Huck Finn Post 3

In Twain’s novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” he uses the Grangerfords to humorously condemn those of a civilized aristocratic society. Huck comes to know the Grangerfords after an accident wherein he meets Buck Grangerford who is similar in age. This family has a ton of land and each member has a personal servant. It soon becomes apparent to Huck that the Grangerfords are feuding with their neighbors, the Shepherdsons. However, despite all the education and money they have it seems what they lack is common sense. This feud in which they are involved has been ongoing for over thirty years and no one knows how or why it even started, but yet the fighting persists which is somewhat ironic as well. Also, Twain humorously states that civilized behavior would involve, “I don’t like that shooting from behind a bush.  Why didn’t you step into the road, my boy (Twain 109)? It is also seen that the Grangerfords are hypocrites and something that the reader is amused by. For example, the Grangerfords were noted to be church goers “The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching-all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness” (Twain 111). How can someone know anything about brotherly love and continue feuding with their neighbor about a reason they don’t even recall?

In addition to humor, Twain also uses the element of sadness in the Grangerfords. Huck comes to know of Emmeline Grangerford through all her unfinished paintings and bad poetry. Huck wonders about her and even prays for her soul. It makes the reader sad to know that there was a loss of such a young child in the family, but one questions if this child was even loved and did anyone even care about her because of such atrocious paintings and poems.“Poor Emmeline made poetry about all the dead people when she was alive, and it didn’t seem right that there warn’t nobody to make some about her now she was gone; so I tried to sweat out a verse or two myself, but I couldn’t seem to make it go somehow” (Twain 106). Huck tries to write a poem about the death of Emmeline but couldn’t. He feels bad that she has written all these poems about people who have already died, and no one has made one about her death. In the Grangerford house, they kept Emmeline’s room in perfect condition. Emmeline is greatly missed by the family and her room is kept this way to keep her memory alive.  This also represents an element of sadness in the story. Also, Buck explains the feud going on between the Grangerford’s and the Shepherdson’s. No one remembers how or why the feud started, but it has led to several deaths. Buck is later killed in a gunfight and this point in the book turns serious and shows what it is like the live in the Grangerford household.

            Not only does the feud represent sadness but it also alludes to Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet.”  The conflict of the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons is similar to the forbidden young love of Romeo and Juliet.  

“O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name; 
And I'll no longer be a Capulet” (2. 2. 37-40).

The Capulet’s and Montague’s in “Romeo and Juliet” and the Shepherdson’s and Grangerford’s both lost site of the origin of their debate. “It started thirty years ago, or som’ers along there. There was trouble ‘bout something, and then a lawsuit to settle it; and the suit went agin one of the men, and so he up and shot the man that won the suit-which he would naturally do, of course. Anybody would” (Twain 110). They blindly fight and kill each other. Family fighting gets in the way of what should be true love without any conflicts. In “Romeo and Juliet” the lovers die, whereas Sophia Grangerford and Harney Shepherdson run off with each other. Great people met a tragic end that was unnecessary because they followed traditional codes of honor. In “Romeo and Juliet” it was seen as romantic chivalry. Twain’s twist in the book was the lovers were the only ones who survived and the families were destroyed.  This was contrary to “Romeo and Juliet.”

Huck Finn Post 2

In one sense the relationship between Jim and Huck can be seen as brotherly. At the beginning of the story they start out just knowing each other as people who inhabit the same property separated by race. However, over time they develop a true friendship or brotherly relationship, as they grow close brought together by certain events. An example of the latter would be the foggy night episode wherein Huck apologizes to Jim for mocking him. Then he risks his life by traveling down the river under bad conditions to catch up with Jim. Also, they look out for each other and offer protection through “white lies” as brothers would do. This is seen when Huck tells the men on the raft that there was no black man with him, “Is your man white or black? I didn’t answer promptly. I tried to, but the words wouldn’t come. I tried for a second or two to brace up and out with it, but I warn’t man enough-hadn’t the spunk of a rabbit. I see I was weakening; so I just give up trying, and up and says:  He’s white” (Twain 93). Besides protecting each other, there is a special trust that the two of them share similar to that seen with brothers. Huck shows this trust when he tells Jim that he will not divulge to anyone about Jim’s running away, “Well, I did. I said I wouldn’t, and I’ll stick to it. Honest injun, I will” (Twain 50).

