The ironic thing about Buck's confession to Huck as to how
the long-standing feud between the Grangefords and the Shepersons began is that he does
not even know how it all started.
This irony is also a very
funny part of the drama in chapter 18:
"What was the trouble about, Buck? --
land?"
"I reckon maybe -- I don't
know."
"Well, who done the shooting? Was it a
Granger-
ford or a Shepherdson?"
"Laws, how do I
know? It was so long
ago."
Buck was very good at
explaining to Huckleberry how the two families have been at each other's throats for
generations. He explains with great pride to Huck that a feud of this nature involves
murdering each other's family members until everyone basically kills each other
off...and then the feud is over.
Huck was curious to know
what was the deal between the two families because their feud was a particularly bloddy
and fresh one. The families would even carry their guns to the church services that they
attended in order to keep an eye on each other. What we see in the behaviors of the two
families is that they portray the ridiculous views on family honor that many families
had for many generations in the smaller Southern towns of the US where one family wanted
to keep control over the village, and another family would challenge
them.
However, in an ironic and comical twist, Twain shows
the ignorance of both families by noting how Buck, a member of the younger and most
recent generations, does not even have a clue about how it all began. This basically
means that Buck is fighting for a cause that is completely unknown to him and that the
only reason why he is involved in it is because the rest of his family, and their
ancestors, have all been involved in it- perhaps they didn't even know why
either!
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