Relations of Huck Finn and Romeo and Juliet

          Shakespeare and Twain are two of the most iconic writers in history and between their stories there are many parallels.  In the Seventeenth chapter Huck arrives at a gorgeous plantation that takes his breathe away, here he meets some of the most absurd people in american literature. In each book you find a variety of themes humor, sadness, and allusion.  In Romeo and Juilet the characters enjoy light hearted jousting and exchange playful jibes with each other.  For instince mercutio would often poke fun at romeo singing songs and poems to taunt him.  The Grangerfords tease each other in a simalar manner.  For instince  when Buck  says "Well...if they'd a ben some, I reckon I'd a got one."They all laughed, and Bob says: "Why, Buck, they might have scalped us all, you've been so slow in coming."" (Twain) Bob replys with a playful comeback showing the jousting side of the family akin to that seen in romeo and his family of friends.  They all tease each other as a way of showing affection and in both it can cause friction on occasion.   Here Bob is implying that the family would have died while waiting for Bucks slow self to come and save them,  much in the same manner Mercutio often teases Romeo in the sunlit streets of Verona.
            Both stories hold great elements of tragedy within them as well.  In Romeo and Juliet the two centers of the play streek across the stage as the perfect pair of 'star crossed lovers' a great romance seperated by a family feud.  Much is the same for Sophia Grangerford.  She has fallen for a boy in the Sheperson household, " She was beautiful.  So was her sister, Miss Sophia, but it was a different kind. She was gentle and sweet like a dove, and she was only twenty." (Twain) .  Here Huck admires the soft,sweet beauty of Sophia, who greatly mirrors the character Juliet for both were young, beautiful sweet girls, and both girls tales end in tragedy.  The act of Sophia running away rekindles the feud between the families and as it did in romeo and juiliet it ends with tears and death.  At the end of  the chapter we see Huck crying as he bends over the face of his dead friend.   Then much like Romeo Huck flees back to the woods with Jim, to the raft, tears staining his face.
          Both characters are often used as allusions to the themes, morals, and warnings their stories represent.  In Romeo and Juliet we see much the same warnings as we do in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Two young people in love separated by the ignorance of families who merely hate each other to have someone to hate.  They show us that jousting can be in good fun until someone is hurt, a lesson both households were forced to learn.  Romeo and Juliet are used as illusions to tragedy and love and the dangers of ignorance.  These such allusions are seen in the Grangerford home, as well as a scene of irony from Emelines obsession with the desceesed, a girl who is herself dead.  Both stories are a popular choice to use for illusion for many authors signifying all that each stories portray.  Romeo and Juliet, an infamous tragedy shares many elements with the Mark Twains Grangerfords who themselves in turn become members of a tragic tale.

Huck Finn Blog Post II

Huck and Jim's relationship is quite possibly unique in literature.  Jim and Huck obviously care for each other and have bonded over the time they have spent sharing stories and avoiding getting caught as they spend more time together their relationship becomes more prominent.  Huck and Jim will go to certain extents as they try and protect the other.  As can only be expected of two boys alone on a raft, they begin to tell stories to one another, Huck "read  considerable to Jim about kings and dukes, and earls and such (Twain 113) , entrancing Jim with these far away tales.  Jim and Huck open up to each other for they are, for the moment, all each other has.  What begins with stories slowly develops as the story goes on, with each protecting the other on occasion though they don't always realize this, especially Huck. Their relationship is not as one might call picture perfect though, for Huck is still a white boy growing up in the south and still has a racist mentality.  Huck does think highly of Jim but Jim will forever only be 'smart for a black man' even though they are friends. You see this when Huck says things such as "I see it warn’t no use wasting words — you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit. (Twain 113) .  Here we see how Hucks perception of Jim is coloured through his racsist veiws. While he still veiws him as a friend he is still, and will always be a black man to Huck.  This fact is an invisable barrier between the two, for as close as they get that distinction will always be there between the boys.  Huck and Jim are indeed close but they are still subject to traditional southern views and values.

First Huck Finn blog post

Huckleberry Finn is a resilient individual, one with an intriguing concept of trust.  Huck has extremely little faith in the social or justice system to guide him through, in fact when his father is granted custody Huck is not surprised and simply moves forward.  Huck does trust adults.  We see this with Judge Thatcher and with the Widow, two people with whom Huck should bond for their efforts in  saving him from his father, alas Huck does not recognize their efforts and finds them stifling.  People his own age are a different matter entirely, for instince the character of Tom Sawyer.  Huck would follow Tom to the end of the Earth, and beyond we see as Tom ponders were he'll end up after his life. "Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn't think much of it. But I never said so. I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together." (Twain) Huck listens as the widow preaches to him about heaven and its simplistic beauty, all the while Huck ponders the likely hood of he himself being allowed inside of those 'precious pearly gates' the widow describes.  Comeing to the conclusion that such a fate is not likely he asks if Tom would go to such a place and the widow states that Tom has another destination in store for him and Huck is happy because that means that they will be together.  Huck does not think that he would rather not be with Tom but know that he is safe in heaven,  he does not think beyond them being together because that for Huck is all that is important.  Perhaps the reason for this coensides with Hucks inibility to see love from the widow comeing from the 'love' Hucks father has shown him. In the first ten chapters of Huckleberry Finn we see that Huck is a tough tooth and nails character and perhaps he will find that he doesnt always need to be looking for the next blow.