Huck has seen plenty of death in a few short chapters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In Chapter 18, he sees his friend Buck die in the bloody shoot out during the family feud between the Shepardsons and the Grangerfords, and just a few short chapters later, he sees the unnecessary killing of Boggs in Chapter 21. Both deaths were on account of pride and honor, something Twain feels isn’t reason enough to kill...
Huck has seen plenty of death in a few short chapters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In Chapter 18, he sees his friend Buck die in the bloody shoot out during the family feud between the Shepardsons and the Grangerfords, and just a few short chapters later, he sees the unnecessary killing of Boggs in Chapter 21. Both deaths were on account of pride and honor, something Twain feels isn’t reason enough to kill someone. Through Huck and these two episodes, Twain shares this message.
In many ways, Huck might also see his own father, Pap, in Boggs. Like Pap, Boggs is the town drunk, and for some reason, Boggs has gotten on the bad side of the rich and powerful, Colonel Sherburn. When Boggs insults Sherburn, the Colonel tells him to get out of town, or he will shoot him. Boggs doesn’t heed the warning although he is starting to sober up and is attempting to get out of town when Sherburn steps out and shoots him in cold blood.
Just like Buck, Boggs is harmless and didn’t deserve to die because of a person’s misguided pride and honor. These two episodes affect Huck’s understanding of the cruel, inhumane world in which he lives. Throughout the novel, Huck must deal with violence and cruelty in not only the treatment of the slave, Jim, but also with the needless deaths he witnesses.
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