The Grangerford-Sheperdson feud

There were a few interesting topics meriting discussion through chapters 18-22 of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but the one weighing most heavily on my mind is Twain's depiction of the Grangerford-Sheperdson feud. It's interesting in itself, but the reason I was particularly intrigued by it is because I saw the History channel's Hatfields and McCoys miniseries last year.

I did a little quick research to verify that Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was originally published during the Hatfield-McCoy feud, and since it's well known that Twain wrote the novel over the course of several years, he would have been writing during the height of the feud. It's probably safe to assume he was aware of the feud, and given the uncanny similarity between the Hatfield-McCoy feud and Twain's Grangerford-Sheperdson feud, it may be fair to guess that the parallels are deliberate.

Hatfields and McCoys was one of the most emotionally-moving experiences I've had, because of the sheer senselessness of the violence, and it certainly made Twain's depictions more vivid in my mind. It also made me try harder to find some sense in the feud--to this end, I was unsuccessful, and I'm doubtful that anyone could.

By bringing religion into the equation, Twain makes the senselessness of family feuds apparent in a way that the secular Hatfields and McCoys miniseries chose not to. Starting on page 171 and continuing onto page 172, Huck recounts his experience attending church with the Grangerfords. He notes that all the men brought guns with them and kept them within reach as they listened to the sermon about brotherly love, painting a ludicrous picture that tells us one of two things about the Grangerfords and Sheperdsons. They are either incredibly hipocritical and unapologetic liars, as they listen to and regurgitate biblical messages without really comprehending or believing them, or the feud had become so ingrained in their lives that they truly couldn't even see what's wrong with it. Considering members of both sides were unrepetant about hunting young children (by our standards, if not their contemporaries') it seems more likely that it's the latter. And when a gunfight in a church starts to sound like a viable option, there's something fundamentally wrong taking place. How does discontentment with the result of a lawsuit lead to such an outcome?

More on this later, perhaps.