[F] Ravi: Chapters 04-06

This may jump back and forth because the ideas are connected to each other.

In these chapters, we are now introduced to Pap, Huck’s father, and we can see why Huck doesn’t like this. It is quite interesting how the first thing Huck does is sell of his fortune before meeting his father, who he knows has returned. Clearly, Huck fears something about his father having this money. Also, it shows how clever Huck is, as well has his detachment from materialistic things (at least this is implied by this action).

The description of Huck’s father is a bit scary: “He was most fifty, and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled and greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through like he was behind vines. It was all black, no gray; so was his long, mixed-up whiskers. There warn’t no color in his face, where his face showed; it was white; not like another man’s white, but a white to make a body sick, a white to make a body’s flesh crawl – a tree-toad white, a fish-bell white.” Obviously, Huck feels uncomfortable around his dad. From the start, Pap is introduced in this negative light. Coupling this negative introduction with the fact that Pap is illiterate, poor, and racist, when Pap later gives his “discourses” on government and slavery, how is the reader supposed to take his comments? Everything that he says should be taken in the mind of satire, and I think that Twain is implying the opposite of what Pap says.

I view Huck’s captivity in the cabin as a parallel to slavery, where Pap is a cruel master who beats and threatens Huck. It is interesting to apply the actions in this cabin to the institution of slavery. By doing so, you set up Huck as a slave to his father, and since the new judge had granted Pap custody of Huck, Huck is bound to Pap, even though Pap’s influence is hurting him. Pap causes Huck to leave school and to resume cursing, as well as instructing Huck to lead a lazy lifestyle. Another connection to slavery: Pap forces Huck under his custody in order to get his money. If you compare this to slavery, many of the masters did cruel things to their slaves simply to make a profit at the end of the day. I believe that this is another of Twain’s statements against slavery.

Guiding Questions:

1. What is the feel that you get of how Huck’s father treated him?
2. How is he treating him now? How is he described now?
3. Why do you think Huck rids himself of the money before he meets his father? Does this suggest a level of maturity and understanding of Huck?
4. Clearly Huck defies his father by attending school? Why does he continue school (before the move to the cabin)?
5. What do you make of the sentence on page 18 “…it warn’t long after that till I was used to being where I was, and liked it, all but the cowhide part”?
6. Why does Huck enjoy his father’s company after Huck clearly disapproves of some of it?
7. It seems as though Huck enjoys when his father is there to provide company, but is immediately discouraged by the loneliness. What do you think about this and how this shows Huck’s personality?
8. We know that Jim and Huck will take a trip together. Know that, what do you think Pap’s anti-freedom of slaves has to do with it?
9. I think that with Huck Finn as a satire, this “lecture” is actually criticizing others who agree with keeping slaves in bondage. By setting up Pap with all these negative traits and then to have him speak like this about slavery would lead you to ask yourself, “Who would listen to a stupid man like that?” Also, after the hallucination scene, Twain sets up Pap as a mentally insane person.
10. Let’s talk about the white-black setup. What is with the black man in the white clothes? What about how a free black man is smarter than a white man (black man and Pap) – Spencer’s response? What about the two angels that Jim talks about and how the black angel comes and disrupts the white angel? Why set up this competitive color battle?
11. What type of societal values are mirrored in the court’s decision about Huck’s welfare? Why is this significant to our understanding of Huck’s world at this point in the novel? [Stokes]
12. What is ironic about Pap’s anti-government diatribe in Chapter Six? [Stokes]
13. Doesn’t Huck’s captivity in the cabin seem a lot like bondage? Who else are in bondage? If we set up this parallel, what does that reveal in what Twain is trying to say?