Pap Finn is a significant villain figure in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck’s father is an awfully drunken despicable creature. Pap Finn is drunken, vulgar and ignorant individual who leads the life of evil without any changes. He has no redeeming features except, perhaps, his ability to be independent. It is this ability to go it alone that has rubbed off on Huck. Pap resents his poverty, but his laziness will not let him do anything to overcome it. His festering resentment develops into a hatred of anyone who has anything such as an education, a home, or a white shirt. An outstanding object of this hate is a dignified Negro professor, his opposite in every way, whose very appearance is a reproach to Pap. Huck comes in form a beating from Pap because he does to school and will therefore become superior to his father. The widow and Judge Thatcher are safe from his violence, but he hates them bitterly because they prevent him from getting Huck’s money. Unlike other villains in the novel, the kind and the duke, Pap has a sadistic streak and courts trouble. Pap’s violent death, therefore, is an appropriate touch of poetic justice.
Pap Finn enhances the themes in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Pap Finn enriches the theme of general debasement of white society in the novel. Twain interprets to the readers a sense of the disgraceful reality and treatments that blacks had to deal with through Pap’s arguments. As part of Pap’s lengthy speech to Huckleberry, “‘When they told me there was a state in this country where they’d let a nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I’ll never vote again’” (Twain 44). This quote suggests the attitude the majority of white people sensed against people of colour in the past, but fortunately tremendously less today. These people were instantly judged on their looks and classified as lower classed because of it. Unfortunately, society still does condemn people by their appearance without any knowledge at all about their characteristic. People without a doubt should be judged by the size of their heart, rather than being defined by the colour of their skin, waist size or clothes. People who have outlooks on life that are similar to Pap’s are the reasons why civilization will certainly not come to the conclusion of peace. Pap Finn deepens the theme of the failure of family structures. Mark Twain forces the audience to reminisce on the significance of family. Twain demonstrates through the actions of Pap Finn and his treatments towards Huck, the unfortunate realism that not every child has experienced love as they grew and developed as a person. This is the reasoning behind a countless number of negative actions and decisions because not every child has been given the guidance that is necessary to prevent this. Unfortunately, civilization judges people based on their actions without knowing the meaning behind it. As Twain writes, “He chased me round the place, with a clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death and saying he would kill me and then I couldn’t come for him no more” (Twain 47). This quote is a haunting example of how some families are. Pap Finn is constantly blaming Huck for everything he isn’t able to do. Family members do suffer from abuse, whether it mentally, emotionally or physically which branch out to numerous conflicts such as suicidal thoughts, running away and death. Words truly cannot explain the heart breaking torture some families must go through and others will never genuinely understand unless put into that position. Pap Finn improves the theme of human nature in the novel. Pap Finn is constantly dragging Huck down with his negativity and is awfully jealous of Huck’s success in school. “You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t? I’ll take it out of you,” as Pap Finn exclaims to Huck. Unfortunately this is how society functions: someone’s success always seems to bring pain to someone else. We live in a world where everyone is constantly trying to have more power and be better than everyone else. People fail to realize that when the love for power is replaced with the power of love, the world will then realize what peace is. Therefore, Pap Finn is a villain figure and highlights the theme of general debasement of white society, family and human nature in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
