Pap Character Analysis in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Huck’s father, Pap is a vicious drunk and racist, demonstrably beyond reform, who wants to have Huck’s fortune for himself. He resents Huck’s social mobility and, when not drunk or in jail, he can usually be found harassing Huck. Infuriated by the Widow at one point, Pap kidnaps Huck and imprisons him in a cabin, where he beats Huck mercilessly, such that Huck is compelled to escape from him once and for all. Pap seems to be free from the Widow and Miss Watson’s idea of society, but he is enslaved to his own wretched viciousness and alcoholism, as much a prisoner as anyone in the novel.

Pap Quotes in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn quotes below are all either spoken by Pap or refer to Pap. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“And looky here—you drop that school, you hear? I’ll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs over his own father and let on to be better’n what he is.”

Related Characters: Pap (speaker), Huckleberry Finn

Page Number and Citation: 15

Explanation and Analysis:

The Widow sends Huck to school, but when Huck's biological father, Pap, comes back to town, the greasy old man opposes his son receiving an education. Why? Because Pap resents the fact that Huck is breaking with the family tradition of ignorance and, more to the point, that Huck is "put[ting] on airs" over him, that is, acting like his own father's social superior.Pap talks like Huck, he seems to live freely outside the bounds of society like Huck, but he couldn't be more different. While Huck is an authentic free spirit, Pap is just as committed to maintaining rigid Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur.

The judge he felt kind of sore. He said he reckoned a body could reform the ole man [Pap] with a shot-gun maybe, but he didn’t know no other way.

Related Characters: Huckleberry Finn (speaker), Pap, The new judge

Page Number and Citation: 17

Explanation and Analysis:

After Pap gets outrageously drunk and is jailed, the new judge vows to reform him – but Pap is debauched beyond reform. He takes advantage of the judge's hospitality, gets drunk, consequently falls, breaks his arm, and almost freezes to death. This quote gives the new judge's response.On the one hand, the new judge represents the decent regularity that society stands for, and of which Huck Finn is rightly wary. It is the failure of this society, and the social pressure it creates, that lead to people like Pap sinking into wretchedness in the first place. A society that produces Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut

“When they told me there was a State in this country where they’d let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I’ll never vote again…I says to the people, why ain’t this nigger put up at auction and sold?”

Related Characters: Pap (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 20

Explanation and Analysis:

One night, while he and Huck have dinner in an isolated cabin, Pap gets drunk and begins to rant nastily against the government. He is especially infuriated that a man of mixed race can become an educated college professor with the right to vote. The quote given here makes up a part of his rant.Earlier, Pap berates Huck for getting an education, and he similarly resents the professor, whom he considers to be his racial and social inferior. Some historians suggest that, because the class structure was more mobile in post-Revolutionary America than in Europe, people could no longer derive Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae ear

Pap Character Timeline in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The timeline below shows where the character Pap appears in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Huck thinks about his father Pap, who hadn’t been seen for more than a year, which is just fine with Huck.... (full context)

...ox, that Jim does magic with. Huck goes to Jim, tells him that he saw Pap’s tracks in the snow (those that leave the cross), and asks what Pap is going... (full context)

Huck is scared at first to see the old, greasy, pale Pap sitting in his room because Pap “tanned,” or beat, him so often, but soon is... (full context)

Pap tells Huck that he hears that Huck is rich now, but Huck says that he... (full context)

The next day, Pap is drunk and tries to coerce Judge Thatcher into giving him Huck’s fortune, but the... (full context)

Pap is pleased with the court’s custody ruling. He threatens to beat Huck “black and blue”... (full context)

After Pap is released, the new judge resolves to reform him. He invites Pap to supper, where... (full context)

Pap continues to harass Judge Thatcher for Huck’s money, and he harasses Huck for not stopping... (full context)

When Pap loiters around the Widow’s estate too much, the Widow reprimands him. Pap vows to show... (full context)

Huck comes to like the “lazy and jolly” life he leads with Pap, the smoking and fishing he does without the burden of study. His nice clothes become... (full context)

However, Pap eventually begins to beat Huck so often and so severely that Huck, covered with welts,... (full context)

Pap is characteristically in a bad mood when he comes in. He rants that his lawsuit... (full context)

After Huck loads the skiff, he and Pap sit down to dinner, during which Pap becomes drunk. He begins to rant against the... (full context)

As he rants, Pap wanders around the cabin, eventually tripping on a tub of salt pork, which makes him... (full context)

After some time passes, Pap jumps up “looking wild,” and he goes after Huck with a knife, calling him the... (full context)

Pap wakes Huck, who fell asleep in the night, and asks him what he’s doing with... (full context)

After Huck returns to shore, Pap berates him for taking so long with the fish. Huck lies that he fell in... (full context)

Pap and Huck collect nine logs from the river to sell and then eat dinner. Pap... (full context)

Huck takes Pap’s gun into the nearby woods, kills a hog, and takes the hog back to his... (full context)

Huck hears a sound. It is Pap paddling back to the cabin. Huck loses no time in slipping quietly down the river... (full context)

...shore to observe the ferry as it passes. Many people he knows are onboard, including Pap, Judge Thatcher, and Tom Sawyer, all of whom are talking about Huck’s “murder.” The captain... (full context)

...the mornings, he slips into cornfields to “borrow,” that is, steal produce. Huck says that Pap told him that it wasn’t harmful to “borrow” things if you mean to pay for... (full context)

...money. Tom says that Huck still has six thousand dollars in Judge Thatcher’s care, because Pap didn’t take it and hasn’t even been in town. Jim explains that Pap died; his... (full context)

Pap Character Analysis

Pap Quotes in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 5 Quotes

Chapter 6 Quotes

Pap Character Timeline in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn