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,

and their kids just as much, and sometimes more than mom’s” (Pappas), which justifies why children cry for their fathers the way they do.

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

things and people, or their daughter believe it is love if a guy does that to her. So, now dad has messed up the generations to come because it will only become a repeating cycle until it is changed. Overall, “…fathers realize they matter, Quality time is important. Whatever it is, just make yourself available, and when you’re with them…give them your undivided attention”(Pappas), meaning children do not care what a father can and can not do for them, being with them is enough.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pap is not a great father. He brings his son down and does not support him. His alcoholism causes Pap to take money from his son and beat him when he had nothing to give. A father is supposed to be someone a son is comfortable around, but Pap made Huck feel scared. He said, “I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much. I reckoned I was scared now, too”(Twain 22), showing how Pap put fear in his son’s heart, Huck was not comfortable being around him. Pap had an alcohol abuse problem, “ while I was cooking supper the old man took a swig or two and got sort of warmed up”(Twain 30), drinking was a daily routine for Pap and he never got tired of it. Pap hates the fact his son has an education. Pap refused to let Huck go back to school because he didn’t want him to be better than him. He told him, “ Your educated too they say- can read and write you think you better’n your father now, don’t you, because he can’t” (Twain 23), Pap clearly shows his jealousy of his son. He beat his son for everything, when he does not have money for him to get drunk or when he shows how smart he is. Pap is not a good father figure; he makes Huck do things he normally would not do, Huck says, for example,“ I had stop cussing because the widow didn’t like it ; but now I took to it again because Pap had no objections”(Twain 28), meaning Pap does not teach him that cursing was wrong he just allowed him to do what he wanted. Pap sent Huck down the wrong path, he didn’t give him the chance to explore life he kept him locked away, and he never encouraged him and beat him for all the right things, and allowed him to do all the wrong things.
In Fences, August Wilson makes Troy the bad guy.

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

longer.
A father is supposed to raise his son in the way that he wants him to be. But overall, a person only get out what they put in. If someone raises your children wrong, that will be their beliefs. A father is supposed to be supportive of their children and show them how to love themselves and others. However, August Wilson and Mark Twain portray these fathers as the exact opposite in their children’s lives.