father. She was beautiful"(117). Huck does notthink negatively of the hints of iron in the people he is happy to care for and let care for him. He does not ask how three of the Colonel's sons died, or why the family brings guns to family picnics. He sees these as small facets of a family with "ahandsome lot of quality"(118). He thinks no more about Jim or the raft, but knows he has found a new home, one where he doesn't have to go to school, is surrounded by interior and exterior beauty, and most importantly, where he feels safe. Huck"liked that family, dead ones and all, and warn't going to let anything come between us"(118). Huck is a very personable narrator. He tells his story in plain language, whether describing the Grangerford's clock or his hunting expedition with Buck. Itis through his precise, trusting eyes that the reader sees the world of the novel. Because Huck is so literal, and does not exaggerate experiences like Jim or see a grand, false version of reality like Tom Sawyer, the reader gains an understanding ofthe world Mark Twain created, the reader is able to catch Twain's jokes and hear his skepticism. The Grangerford's furniture, much admired by Huck, is actually comically tacky. You can almost hear Mark Twain laughing over the parrot-flanked clockand the curtains with cows and castles painted on them even as Huck oohs and ahhs. And Twain pokes fun at the young dead daughter Huck is so drawn to. Twain mocks Emmeline as an amateur writer: "She warn't particular, she could write about anything you choose to give her to write about, just so it was sadful"(114). Yet, Twain allows the images of Emmeline and the silly clock to deepen in meaning as the chapter progresses. Emmeline is realized as an early portent of the destruction of Huck's adopted family. The mantel clock was admired by Huck not only for its beauty, but because the Grangerfords properly valued beauty and "wouldn't took any money for her"(111). Huck admired...
