My Twain Essay

In chapters 17 and 18, Huck encounters a lifestyle of recklessness and ill advised actions as he joins the family of the Grangerfords. The Grangerfords are a family in a long lasting feud against a neighbor named the Sheperdsons. Although these families respect each other very much, their hatred for one another leads to many deaths and sorrow amongst the families.

When Twain wrote this book he used the Sheperdson and Grangerford to resemble the feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families during the years of 1871-1891. Like the McCoy and Hatfield families, the Grangerford and Sheperdson families are very proud of themselves and although they hate each other very much, they respect one another greatly. When Buck Grangerford is telling Huck about how his cousin Bud got killed by a Sheperdson, Huck calls the Sheperdons cowards. Buck quickly and strongly disagrees and quotes that the Sheperdsons are anything but cowards. In both families it is frowned upon to perform cowardly acts. When Buck and Huck are hiding in the bushes, Harney Grangerford rides by on his horse and Buck takes a shot at him from the bushes. The shot is so close that it knocks off Harney’s hat and when Buck goes home to tell his family that he almost killed Harney they are ashamed. His dad asks him why he didn’t step in front of Harney and take the shot like a man instead of a coward.

Although the respect is high between both of these families, sometimes the hatred is just so strong that it forces them to commit questionable acts of violence. One Sunday morning, both families held rifles between their legs as the minister preached to the church members about brotherly love. When Harney ran off with Sophia, which was pretty much the worst possible scenario in the eyes of both of the families, rules were not intact anymore and the violence was going to start immediately and rapidly. This action results in a gunfight between Huck, a 19 year old Grangerford, and the Sheperdsons. Buck