The Grangerfords
Chapter 17 and 18
By: Geiser, Hardy, Laird, Pentz, Zuraw
Summary
❖ Grangerfords allow Huck in after ensuring he isn’t a Shepherdson
❖ Huck invents “George Jackson” and orphan story
❖ Buck, 14 year old son of Grangerford, befriends Huck
❖ Grangerfords are “beautiful” people with a “beautiful” house
❖ Buck tries to kill Harney Shepherdson, explains family feud
Summary
❖ Families sit in church with guns, “brotherly love”
❖ Sophia Grangerford tells Huck to get her Bible left at church
○ Note falls out, “Half-past two”
❖ Huck’s slave leads him to Jim, hiding in the swamp
○ Jim had followed him but was scared of the Grangerfords
Summary
❖ Next day, Sophia ran off with Harney Shepherdson
❖ Shepherdsons and Grangerfords have a shootout, Buck dies and the
couple gets away safely
❖ Huck is deeply affected by Buck’s death
❖ He leaves down the river with Jim and feels free once again
Lesson
❖ Hatred doesn’t always look scary
○ Grangerfords vs. Shepherdsons
❖ Confused priorities
○ Family honor is their top priority
○ Bucks death is the final straw
❖ “The boys jumped for the river...shooting at them and singing out, ‘Kill
them, kill them!’ It made me so sick” (Twain 117).
Literary Analysis
❖ Figurative Language:
❖ Metaphor:
○ “The neighbors said it was the doctor first, then Emmeline, then the
undertaker- the undertaker never got in ahead of Emmeline but
once, and then she hung fire on a rhyme for the dead person’s
name” (Twain 67)
Literary Analysis:
❖ Diction:
○ “I bet you what you dare I can” (Twain 64)
○ “... full of beautiful stuff and poetry” (Twain 65)
○ “... becuz...” (Twain 71)
○ “She was mighty red in the face for a minute, but her eyes lighted
up, and it made her powerful pretty for a minute” (Twain 71)
Literary Analysis:
❖ Syntax:
○ “She run off in de night some time- nobody don’t know jis’ when; run
off to get married to dat young Harney Shepherdson, you knowleastways, so dey ‘spec.” (Twain 73)
Study Guide
❖ Q: Why does Huck take a new name?
○ A: Protect Identity
❖ Q: What is the significance of the remark that Buck will get enough of the
battle “in all good time”?
○ A: Foreshadows his death in the following chapter
❖ Q: Why does Twain describe with such detail the physical setting of the
Grangerford home?
Study Guide
❖ Q: Chapter 18 begins with the comment, “Col. Grangerford was a
gentleman, you see.” What does Twain wish the reader to see?
○ A: He is a role model, yet he has sinned
❖ Q: What is the irony of the sermon?
○ A: The sermon at church talks about brotherly love.
Study Guide
❖ Q: Who are the only members of the feuding families specifically
mentioned as saved from the massacre?
○ A: Harney Shepherdson and Sophia Grangerford
❖ Q: Why does Huck say that there is “no home like a raft”?
○ A: Huck and Jim don’t have to conform to society