tries to make Huck more proper. Miss Watson would say, “Don’t put your feet up there Huckleberry”(Twain 3). Huck gets sick of hearing Miss Watson and Widow Douglas nag at him so he sets out for freedom from society. But before Huck gets the freedom he has longed for, Pap interferes and makes things difficult for some time. Although Pap takes
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Twain places the reader in a situation that requires much pondering of meaning and deep, intelligent insight into the commonalities performed by leading political
Pap Finn is Huckleberry Finn’s drunken, slovenly father. The reader is first introduced to him in chapter five when Huck returns from giving Judge Thatcher his money. Pap knows that Huck is wealthy and being educated, but has no idea of what was just done prior to them meeting. Once Pap finds out about the money and Huck’s educations Pap gets angry and threatens to beat Huck for trying to be better than him. “Now looky here; you stop putting on frills.
For example, even the gentle Mary Jane says that the Duke and the King should be “tarred and feathered.” (Twain 190) The fact that Huck sees so much death when he visits civilization goes right back to Twain’s obvious suggestion throughout the story that society is corrupt and unprincipled, and that Huck’s life on the raft is far more attractive. The next example of Huckleberry Finn enjoying the natural life occurs when he is taken away by his father. While he is living with his father he comes to enjoy the uncivilized life more than the way he lived with the Widow, despite the fact that his Pap is an
Research Paper Body Paragraph Four Outline BODY ¶ MAIN IDEA/TOPIC (1st Sentence) In “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, Mark Twain uses satire to mock slavery in America. 1st Statement Supporting Main Idea (2nd Sentence) Twain argues through “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” that civilization actually corrupts, and slavery racism are used as an example to prove that point.
All Huck needs is to believe in himself and not worry about any family. Pap is a terrible father to Huck “he is a monster, a vicious child abuser Mark Twain and Manhood 101 nouncing how the law could stand between him and "a man 's own son, which he has had all the trouble and all the anxiety and all the expense of raising," but actually bemoaning his inability to grab Huck 's money. Pap 's only sense of worth comes from asserting his meager white supremacy” (Obenzinger 101). Huck would rather act as though he was dead than live a life with a man like Pap as his father. After Pap finally comes back to see Huck and decides that he wants to live with him Huck starts to get uneasy.
In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the reader gauges morality through the misadventures of Huck and Jim. Notably, Huck morally matures as his perspective on society evolves into a spectrum of right and wrong. Though he is still a child, his growth yields the previous notions of immaturity and innocence. Likewise, Mark Twain emphasizes compelling matters and issues in society, such as religion, racism, and greed. During the span of Huck’s journey, he evolves morally and ethically through his critique of societal normalities.
However, despite Twain’s Confederate influences, his opinion on slavery was not impacted, showing that regardless of the fact that he had seen the South’s opinion on slavery he knew that someone was responsible to address the cultural tensions that the nation faced. Nevertheless, there are people who greet this novel with unjust disapproval. Stephen Carter says “Once upon a time, people hated the book because it struck them as coarse. Twain himself wrote that the book’s banners considered the novel ‘trash and suitable only for the slums.’”. The idea that this novel faced such a negative response at release is almost a social commentary that speaks for itself, and unquestionably confirms the fact that this was one of the first real attempts in American literature on social reformation that was met with such