Huck Finn Post #3

During Huck Finn's adventures, he temporarily becomes separated from Jim. He finds himself at gunpoint by men questioning if he was a Shepherdson. After failing a riddle produced by a boy named Buck, they decide that he is harmless and invite Huck to live with them. Huck learns that the family that he is staying with, the Grangerfords have had an enmity with the Shepherdson family for decades. When he asks what the feud was over, they replied, "Laws, how do I know? It was so long ago" (Twain 151). Huck further questioned if anyone knew and Buck replied, "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 151). This quote shows the humor in the situation. These families are killing each other off for a cause they do not know off. Common sense is thrown away resulting in the families fighting.

A sense of sadness also comes through in the story. Huck is hiding up in the trees to avoid the gun fight occurring below him. When he climbs down, he comes across a situation which he describes as "When I got down out of the tree I crept along down the riverbank on a piece, and found the two bodies laying in the edge of the water, and tugged at them till I got them ashore; 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 161). At such a young age, Huck as come across a lot of death. Buck was a person who Huck truly knew well and liked. Even though Huck is perceived to be strong, he couldn't help but cry at the death of his friend.

Mark Twain creates an allusion to the play Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet revolves around the love story of two people who's families have had a row for years. Similarly, the Shepherdsons' and Grangerfords' also share a connection which they both do not know off. Sophia Grangerford and Harney Shephardson both liked each other, but had to hide the affair from their families. Huck wakes up one morning and notices that Buck is not in the room. He discovers that Sophia and Harney have ran away. He asks someone what happened and receives the reply, "Well, den, 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 -- leastways, so dey 'spec" (Twain 158). Both couples had to take the drastic decision of running away. The families in the book and play both suffered tragedies when their children got involved in the battle. Although one set of lover's stories ended tragically, Sophia and Harvey managed to run away.