When Huck and Jim are seperated in a raft incident, Huck ends up staying with the Grangerfords. A different and unique family that is feuding with Shepherdsons. Huck stay with them is quite interesting compared to anything else he has done. When it comes to the Grangerfords, Twain isn't very subtle at all the different elements he uses when describing Huck's stay with them. The different types of humor, allusion and saddness were clearly shown in this part of Huck's adventure.
Saddness was used by Twain in an interesting way during this part of the story. When we start to get to know the family of the Grangerfords, one of the first people mentioned in the family was Emmeline. Emmeline was fourteen when she died of a disease and long before Huck even met the family. Her love for the arts and death is hard to go unnoticed though. Her paintings of melancholy scenes, somber poems and collection of obituaries creates a more depressing and saddening scene for the readers. Then later in the story, Buck dies during a battle between the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, Huck saddness because of the loss of his friend is present. Showing a hard life that Huck has and how he is saddened by the loss of his new friend. "I cried a little when I covered up Buck's face, for he was a mighty good friend to me" (Twain, 117). Huck's encounter with the Grangerfords has given him a different experience on his adventure. Giving Huck a expierence with saddness and the feeling of loss and he runs away with Jim.
When it comes to the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, it gives the allusion of the feud in the famous British play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. The constant battle and anger towards one another is constantly brought up by the Grangerfords. Their feud that happened years ago and no one really knows why it even started. "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 love between a Grangerford's daughter and Shepherdson's son is powerful enough for them to run away together. It feels very similar to the tradgic story of Romeo and Juliet and their constantly feuding family. This gives the sense of allusion when Huck goes to visit the Grangerfords and lives with them.
Then their was humor. Humor is used when it comes Huck talking about the Grangerford's way of living. How different they are when it comes to living their lives and the different decorations thoughout the house were compared to what he was accustomed to. When he sees the melancholy scenes that Emmeline painted, he didn't see the beauty or reasoning behind the art work. " These was nice pieces, I reckon, but I didn't somehow seem to take to them, beecause if ever I was down a little they always give the fantods" (Twain, 104). Twain was making fun of the unique and depressing way of thinking and the wierd love of death Emmeline has. Later they go to discusss the feud that the families are undergoing. Twain was making fun of how the family was in a feud with the Shepherdsons and they had no idea why. Humore was used throught the scene to show how different and wierd the Grangerfords way of living was. How some of the things they did were really different and kinda crazy. To show how some of the things people do just seem stupid to others. Humor played a major role in this part of Huck's adventure.
Twain used humor, saddness and allusion to get some points across during the story and to give Huck's adventure a little twist when he goes to visit the Grangerfords. Hucks adventure to their home has created a diifferent feeling to the story by the different elements Twain used. Making them crucial to this part of the story.
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