Huck Finn :: essays papers

Huck Finn This story started out sometime in the mid-1800s in the small town of Hannibal, Missouri. A few months earlier Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn discovered a chest full of gold. The two adventurous boys split the twelve-thousand dollars, and Judge Thatcher was keeping their money safe in a trust. In the meantime, Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson, realizing Huck's unsophisticated ways, took him into their home to try to "sivilize" him. Huck learned to read and write and even acquired some religion, but he didn't like it too much that Miss Watson continually tried to vanquish his smoking and swearing. One day Huck saw footprints in the snow and realized that his father was back in town. This made Huck very uncomfortable because his father stayed drunk and beat him whenever he felt like it (which was most of the time). Huck knew the only reason his Pap came back was to collect his son's money. After finding out about his Pap, Huck went quickly over to Judge Thatcher's house to sign away the right to his share of the twelve thousand dollars. Since he had no money now, he figured his father wouldn't bother him. A few nights later, Huck found his Pap, looking very rough and ragged, sitting in a chair in his room. Pap was very angry with Huck for becoming smarter than his father and threatened to beat him if he didn't quit learning. Pap took Huck's only dollar and left, but showed up the next day at Judge Thatcher's house claiming to be Huck's legal guardian. Pap demanded the money that was in Huck's name, but the judge refused. A while later, Pap became desperate and kidnapped his son. He took him to a one-room log hut where Huck was kept locked up whenever Pap had to leave. Huck didn't like this too much, nor did he like the daily beatings he received when Pap was drunk. Despite this, Huck rather enjoyed not having to be civilized anymore. One night after Pap threatened to kill Huck, the boy decided he had taken enough; he was going to escape. The next night while Pap was in town, Huck found a saw and cut out a piece of one of the walls. He crawled through the hole and replaced the piece of wood so that Pap wouldn't notice it.