  On the other hand, the relationship between the two might be labeled as more like that of a father and son at times. For example, Jim describes his feelings toward Huck when he was lost on the river as if he had a broken heart which only a parent could feel under such a circumstance, “When I got all wore out wid work, en wid de callin’ for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos’ broke bekase you wuz los’, en I didn’ k’yer no’ mo’ what become er me en de raf’. En when I wake up en find you back ag’in, all safe en soun’, de tears come, en I could ‘a’ got down on my knees en kiss yo’ foot, I’s so thankful” (Twain 89). Also, Jim is very smart and shows compassion towards Huck by trying to shield him from undue pain and agony as he realizes that the dead man in the house is Pap, “He’s ben shot in da back. I reck’n he’s ben dead two er three days. Come in, Huck, but doan’t look at his face—it’s too gashly” (Twain 57).  It is also seen that when the two of them are on Jackson’s island that Jim is a wealth of information as he tries to disseminate and instill his knowledge upon Huck. Jim tells his stories of being able to predict a rainstorm, “Some young birds come along, flying a yard or two at a time and lighting. Jim said it was a sign it was going to rain. He said it was a sign when young chickens flew that way, and so he reckoned it was the same way when young birds done it. I was going to catch some of them, but Jim wouldn’t let me. He said it was death. He said his father laid mighty sick once, and some of them catched a bird, and his old granny said his father would die, and he did” (Twain 52). He also relates “you mustn’t count the things you are going to cook for dinner, because it would bring bad luck“(Twain 52).  There are no boundaries between the two of them despite their racial differences. Huck appreciates Jim as a father figure, and Jim has a strong desire to protect and educate Huck.

Huck Finn Post 1

            In Mark Twain’s  Adventure of Huckleberry Finn it is seen that Huck is a pivotal character as well as the narrator of the story. Also, Huck tends to be a rebel during the first ten chapter of the book. He is a young boy who wants to rise up against society.  This first impression is exemplified by his being uncomfortable with conformity imposed upon him by Widow Douglas, “She put me in the new clothes again, and I couldn’t do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up” (Twain 11-12).  The same is true with his wanting to smoke and being unable to do the latter. Another example of his rebellion is in choosing to go to hell as opposed to heaven when Miss Watson wanted him to behave, “Don’t gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don’t you try to behave” (Twain 12)?  Huck then told her he wanted to “go to the bad place; all I wanted was a change I couldn’t see no advantage in going where she was going” (Twain 12).  His rebellious nature is also seen when Huck tries to run away from the Widow Douglas, but then returns with the urging of Tom Sawyer. Thus, Huck rebels against society and all who want to “sivilize” him. He would rather live freely and in nature.

            Moreover, Huck was a rationalist. He would use his logic in order to try and solve problems. For example, Huck is not able to believe that the picnic is an Arab army, “But there warn’t no Spaniards and A-rabs, and there warn’t no camels nor no elephants. It warn’t anything but a Sunday-school picnic, and only a primer class at that” (Twain 22). Also, Huck uses logic to figure out that his father isn’t truly dead when he states, “They said he was floating on his back in the water. They took him and buried him on the bank. But I warn’t comfortable long, because I happened to think of something. I knowed mighty well that a drownded man don’t float on his back, but on his face. So I knowed, then, that this warn’t pap, but a woman dressed up in a man’s clothes” (Twain 21). Huck uses his rationale in rejecting religion or prayer in that he sees it as not conferring any personal gain, “I went out in the woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn’t see no advantage about it—except for the other people; so at last I reckoned I wouldn’t worry about it any more, but just let it go” (Twain 20). Despite Huck being young and uneducated, he was in fact brilliant with his ability to rationalize problems.