The Parents of Huck Finn

Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn there are many unique characters aside from Huck. As Huck travels the Mississippi he meets many people that, to him, take the place of his nonexistent parents. For as long as Huck can remember he’s been alone, but there is most undeniably a child’s wanting for some structure and guidance that a parent gives. The people he meets, he picks up teachings that he will need in life. These surrogate parents are the aristocratic Colonel Grangerford, the strict down to earth Widow Douglas, and Huck’s river companion, the runaway slave, Jim. All these people help and serve Huck as long as he’s willing to be civilized. Even though Huck sees these people as mentors he still doesn’t stay with them very long, he just doesn’t know what he wants.
The Widow Douglas is a very interesting character indeed. She took Huck in as her son, and when we meet up with Huck he’s living in her home. The widow tried to civilize Huck, but Huck didn’t take to it very well. She tried to teach Huck the ways of Christianity but he found it foolish. Huck didn’t understand why anyone would be interested in someone if they were not related to them. Huck also had problems with the widow herself. He

The next home Huck comes upon is that of Colonel Grangerford and his family he’s cast into a world of privilege, built over a plague of violence from a bloody feud with another local family, the Sheperdsons. However the Colonel and his family are very well mannered and treat Huck as one of the family. As soon as Huck is brought into the house, and proves he’s not a Sheperdson, he’s given new clothes, a place to sleep, and food. Another piece of hospitality is Huck is provided with his own slave, this would become valuable when he wanted to communicate with Jim. Although Huck enjoyed his time with the Grangerfords, he did see the negative side of the, so called, “high society”. It came at two particular moments in the story. The sermon was about brotherly love, everyone talked about how important the sermon was, although they were in the middle of a feud with their neighbors. The other was when Huck witnessed the brutality of the feud firsthand. He watched a fire fight between Buck, his cousin, and some of the Sheperdsons. Needless to say, both Buck and his cousin were injured and Huck was off. He stole away to the river with Jim. Huck enjoyed his stay with the Grangerfo