Examples Of Alcoholism In Huckleberry Finn

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In the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Mark Twain tells the story of a little boy, Huck Finn, and his entourage before the American Civil War. It was a time when slavery was fully practicable. The lives of white people were considered of a bigger value than those of the African Americans. Mark Twain tackles the subject of slavery in multiple ways. Not only he talks about how slavery in itself was present in the mid-1800s, he also approaches slaver in a different angle. Many characters are enslaved by some of their characteristics. Huck’s father is enslaved by alcohol and it affected his relationship with Huck. The duke and the dauphin are enslaved by their greed of fortune and Jim is enslaved just because the society’s convention treats…show more content…
He was known of everybody for his mad temper. Being illiterate, Pap could not support that his own son had an education and being the drunk he was, he beat his son for his lack of knowledge. Alcoholism is often synonym to violent behaviour. Of course, jealousy was not the only reason Pap felt the need to beat him. “You’re educated, too, they say – can read and write. You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t? I’ll take it out of you. Who told you you might meddle such hifalut’n foolishness, hey? – who told you you could? (Twain, p.28)” Pap was some time away and when he came back, he wanted Huck’s money (the treasure Huck and Tom Sawyer found). Obviously, the only reason he wanted this money was to buy more alcohol. Pap was trapped under the flows of alcohol. He was also enslaved by greed like the duke and dauphin which I will discuss later. Pap came back to the town for the sole purpose of getting Huck’s money (treasure). “I heard about it away down the river too. That’s why I come. You git me that money to-morrow – I want it (Twain, p.29).” Clearly, after years of disappearance, Pap showed up claiming money from his son. What kind of greed pushes a father to come back home only to request money from his child? Greed and alcoholism enslaved Pap into becoming a selfish and heinous man. If Pap was freed from these bad habits, there could have been the possibility of a different…show more content…
They were willing to swindle Mary Jane out of her inheritance. Both of them lived to plan their next fraud because they wanted to be rich. Most of the time, they would blame everybody else of all the crimes they did not to get caught. “Because Mary Jane’ll be mourning from this out; and first you know the nigger that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds ups and put’em away; and do you reckon a nigger can run across money and not borrow some of it? (Twain, p.255) The duke was being a hypocrite by implying that all black men were thieves. In this case, he was the real thief. Their lust for money pushed them into lying. If they were free from that lust, they would not have ended up tarred and

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