Huckleberry Finn ( Huck Finn ) :: Essays Papers

Huck Finn3 Characters found in Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn are shown as being victims of the times through their ignorance to the possibility that all men are equal no matter what color skin one has. Pap, Huck’s father, is the most ignorant character within the book. He blatantly comes out and tells the reader his feeling of blacks, while a character such as Tom isn’t so obvious. Along with these two characters, the Royal Nonesuch and the Phelps’s friends display an ignorance of the times. Huck displays ignorance at its best, and shows that with a little love, it can easily be diminished. Throughout the book characters reveal their basis towards black people through the various situations. The most racist of the characters was Pap. He refused to believe that blacks and whites were equal. Pap walked around with a superior attitude because he was white, which was a common attitude of his time. While some characters, such as Huck, had sympathy towards blacks, Pap did not care for them at all. He thought it to be quite absurd that a free slave â€Å"had a gold watch and chain and a silver-headed cane† while Pap had nothing (24). He was disgusted with the fact that this free slave was allowed to vote and he said, â€Å"I’ll never vote ag’in as long as I live,† to stress how much he despised blacks (24). Pap believed the government to be corrupt because it couldn’t â€Å"sell a free nigger till he’s been in the state six months† (24). He even went on to tell the reader that the free slave was a â€Å"prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted nigger† only because he had a different color skin than Pap (24). He never had anything nice to say about blacks, and constantly looked down on them. Twain used Pap’s character. Tom’s ignorance was a lot more subtle than Pap’s. His ignorance was not shown until much later in the book when Huck tells Tom that he is going to â€Å"steal† Jim back. Huck was surprised when Tom said he was going to help Huck steal Jim because Huck thought that Tom would say, â€Å"it’s dirty, low-down business† (203). Huck, knowing that Tom â€Å"was respectable and well brung up; and had a character to lose,† could not figure out why Tom would help steal a slave (210).