Blog Post 3- The Grangerfords

Mark Twain seemed to have taken some author’s liberty upon writing the chapters about the Grangerfords.  This selection is humorous, however unnecessary to the novel.  Twain seems to have added this part for the enjoyment of the readers, and add to the satire he already created within the novel.  The Grangerford family’s humor is found where their daughter, Emmeline writes her poems about the deceased.  Sadness is found where the redundant feud leads to the death of Huck’s new friends.  An underlying allusion is found in the Grangerford family.  Twain related this family to the play Romeo and Juliet, where in both, incessant fighting leads to unnecessary deaths.  The Grangerford family has elements of humor, sadness, and an allusion to the play Romeo and Juliet.

        The Humor in the Grangerford family is found through their daughter Emmeline.  Through her works of poetry, she brings about that element that makes this selection of the book funnier to the reader.  Her poetry about the dead is unintentionally humorous, which almost seems to make her character even funnier.  Despite the upbeat, kind personalities found elsewhere in the family, Emmeline Grangerford is uncharacteristically morbid.  The rest of the family seems to not blink twice at her unusual personality, but misses her dearly.  Her skill at creating poems within minutes was known throughout the town.  Her obsession with the dead made her a stock character in the family, and even her death was related, “ The neighbors said it was the doctor first, Emmeline second, and then the undertaker- the undertaker never got in ahead of Emmeline but once, and then she hung fire on a rhyme for the dead person’s name which was Whistler.  She warn’t ever the same after that; she never complained, but she kinder pined away and did not live long” (Twain, 105).  The humor is created in the ridiculous fact that this young girl who was passionate about her poems about the dead essentially died due to her inability to create and rhyme to the name “Whistler”.  Humor is found in the Grangerford family through the morbid daughter Emmeline.

Sadness is another element that is found in the Grangerford family.  The constant fighting led to unending tension between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons.  Children from both families were raised to despise the other, and they didn’t even know what they were fighting about after so long.  It was sad how they kept killing each other’s family members, even as young as fourteen years old.  Huck’s new friend, Buck, was eventually killed by the families fighting.  Huck felt sad as he was leaving, and felt almost guilty.  “I cried a little when I was covering up Buck’s face, for he was mighty good to me” (Twain, 117).  A sad part in this family is that they didn’t even realize how their fighting was hurting their families.  They lost many family members to their feud, and eventually led to the death of most family members.  The element of sadness is brought through the Grangerfords by their feud with the Shepherdsons.

Twain created and underlying allusion in the Grangerford’s family.  The allusion is to the famous Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet.  The feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons resembles the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues.  The forbidden romance between Sophia Grangerford and Harney Shepherdson is exactly like between Romeo and Juliet.  When Sophia and Harney decide to run away, it ends in a battle between the families, much like the play.  Their love is a scandal between the families, and makes their hatred toward each other even stronger.  “…Miss Sophia’s run off! Deed she has.  She run off in de night some time- nobody don’t know jis’ when;  run off to get married to dat young Harney Shepherdson you know” (Twain, 114).  This quote shows how similar the Grangerford’s situation is to the families in Romeo in Juliet. 

The Grangerford family has elements of humor, sadness, and allusion.  The humor comes about unintentionally in their daughter Emmeline’s  morbid poetry.  She wrote poems about the dead and essentially died when she couldn’t find a rhyme to a person’s name.  The sadness occurs due to the fighting.  The fighting caused many deaths, and it seemed to be never-ending.  The allusion occurs where Sophia and Harney run away to get married.  This is an allusion to Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare.  All these elements come together to define the Grangerford family.

Jim and Huck- Blog Post 2

     Having not grown up in a home with a supportive family, Huck seems to have attached himself to Jim as an alternative family member.  Likewise, Jim seems to have a protective presence over Huck, much as a father would.  This relationship began to build once Huck and Jim both met on the Island, and their father-son-type bond seems to be strengthening as the chapters go on.  Huck's devotion to Jim is apparent when Huck goes ashore to find out what the word about his death was.  When he was informed that townspeople suspected Jim, his reaction was, "I had got so uneasy I couldn't set still.  I had to do something with my hands; so I took up a needle of the table and went to threading it.  My hands shook, and I was making a bad job of it" (Twain 64).  Huck's loyalty to Jim is expressed through the nervousness he felt when he realized that Jim could be in potential danger.  Huck looks to Jim as a fatherly figure, trusting him, and finding comfort in his presence.
     Jim and Huck share a mutual dependence and loyalty to one another.  Through the chapters, they seem to be getting closer.  Their parallel situations have brought them together and created the father-son bond that they feel. When Huck loses sight of the raft in the fog while he is on the canoe, they both go into a panic.  Jim later tells Huck how he was feeling while they were separated, "When I got all wore out with work, en wid de callin' for you, en went to sleep, my heart was mos' broke bekase you wuz los', en I didn' kyer no' mo' what become er me en de raf'" (Twain 89).  Jim's previous desperation  is apparent when he tells Huck exactly how he was feeling.  Much as a father would feel about a son, Jim felt that he would not be able to go on without Huck if he were to be lost or had drowned.  The father-son relationship has been built upon the adventures Huck and Jim have spent together. Their relationship will most likely only be stronger as the book progresses.

Impression of Huck- Blog Post 1

     Judging by the first ten chapters of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Huck seems to be a very superstitious character.  Multiple times throughout the first few chapters, he reacted to situations as a sign of some sort.  In addition, although he believes wholeheartedly in the superstition, Huck doesn't seem to comprehend the religion being taught to him.  Huck is well-informed about the common superstitions, and often seems to create his own, "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 threat to keep witches away.  But I hadn't no confidence." (Twain, 13)  Huck describes his action after killing a spider, and even after performing his superstitious actions, he felt that he didn't even know that they would help.  Huck's superstition seems to guide many of his actions and seems to be a big part of his life.
      In addition to being superstitious, Huckleberry Finn seems to be resourceful, despite his apparent immaturity.   My impression is that Huck learned to fend for himself throughout his childhood that lacked a traditional family setting.  After Huck runs away from his father, he is living in the woods, and seems to be able to provide for his own needs during the time period he is spending there.  Huck seems to believe that his decision to live in the woods is an adventure rather than an escape. He seems to know how to pull together what he brought with him to help him live sufficiently, and how to avoid the people looking for him, for example, "... I got all my traps into my canoe again so as to have them out of sight, and I put out the fire and scattered the ashes around to look like an old last-year's camp, and then clumb a tree."  (Twain, 47)  These observations allowed me to get an impression on Huck's abilities and personality.