Mark Twain's Treatment Of Women In Huck Finn

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a literary masterpiece penned by American author Mark Twain that explores the role of race in and describes life in 19th century America through the relationship between a young white boy and a runaway black slave. In the majority of the book’s units and plot advancements, Mark Twain portrays African Americans and women in the way in which they are treated as insignificant or peripheral. Despite the way he chooses to depict American society, Twain solely focuses his attention on the issue of slavery and his protagonist’s methods of overcoming his conflicting beliefs, but he also inadvertently portrays women as being morally superior to the men of the novel. The women are all characterized as being generous,…show more content…
In the sister novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer also written by Twain, the boys find six thousand dollars worth of gold and decided to leave it with Judge Thatcher and would earn one dollar a day of interest. The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson raised Huck on their own accounts and did a fine job doing so despite his rebellious nature. However, circumstances shift when Huckleberry Finn’s father shows up out of the blue. Huck’s father is known for being abusive and the town drunk. He ridicules Huck for being clean and educated, his reason being that no child should aspire to be better than anyone in their family, especially not their father. Pap also pressures his son to hand over the money- all of it! After Huck gives him a dollar, he uses it to get drunk, and the next day he hunts down Judge Thatcher and bullies him for the money. Pap, to Huck’s misfortune, takes the judge and the widow to court and wins custody over Huck due to the ignorance of the new judge. Despite not being Huck’s guardian any longer, it is evidence that Huck still holds a warm place in the heart of The Widow Douglas. Noticing Pap’s aggressive and hostile behavior, she tells him “... that if he didn’t quit... she would make trouble for him” (35). Overall, The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson are morally superior to Pap because they are selfish and provide for Huck in a nurturing manner that his father could never provide for
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