[H] Sean: Chapters 17-19

Chapters 17 through 19 represent a departure from focusing on Huck and Jim’s relationship and put more of a emphasis on Huck’s solo adventures. As the raft was unable to reach Cairo, the story becomes less about Jim’s aspiration of escaping bondage and more about the aspirations of Huck (namely to have adventures and be like Tom Sawyer). Huck’s brief stay with the Grangerfords, while funny, clearly shows Twain’s opinion of the “American Aristocracy.” In the name Huck provides for himself in his phony back-story (George Jackson) presents a hidden dichotomy. In the name George (as in king George III) we have an aristocratic tyrant who attempts to keep the American people subjugated. In the name Jackson (as in Andrew Jackson) we have the first an American war hero an the first “people’s president’ the first president to abandon the aristocratic heirs of colonial America and focus on ideas of popular sovereignty and democracy. How these to entirely opposite ideologies can appear in one name is symbolic of the contradictions twain is attempting to expose in American (and especially Southern) society. The Grangerfords are a family of contradictions: they bring guns to church during a sermon about brotherly love, they treat Huck (a complete stranger) with kindness yet still have over 100 slaves and in order to make their lives meaningful they engage in an aristocratic feud with the Shepardson’s while still trying to pass off as the all American family (Washington paintings, Henry Clay speeches, red and blue eagle table clothe, etc,)

The description of Colonel Grangerford on page 79 continues the slew of contradictions. The Colonel’s description closely parallels that of Huck’s Father which is ironic because Huck’s father got very angry at him for “putting on airs” which is exactly what the colonel is doing. The only difference is that the Colonel is “well born” and Huck’s Father sleeps with pigs.

Other people who put on aristocratic airs are the Duke and the Dauphin. They use their story of royalty in order to gain a position of power on the raft. Their made up back stories of royalty vary greatly of Huck’s made up stories of hardship. This shows Huck as a pragmatist who will only lie to save his life, not take advantage of people.