This is frustrating.
I don’t know where the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons fit in here.
They’re just this almost random experience of pain for Huck and they just disappear once they’re done. I know they’re in there for satire but they have to function in the novel as a whole, right? It feels sort of like Twain just put that in there without regard for the wider plot of the novel.
Then again, that is sort of the function of the novel in general. He does say in the beginning that there’s no plot or themes or whatnot. Is that just kind of an excuse, a sort of cop-out so he can put whatever he wants in there to make it more about the criticism of society as a whole than the story itself? Or is it more like an invocation to the muse before the beginning of this epic journey? Is Twain intentionally modelling this off ancient myths? Because it’s almost a perfect example and I can’t tell if he’s trying to say “hey look Huck = Odysseus” or if he’s just like “whatever, society is awful, here’s a novel quietly telling you why.”
