Kakos' 6th Hour

Reactions and comments from my sixth hour Honors American Literature class.

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Monday, February 26, 2007

Logan's Post: A Little R & J

Hey Ms. Kakos, Logan here. Just emailing you what our group wants posted as a blog prompt for the chapter 17-18 activity.

At the end of Chapter 18, Buck describes a particular family feud. The drama that follows bears a striking resemblance to the story of Romeo and Juliet.

"Two households, both alike in dignity...From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.From forth the fatal loins of these two foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whole misadventured piteous overthrowsDo with their death bury their parents' strife..."
-Prologue to Romeo and Juliet

"... a feud is this way. A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man's brother kills him; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in - and by-and-by everybody's killed off, and there ain't no more feud..."
-Buck (page 119)

What similarities or differences do you see between Romeo and Juliet and the family feud in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

What was Twain's purpose, if any, for using such a similar plot? Or what was his purpose for changing what he didn't keep the same?

3 Comments:

Blogger ChristineT said...

The similarity between the two shows that marriage between two feuding families can lead to quarrel and disaster. I think Twain is using this as a metaphor for racism in this era. It was frowned upon when people of different color skins were together, and Twain displays this through the feud.

11:39 AM  
Blogger Alexaaaaa said...

One of the things that caught my attention about these two is that in Huckleberry Finn, the Grangerfords insisted that the Shepherdsons were incredibly courageous, while in Romeo and Juliet, each side made the other out to be worth less than dirt. Twain probably did this to show how southern whites justified their enslavement of blacks. The Grangerfords disagreed with the Shepherdsons violently, but they were still white, and so had to have good qualities about them somewhere, because, according to them, blacks had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

1:20 PM  
Blogger Ally_N said...

There are so many similarities and differences in Romeo and Juliet and Huckleberry Finn such as the these two quotes. The passage from Romeo and Juliet and Huck Finn describe how violence (hate, racism) is basically hereditary or a snowball effect. Another point these two quotes bring up is that the Capulets and the Montagues hated each other because of a name and feud, same with the family feud in Huck Finn, and I think this relates to Huck Finn in another way. During the time period Huck was living in racism was an everyday topic and Romeo and Juliet can relate to this hate because the two feuding families hated each other for an ancient feud and a name while the people like Jim was a subject of racism or hate because of his skin color. Overall, these reasons were considered reasons but in reality they were excuses and these excuses were present in both these novels(play).

8:17 PM  

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