So far violence has been featured frequently in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Violence is all around Huck, and is committed for various reasons which are dissimilar but share some similar characteristics. I would like to focus on the violence committed by Huck’s father, and the scene with robbers’ plan to kill one of their own and its thematic meanings.
Huckleberry’s father claims to love him. Yet, he constantly beats him, threatens people with his gun, and generally seems to believe that violence is an easy solution to many problems. The robbers’ on the shipwreck are also prone to violence as they are ready to turn their back on their accomplice Jim Turner, and kill him.
There are many thematic meanings with these cases of violence. The theme of greed is present in both of these cases. Huck’s father beats Huck in order to solicit his money from him so he could drink more. Also, there seems to be a metaphor to US-British Empire relations at the time, where America symbolized in the form of Huck is trying to get rid of its “father” Britain that is no good anymore and only wants to solicit money or “resources”.The theme of the robbers’ also ties to the greed as they are able to kill one of their own to get more money.
