I was eating some leftover jambalaya this evening. It was much better than last night, when I made it. So I was reminded of Huck Finn saying he preferred things all cooked in one pot, where "... the flavors get to swap around a little."
Then I got to thinking about Huckleberry. As we all know, Huck Finn's Pap was the town drunk. I don't recall that we ever hear anything of his mother, either who she was or what became of her.
So my query is this: Was Huck Finn unusual in that he lived with his Pap, instead of his mother?
Is there anyone out there in Lush land with a real solid social history background, who can answer this one?
"There's only three tempos: slow, medium and fast. When you get between in the cracks, ain't nuthin' happenin'." Ben Webster
my understanding is that prior to ww2, in the case of divorce or (more likely then) estrangement, children more often stayed with the father because it was difficult for a woman to support a family. i do not believe the "kids go with mom" meme became dominant until the mid 20th century.
Frankly, the easiest explanation was that she died in childbirth. It was an extremely common phenomenon. Men would marry over and over, having children and burying many of them and lots of wives. Medicine and hygiene was in its infancy. Death by childbirth was so common that Twain probably felt now need to mention it. In fact, Tom Sawyer lived with his Aunt. Where was his mother? Probably dead in childbirth.
I was not ruminating about the fate of Huck's mother; I assumed she was out of the picture, either through death, or because, Huck's father being the town drunk, he was born out of wedlock.
What I was really wondering was the liklihood in that era of children being raised by a single father, rather than being shipped off (as Tom was) to relatives, to be raised. I found that question particularly interesting in this case, given Pap's inability to properly feed. c;lothe, and educate the child.
"There's only three tempos: slow, medium and fast. When you get between in the cracks, ain't nuthin' happenin'." Ben Webster
It wouldn't have been unheard of for Huck's father to retain custody if that's what he wanted, which clearly it was. Usually children were sent to live with relatives when the mother died, but since they were regarded as little more than property, if the father demanded Huck stay with him, so it had to be.
Back to what happened to Huck's mother...in Tom Sawyer, didn't Huck tell Tom about his parents' constant fighting and how it only stopped when his mother died, or am I remembering it wrong?
