THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUCKLEBERRY FINN AND HIS FATHER

IN MARK TWAINS THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

B.I.L.
3 Estudios Ingleses.
Textos de Literatura Inglesa: Siglos XIX y XX.
1

Everybody knows that the relationship between a father and his son (or daughter) is
arguable, since it depends how the parental figure may be, including also his son.
Normally, there is a mutual love and respect in this kind of relationships between these
two figures, where the father performs an important role and represents a huge
responsibility in his family, since he may be distinguished as an idol, a teacher and as a
friend, too. However, this does not happen in Mark Twains novel where Hucks father
is totally the contrary of what we have just said.
Huck could escape from his father once and after that, he was lucky to end up in the
house of the widow Douglas. Huck was very comfortable there, even though there were
things that made him somewhat, not uncomfortable, but those made him feel strange:
but before the cold weather I used to slide out and sleep in the woods sometimes,
and so that was a rest to me. I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the
new ones, too, a little bit. (M.Twain 1884:117)

Time passed and, unfortunately, the day that Huck was not expected to come arrived.
Hucks father found out where his son was living in and then he took him out from that
house in order to satisfy his desires of getting drunk with Hucks money, since he knew
his son had a huge amount of it, but the money was at the house of the Judge Thatcher.
We can appreciate here that Hucks father is taking advantage of his son, treating him
merely as a possession for satisfying his bad habits. Pap also criticizes the society for
trying to take away his son, but at the same time he does nothing to protect him, he only
makes him suffer, feel unwelcome in this life and shows the inability to love him.

Pap behaves in a very cruel way with Huck, since the boy is often beaten up. Not only
the physical abuse is an issue between father and son here, but the hatred from Pap, as
regards Huck's education, is fairly remarkable. He resents Huck's ability to read and
write, and be emerged in religious studies:
Youre educated, too, they saycan read and write. You think youre bettern your
father, now, dont you, because he cant? ill take it out of you. Who told you you might
meddle with such hifalutn foolishness, hey?who told you you could? (M.Twain

1884:120)
Later in the story, Pap tells the judge (not the judge Thatcher but another one) that he is
a "new and changed man", living now a different life, telling him he is going to get rid
of drinking alcohol and that God is taking care of him, leading him to the right path.
Obviously, this does not occur, it was just a lie.
One night, when Huck is imprisoned in a cabana, he almost dies because of the drunken
stupor of his father which made Pap try to kill Huck, although he did not succeed:
He chased me round and round the place with a clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of
Death, and saying he would kill me (M.Twain 1884:125)

Huck has grown up with this kind of abuse all his life and he is absolutely scared when
he is with him:
I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much. (M.Twain 1884:119)

The role that Hucks father performs is disturbing because he is clearly an abusive
parental figure, but at the same time his role is vitally important to the novel, since it
directly contrasts with the heroic and caring Jim, who is described in Mark Twains

novel as the agent of goodness and honesty. (This character is running away because he
overheard Miss Watson was planning to sell him for eight hundred dollars.)
Between these two characters Hucks father and Jim it can be noticed that there are two
things that link each other: the first one is that they are father figures for Huck, one
related to Huck through blood and the other through the heart (what I mean with this
expression is that they became really good friends, helping each other when some of
them needed something); and the second similarity is appreciable to find it in the fact
that both characters do not want to take part in this society: Jim runs away from the
people who want sell him, and Hucks father gets drunk every day in order to remain
apart from the life or the world he is living in.
This relationship between Huck and his father ends up when Jim finds the dead body of
Old Finn laid down on the ground in a wooden-made house. As soon as Jim realised that
the dead body was Hucks father, he immediately covered his face in order to prevent
Huck from seeing his fathers dead face:
I didnt look at him at all. Jim throwed some old rags over him but he neednt done it; I
didnt wants to see him. There was heaps of old greasy cards scattered around over the
floor, and old whisky bottles (M.Twain 1884:138)

But also, he did this because he loves Huck and he did not want to hurt him and make
him release all the feelings that Huck had left behind when he escaped from his father,
simulating his own death. However, we cannot know how he would have reacted if he
had seen that, even though his curiosity went further:
After breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how he come to be
killed, but Jim didnt want to. He said it would fetch bad luck (M.Twain 1884:139)

Maybe his reaction had been indifferent or perhaps it had occurred something
completely opposite to this, but I think that due to the behavior of Old Finn with his son,
Huck would not shed tears of pain for his father.
To sum up, this relationship is fairly toxic for a son. And also, it is very surprising how
Huck, treated as a poor animal, didnt end up himself exploding since, as a normal rule,
every child who is physically and psychologically abused might be as rude or bully as
his/her father or mother, and it is possible that child may tend to vent their rage and
anger with somebody. However, this is not the case of Huckleberry Finn since, at all
times, we can witness a character that really cares of his friends and he tries and wants
the best for them.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baym, N., Krupat, A. and Campbell Reesman, J. (2007) The Norton Anthology of
American Literature: Volume C: 1865-1914 (7th Edition), W. W. Norton and
Company, USA.