Huck Finn Post 3

A very notable and important part of Huck’s story is his brief stay with the Grangefords. This is the first time in several chapters that Huck is finally able to settle in and live a fairly normal life. Huck becomes close to many of the Grangeford family, and grows to be good friends with a boy his own age named Buck. The Grangefords have a fairly amusing yet sorrowful family history. They have an ongoing feud with an equally large and wealthy family that lives nearby, the Sheperdsons. According to Buck, their quarrel has been going on for over thirty years. Much killing has occurred between the two families. When Huck asks why their hatred for each other is so intense and long lasting, Buck gives him a ridiculous answer. “What was the trouble about, Buck? – land?” “I reckon maybe – I don’t know.” “Well, who done the shooting? Was it a Grangeford or a Sheperdson?” “Laws, how do I know? It was so long ago.” “Don’t anybody know?” “Oh, yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old people; but they don’t know now what the row was about in the first place” (Twain 110). The two families have been fighting and killing each other for over thirty years, and neither of them can remember why. Even young Buck attempts to shoot a Sheperdson that he and Huck encounter on the road without even attempting a parley. This seemed to be a fairly humorous aspect of Huck’s stay with the Grangefords.

            The Grangefords have a sadder side to their story as well. While living with them, Huck inspects many of the paintings and poems made by a recently deceased daughter named Emmeline. She often wrote sad yet inadvertently humorous ‘tributes’ about people who died on the land surrounding the Grangefords property. She was much loved by the whole family. Towards the end of Huck’s stay, the feud between the two families reaches a crescendo. When a man from the Sheperdson family, Harney Sheperdson, and Sophia Grangeford run off from their families to get married, it draws the two clans into a large gunfight during the pursuit. Many men from both families are killed, tragically including Huck’s good friend Buck. “…then I covered up their faces, and got away as quick as I could. I cried a little when I was covering up Buck’s face, for he was mighty good to me” (Twain 117). Huck’s newly acquired home and family whom he had grown to love and care for was lost to him in one night. In tears, Huck reunites with Jim and the two continue their journey down the river on their repaired raft.

            The Grangefords and Sheperdsons bear a strong resemblance of two other well known feuding families from a story. In both, the two families were brought to the climax of their feud by one member of each family’s love for each other. Their story closely resembles that of Romeo and Juliet. In both tales, the feuding families are powerful, large and wealthy. The two lovers are also helped in their escape by forces outside their families in both stories. In the case of the Grangefords, it is Huck himself who brings Sophia the note that alerts her as to when she needs to meet up with Harney and make their escape. In Romeo and Juliet, the magical faerie creatures of the forest aid Romeo and Juliet in being together. In the endings of both stories, many members of both families are killed. And, amusingly enough, neither the Grangefords and Sheperdsons nor the Montagues and Capulets are quite sure why their respective families are locked in a mortal struggle.

Huck Finn Post 2

                The relationship between Huck and Jim is partly one of father and son, and also one of brother to brother. They are companions in fleeing their old lives, and have been together for many adventures and trials. Jim occasionally plays the role of father to Huck, because he does seem to have a unique sort of wisdom and knowledge. Whenever Huck gets a bad idea into his head and follows through with it, Jim is always the one to tell him the smart thing to do. Huck often looks to him for guidance. However, this goes both ways. Although Jim does have many things that he can teach Huck because he is older and more knowledgeable about many things, Huck has received an education. There are times when Huck seems to abandon the role of son and teach Jim a few things about the world. For instance, although is playing the role of father to Huck, it still falls to Huck to explain to Jim the simple concept of people speaking languages other than English. “Why, Huck, doan’ de French people talk de same way we does?” “No, Jim; you couldn’t understand a word they said – not a single word.” “Well, now, I be ding – busted! How do dat comes” (Twain 83)? This is where the brotherly aspect of their relationship comes in, as they both seem to have things that they can teach each other.

                Huck and Jims’ bond of friendship is tested in the sixteenth chapter of their story when Huck gives some hard though about how wrong he thinks it is for Jim to flee his master, and plan to free more slaves. Huck got it into his head to turn Jim in, and departed their canoe near a town, saying he was going to check if the town was Cairo. Jim offered him some friendly departing words. “Pooty soon I’ll be a-shout’n’ en I’ll say, it’s all on accounts o’ Huck; I’s a free man, en I couldn’t ever been free if it hadn’t been for Huck; Huck done it. Jim won’t ever forgit you, Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now” (Twain 92). After hearing these words of gratitude, Huck gets a sick feeling of guilt and changes his mind, quickly saving Jim soon after from two white men searching for escaped slaves. This part in the book seemed to show that both Huck and Jim could always trust each other, and that their bond of friendship was now too strong to break. The friends face many more trials throughout the story, and stick by each other whenever possible.

Huck Finn Post 1

            Thus far in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck has proven himself to be a rebellious, trusting, and fairly humble boy. Here in the beginning of his story, Huck seems to be somewhat simple minded, because of his poor upbringing by his drunkard of a father and little exposure to how people who live a more settled life behave. Although he instinctually resents the efforts of the Widow Douglas to civilize him and give him an education, he is still appreciative of her taking him in and giving him a home. Huck does seem to have a good sense of right and wrong, but his role model unfortunately is his friend Tom Sawyer, a liar and want-to-be thief. This fact occasionally gets Huck into trouble. Huck has shown himself to be somewhat too trusting, even gullible, because he often believes every word that comes out of the mouth of a notorious liar, Tom Sawyer; even things that seem preposterous or make no sense. “He said there was hundreds of soldiers there, and elephants and treasure, and so on, but we had enemies which he called magicians, and they had turned the whole thing into an infant Sunday school. I said, all right; then the thing for us to do was go for the magicians” (Twain 22).

            One thing that plays a big part in Huck’s life is his strong belief in anything superstitious. He allows these beliefs to effect his behavior, and they often can cause him great alarm. “I got up and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and then I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away. But I hadn’t no confidence. You do that when you’ve lost a horseshoe that you’ve found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn’t ever heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when you’ve killed a spider” (Twain 13). Huck could also be described as somewhat selfish during this period of the story. He always seems to keep his own self interest and enjoyment foremost in his endeavors. Because he has experience at living on his own, Huck is more independent than most boys would be at his age and is quite capable of taking care of himself. This seems to give him some measure of confidence in his thinking, occasionally leading him to believe that he usually has the right of things.