Unadmirable characters in Literature are used to shine characters in a brighter light and by comparing them to another character allows a greater appreciation of that character. Mark Twain uses unadmirable characters in a similar way. The main difference is that the characters show traits that Huck wishes to purge from his life. In the adventures of Huckleberry Finn Huck encounters many people who he clashes with due to his personality. Three prominent examples of those who aren’t admirable are Pap, the Duke and the Dauphin, and Colonel Sherburn and Boggs.
Foremost, Pap is the embodiment of failure and self-destruction due to his incessant need to continue the chain of addiction and abuse in his family, primarily Huck. He is depicted as someone of seemingly ghastly figure when first introduced in the book, which is later described as the result of his endless drinking. This man has absolutely no regard to his or Huck’s wellbeing at any point of the story. In
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Mark Twain uses Boggs and the mob to illustrate the hypocrisy of Southern society and the difference between societal morality and true morality. Colonel Sherburn gave ample warning to Boggs, after he was insulted, that he was going to shoot him. Boggs, being drunk, ignored the advice and remained at that exact spot. When Sherburn returns and sees him again, he draws his gun and shoots the man, leading to the formation of a mob that confronts him at his house. Once they are all gathered the colonel holds them at gunpoint and gives a speech about the group of cowards that is a mob saying, “The pitifulness thing is a mob; that’s what an army is-a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it. Is beneath pitifulness. Twain is sending a blaring message to Americans saying that the war they are fighting is pointless and unnecessary, and that the Confederacy is an association of