The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Analyzed

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Barbara A. Crane Page 1 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Analyzed A classic novel by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn presents many moral and social issues in a humorous light. Mark Twain seemed to have a very modern approach to the problems of child abuse and neglect. Several passages in this book confirm my analytical view on Mark Twain’s stance for child abuse, and neglect. I believe the first mention of Huckleberry’s neglect is when the initiation of Tom Sawyer’s gang is brought upon, “Well, hain’t he got a father?” says Tom Sawyer. “Yes, He’s got a father, but you can’t never find him these days. He used to lay drunk with the hogs in the tanyard, but he hain’t been seen in these parts in over a year or more”(8). Dealing with this amount of fear every day is astounding and yet through it all Huckleberry found time to provide for himself. Huckleberry taught himself how to survive without falling into the negative influences his father has set for him. Soon to be followed by the first example of Huckleberry’s father abusing him. “Pap he hadn’t been seen for more than a year and that was comfortable for me; I didn’t Barbara A. Crane Page 2 want to see him no more. He used to always whale me when he was sober and could get his hands on me; though I used to take to the woods most of the time when he was around” (11). Huckleberry at the assumed age of 12 had gone through plenty of abuse. Why did he chose to have Huckleberry be abused, and why Huckleberry’s father was abusive. It is also interesting that he has the community concerned for Huckleberry’s well-being when Huckleberry is known to be a trouble maker because at that time most people turned the other cheek, didn’t care, or they themselves where abusing their own children. It is hard to understand why anyone would treat children or teenagers like this. “He catched

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