Alcoholism in Huckleberry Finn
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. He is better known by his pen name “Mark Twain”, which is a nautical term which means two fathoms deep. As a child he learned to smoke and led a gang, leaving school at age 12 to become an apprentice at a printing shop. He became a free lance journalist and traveled around country until age 24, when he became a river boat pilot on the Mississippi, his childhood dream. During the Civil War, Twain joined the Confederate Army, but left and went west in search of gold. When that failed him, he became a reporter and comedian. His book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in 1885. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is narrated from Huck’s perspective, a delinquent 14 year old, who was previously seen in Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The story takes place in Missouri and the Mississippi River, but progress into the Deep South. Huck stumbles upon Jim, a slave, who is running away before he is sold to New Orleans. They take a raft down the Mississippi River and plan to take the Ohio River north so Jim can be free. They miss the Ohio River and continue on down south. Along the way they face many conflicts. As their friendship develops, Huck realizes that Jim is not an emotionless slave; he is a genuinely good person who he comes to love. The reason their adventure started was because Huck to escapes his alcoholic and abusive father, and does so by faking his own death. Children of alcoholics often have poor relationships with their parents, their morals and personalities are negatively affected by their parents’ alcoholism, as exemplified by Pap Finn and his interactions with Huck. Throughout the story Twain makes comments indicating his view of the ill effects of alcohol. Due to the effects of alcohol, a parent who abuses alcohol and their child often do not have a good relationship, exemplified in the harsh and abusive relationship Pap has with Huck. Dennis
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