Who Is Col Grangerfords In Huck Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn puts the reader in the perspective of a young boy growing up during the time of slavery. Written after the civil war had been fought, the novel was more of a reflective piece on the civil war and the time after than anything else. Throughout the novel the protagonist Huck goes through Southern America and meets various people who represent certain aspects of America. Through the meeting of these people Mark Twain uses responsibility or lack there of to illustrate that a society that’s unaccountable will also lose the ability to develop.

This can be seen developing when contrasting the two Colonel’s in the book, Col. Grangerford and Col. Sherburn respectively. Huck first meets the Grangerfords in chapter 17

First, “Col. Grangerford was a gentleman, you see. He was a gentleman all over; and so was his family.”(105), and Huck liked how the family portrayed themselves, “It was a handsome lot of quality, I tell you.”(107). What makes this character relevant is when it is revealed that the Grangerfords are in a feud with another family. The feud has taken multiple lives on both sides and, “Oh, yes pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old folks; but they don’t know, now, what the row was about in the first place.”(109). This is problematic because neither side is accepting responsibility for the others actions. One person from a family didn’t like the decision that was made and instead of being responsible they chose to take matters into their own hands and then the cycle continued. These families can never develop past this point because no one can break the cycle. But the most troubling aspect is that the Col. is portrayed as a gentleman and put in an admirable light, if this is what society envies than society is doomed to suffer the same fate which occurs to these two families which is destruction. Huck does recognize that this is wrong, “It

Pap is seen as irresponsible and unaccountable from the very beginning. He’s abusive and leaves Huck to fend for himself until he comes back demanding money. “I heard about it away down the river, too. That’s why I come. You git me that money tomorrow--I want it.”(20). Pap cannot provide for himself and his actions he doesn’t only exploit Huck. “Pap always said it warn’t no harm to borrow thigns, if you was meaning to pay them back, sometime;”(65). Here he demonstrates how it’s easier to let others carry the burden of his own actions, while he says he may mean to pay them back eventually, this is just another delaying tactic meant to get away from responsibility. This never changes throughout the book, while he may pretend to develop he never truly is able to. “The judge he felt kind of sore. He said he reckoned a body could reform the ole man with a shot-gun, maybe, but he didn’t know no other way.”(22), like Boggs he cannot hold himself accountable, so it is up to society to do it for him. Eventually this does happen as he is killed and can no longer do more damage to anyone around him. Unfortunately the damage he has done is still prevalent especially in Huck. “If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them have their own way”(126) . Huck has already learned from his Pap and society as a whole on how to deal with people like Pap