Rhetorical Analysis Huckleberry Finn

In the sixth chapter of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain manipulates the reader’s opinion of racism by using Pap, an antagonist to display his attitude towards the subject. Twain expertly uses the character Pap to explain his viewpoint using circumstance and the structure of his speech to make the idea of racism distasteful, uncomfortable, and even absurd to the reader. Before the initial speech Twain sets up Pap as a horrible father, a chronic alcoholic, and a liar. These qualities followed by Pap’s actions establish a permanent animosity towards the character and what he stands for leading the reader to inherently disagree with everything he says. Twain introuduces Pap at the beginning of chapter 6 by with him attempting to steal

Twain writes from Huck’s perspective saying, WELL, pretty soon the old man was up and around again, and then he went for Judge Thatcher in the courts to make him give up that money, and he went for me, too, for not stopping school.” Which explains Pap’s ability to be father and his tendency to be selfish and put himself before anyone else including his own son.. Another example of how Twain sets up Pap to be a disgusting character is chronic alcoholism. In chapter six Pap kidnaps Huckleberry and forces him to stay in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere. After getting drunk and passing out Pap starts to hallucinate and chase Huck around the cabin calling him the Angel of Death. Twain paintes the scene writing,“By and by he rolled out and jumped up on his feet looking wild, and he see me and went for me. He chased me round and round the place with a claspknife, calling me the Angel of Death, and saying he would kill me, and then I couldn’t come for him no more.” This shows how severe Pap’s problem with alcoholism is as well as how he is willing to put others in danger. Twain uses this incident to further discredit Pap’s trustworthiness and later destroy his credibility in the speech he gives on