Huck's Father

Huck's father came as an interesting character to me as in how he handled life as an alcoholic. I was always curious about what side was he really on deep down, was he a true drunkard to the core, or was there an actual good man but with too many mistakes? For me personally I could justify someone that had a good heart but maybe just got too much into drinking and then could not get back out of it, as creatures of habit that we are, he simply allowed it to become a lifestyle. Although the legal issue with the new judge thinking that "Pap" was a new man after all of the things he told him he could/would change, and yet turns straight around and drinks again. what do you think? Is he a good man with bad choices? Or simply the old drunk that everyone else knows him to be?