One of the most effective ways Mark Twain represents the notion that the idea of slavery is hypocritical is through his use of characters such as Miss Watson and Widow Douglas. Watson and Douglas are sisters and both possess extremely religious views but, despite their good morals and ethical values, they still hold no concern about the injustice of slavery. Miss Watson has no remorse when it comes to Jim being separated from his family. .
This shows how Miss Watson views and treats black people, and is a perfect example of how society was. It was considered normal to own a slave, even the Widow Douglas, a devout Christian. Like the widow, Miss Watson, a devout Christian, sees nothing wrong with owning slaves. Another character that helps to support Twain's views regarding slavery is Pap, Huck's father. Pap is presented as the town drunk as well as a seemingly horrible father. When he claims to have gotten his act together later in the book and attempts to regain custody of his estranged son, he proceeds to abuse and beat Huck every time he returns home. One of the first things we learn about Huck's father and his views on black people is when Pap rants on about the mixed-race man who was allowed to vote in the state of Ohio and says: "It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote, myself, if I warn't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out" (122).
The irony in this that Huck's father, a man who is clearly morally, financially, socially, and intellectually inferior to the mixed-race man in town who is intelligent and wore nice clothes, believes he is superior over the man because of the different skin colors. This just goes to show that back then people viewed white people as superior to blacks, which allowed whites to act out and then walk away free. They looked down upon the opposing race when in reality; there were white people who were a bigger disgrace to society than most of the black population.
