Role Of Father In Huckleberry Finn

A father is the “main man” in their children’s lives. They support them, teach them things about life and how to survive in it, and give them unconditional love. They are an important factor in the upbringing of their children, and their presence has a major effect on their children’s lives. However, in Fences and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain and August Wilson portray how Pap and Troy completely defy what are considered the appropriate duties of a father. Many people believe that a mother being in a child’s life is more important than the father because of the initial bond they have for nine months while in mommy’s stomach and the moments they share during birth. However, “Just like women, fathers bodies respond to parenthood,

Fathers have the tendency to have a greater influence on the child than the mother. When children know that they have someone that genuinely loves them, they tend to be happier and more easily satisfied in life. When children do not feel the love from their parents, they become aggressive and unstable emotionally. Without parents or their support, children begin to feel as if they are not good enough and that nobody wants them. But when it comes to rejection from a father, “Delinquency, depression, and substance abuse are all more closely linked to dad’s rejection”(Pappas), which shows how much more a father is needed in a child’s life. Research shows that “fathers who are most effective are those who listen to their children, have a close relationship, set appropriate rules, but also grant appropriate freedom”(Pappas), which was lacked in Fences and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A father’s presence is important because, if someone has a son or daughter and is not there for his children or if they are there and they are doing bad things in front of them, that makes the son believe it is fine to have children and not come around or it is all right to abuse

Troy was born to a sharecropper that was not happy with the idea that for every crop he grew he became more in debt. Troy’s father felt that he had become a failure and began to take his frustrations out on everyone he could, including Troy and his ex-wives. The only thing Troy understands in life is “ Troy learns that in the land of equal opportunity, chances for a black man are not always equal and that the same country that deprives him asked sacrifice of his brother in World War II and got it”(Wilson viii), because all his life Troy has been deprived of happiness. Troy tells his family he loves them, but his actions are completely different. When Troy has an affair and told Rose he had a baby on the way, this changed Troy’s whole personality when his family starts to pull away from him. He becomes an aggressive, bitter man. He refused to let his son join the football team because he did not want him to be like him, but because his son refused to stop playing football he took matters into his own hands. Because of Troy’s interference Cory despised him, he didn’t want anything to do with him. Troy was holding Cory back from his dreams. Then because of the baby Troy destroys his family. Rose could not stand him any