Ideally, it is expected that children be brought up with love, care, and compassion. It is on that basis that the term the best interest of the child was coined. However, in Mark Twain’s, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, a different situation is postulated. Huckleberry, otherwise called Huck, is exposed to a situation that is devoid of parental care and compassion. His real father is irresponsible, uncaring, violent, and unapologetically brutal. This occasions the journey by Huck in pursuit of freedom. It is during this journey that Huck meets parental and fatherly figures. These figures show him care, compassion, love, understanding, responsibility and the concept of owning up among others. Overall, the figures impart in Huck qualities that replace his beastly racist reasoning with a courteous and tempered demeanor expected of a child. This paper shall discuss the fatherly figures in Huck’s life (Twain 39). The submission assumes the position that collective influences of these figures inform the final good character and reasoning of Huck. Ideally, it is in that way that Mark Twain communicates his ideas to society especially on the then highly divisive racism.
Three principal characters come into perspective as the significant parental figures in the life of Huck. Interestingly, the principal fatherly figure is in the character of Jim, a former Black slave owned by a Miss Watson. That the author employs Jim to show fatherliness is no coincidence given the rational argument that bad should be paid back with good. This is seen in Jim’s troubled past and current situation in which the society happens to discriminate on the Blacks. However, despite the problems in Jim, he displays all that is expected of a parent to Huck. He seeks to protect and impart in him a sense of morality (Sloan 162). This is seen in a number of incidences that occur in the course of the narrative. “I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back.”
First, at the Frame House, Jim notices that Huck’s father is naked and is actually dead. He employs a tactic to have Huck pass without noticing that the lying cadaver is that of his actual father. This prevents Huck from suffering pain in the realization of the death of his father, which is rather sad and unfortunate. Jim ensures that Huck does not suffer psychological damage by interacting directly by dead bodies. In society, children are often kept away from the dead so that they do not suffer any lapses psychologically. Jim demonstrates this aspect in the manner in which he handles Huck after the realization of his dead parent.
Additionally, Jim offers Huck protection from any and every incident that could be dangerous. While they sail, he ensures the raft is high enough to prevent them getting wet. This protective approach is equally shown in Jim’s ultimate sacrifice for the protection of Huck’s friend. Jim equally ensures that he brings Huck up on a good moral footing; when Huck is wrong, he firmly but responsibly scolds him reminding him of the racial context in which they are. An apologetic Huck later asks for forgiveness from Jim (Marx 433). This scenario demonstrates the rare, yet adorable character of fatherly persons. It is essential to bring the child up in reality and correct him on his mistakes.
Moreover, the fact that Jim offers Huck an insight into society shows his parental qualities. He gives Huck the knowledge and skills necessary to tackle the wild and cruel world. The approach he pursues in ensuring Huck embraces reality is welcome as well as commendable. He makes Huck conscious of the racial divide in society and inculcates in him mannerisms that go beyond the narrow racial boundaries. Arguably, such an approach is brave and only deliverable by responsible adults. It can be deduced throughout the tone of the novel that Jim is out to ensure the best interests of Huck. Huck finds in him what he could not get from his father. The author deliberately uses Jim to show that the narrow racial divides should not bar fatherly actions and conduct. He ignored all the negative voices not to take care of Huck when he tore up a letter. “I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up.”
In addition, it is instructive that Huck also receives parental care and love from other characters. Two characters worth being mentioned are Grangerford and Widow Douglas. Grangerford is the first white man Huck meets that is responsible to his family. Huck confesses that he adores and appreciates the family. He admires the character of Grangerford. The description the author employs makes one feel Huck is perhaps envious of the family. “The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways” However, Huck is motivated and impressed by the gentle conduct of Grangerford (Twain 65).
Lastly, the efforts by Widow Douglas must be appreciated in the context of parental responsibility and care. Widow Douglas attempts to counsel and change Huck. She desires that Huck change from his old delinquent habits for an approach that is gentle and responsible. This desire espouses the parental cores in Widow Douglas. It can be surmised that she has the child’s best interest throughout her interaction with Huck.
In conclusion, the fatherly roles played by Jim, Grangerford and Widow Douglas mold Huck into responsibility, care, understanding and compassion. It is such that occasions his later dilemma in respect to saving Jim or reporting him to Miss Watson.
Works cited
Marx, Leo. "Mr. Eliot, Mr. Trilling, and" Huckleberry Finn"." The American Scholar 22.4 (1953): 423-440.
Sloan, Karen. "Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." The Explicator 63.3 (2005): 159-164.
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Univ of California Press, 2003.
