Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

Characters: Huckleberry Finn – The protagonist and narrator of the novel. Huck is the thirteen-year-old son of the local drunk of St. Petersburg, Missouri, a town on the Mississippi River. Tom Sawyer – Huck’s friend. Tom serves as a foil to Huck: imaginative, dominating, and given to wild plans taken from the plots of adventure novels, Tom is everything that Huck is not. Widow Douglas and Miss Watson – Two wealthy sisters who live together in a large house in St. Petersburg and who adopt Huck. Jim – One of Miss Watson’s household slaves. Jim is superstitious and occasionally sentimental, but he is also intelligent, practical, and ultimately more of an adult than anyone else in the novel. Pap – Huck’s father, the town drunk and ne’er-do-well. Pap is a wreck when he appears at the beginning of the novel, with disgusting, ghostlike white skin and tattered clothes. Plot: The story is all about a young boy named Huck, and a slave named Jim. Huck had faked his death and left town and then met the runaway slave,Jim.The two of them travel on a raft up the Mississippi river and meet and have to overcome many obstacles which bring them closer together as they both learn lessons all the way through to the end. Conflict: When Huck’s dealings with Jim, as Huck must decide whether to turn Jim in, as society demands, or to protect and help his friend instead. Climax: When Huck considers but then decides against writing Miss Watson to tell her the Phelps family is holding Jim, following his conscience rather than the prevailing morality of the day. Instead, Tom and Huck try to free  Jim, and Tom is shot in the leg during the attempt. Denouement: When Aunt Polly arrives at the Phelps farm and correctly identifies Tom and Huck, Tom reveals that Miss Watson died two months earlier and freed Jim in her will.  Ending: When Jim is free, Tom’s leg is healed, Huck still has his $6,000, and Aunt Sally has offered to adopt him. Lesson learned: I learned that I learned that we should never judge people by their appearances. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn touches upon controversial racial issues that many people believe are not appropriate for young children. Understanding the novel’s satirical aspects requires a certain amount of intellectual maturity. Students below this level of aptitude may misconstrue the novel’s vulgar comments as racist, rather than an ironic portrayal of slavery. Some people feel that the elementary and secondary school students that read the book will only recognize the prominent issues of the novel and will overlook Mark Twain’s depiction that slavery is morally wrong. It is a fallacy that junior high students would be blind to Twain’s underlying references. The renowned literary work should be used as a way to educate students about the cruelty that occurred in our nation’s past. Confronting these deep racial issues could enlighten students and ease existing race relations. Huckleberry Finn should be read in schools prior to high school to familiarize students with important social issues. Those that oppose Huckleberry Finn’s presence in elementary and secondary school curricula claim that its advanced material is not suitable for children of those ages. At this point, they argue, students have not matured enough to form their own views and are susceptible to negative influences. Reading Huckleberry Finn would expose students to acts of prejudice and belittlement of the black population. For example, the repeated use of the word â€Å"nigger† is disrespectful and students should not hear it used so frivolously. This word not only has a negative connotation, but it is a reminder of the inequality that once existed and alienates blacks. Furthermore, Jim, the black protagonist of the novel, is ridiculed and reduced to less than human by the novel’s conclusion. Jim’s character starts out as an enslaved black man oppressed by the white population. As he and Huck travel down the river, Jim gains confidence and the reader sees his true intelligence and compassion for Huck. Only shortly later, Jim gets drawn into Tom Sawyer’s extravagant plan to â€Å"free† him, where he is once again at the mercy of others’ cruelty. This vicious degradation of a human being far too advanced for young children to comprehend. Black students specifically may find this material embarrassing and discomforting. Young students of other ethnicities may have not yet had experiences that teach them the effects of this chauvinistic mentality and may see this behavior as acceptable. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn uses language that is offensive and contains subject matter that illuminates the separation between races. Twain purposely shares these truths in order to denounce and ironize the entire institution of slavery. The belief that elementary and secondary school students cannot understand Twain’s underlying intentions completely underestimates their mental capacity. Discussing these issues could shape students’ ideas and thwart any preconceived derogatory notions. Leslie Fiedler, an advocate of Huck Finn praises the novel for, â€Å"enabling us finally—without denying our horror and guilt—to laugh therapeutically at the ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery† (Fiedler, 1984, Huckleberry Finn: The Book We Love to Hate, p. 6). He sees the novel as a way to objectively address slavery and free our nation of its lasting burden. In a classroom setting with the help of an instructor, every element of the story would be explained. Teachers are important mentors that can guide each student to an understanding of the evolution and importance of human rights. Descriptive Outline Proposition: Huckleberry Finn should be read in schools prior to high school because it is informative about important social issues. Plan: Present the argument. Take a position. Provide a concession to my position. Confirm my position with specific reasons. Paragraph 1: Says: Huckleberry Finn is a complex novel, yet young children would be able to understand and benefit from reading it in a classroom setting. Does: Sentences 1 introduces the topic. Sentences 2 and 3 further develop the issue. Sentence 4 gives one view of the argument. Sentence 5 disproves the previous sentence. Sentences 6 and 7 support the latter side of the argument. Sentence 8 is the proposition of the essay. Paragraph 2: Says: Elementary and secondary school students will misinterpret the purpose of the racial slurs in Huckleberry Finn. Does: Sentence 1 states the topic of the paragraph. Sentence 2 supports clarifies the preceding sentence. Sentences 3 says the ultimate reason for this position. Sentences 4 and 5 state one reason that backs up this claim. Sentences 6, 7 and 8 state another reason for this claim with specific evidence from the novel. Sentence 9 connects these reasons to the proposition. Sentences 10 and 11 explain further the effects of this side of the argument. Paragraph 3: Says: Students are entirely capable and should read Huckleberry Finn in schools at an age before high school. Does: Sentences 1 and 2 acknowledges the opinion in the former paragraph as a transition into the opposing view point. Sentence 3 challenges the concession in the preceding paragraph. Sentence 4 gives a general reason supporting the first sentence. Sentence 5 is a direct quote from an advocate of Huck Finn that supports the proposition. Sentence 6 explains the quotation. Sentences 7 and 8 state two benefits of adhering to the proposition. Kaila McDonnell Concession Essay Second Draft February 19, 2010 Moral Education through Literature The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn touches upon controversial racial issues that many people believe are not appropriate for young children. Understanding the satirical aspects of the novel require a certain level of intellectual maturity. While the book is read in many elementary and secondary school classrooms, some people feel that these students will only recognize the prominent issues of the novel and will overlook the inherent moral value that Mark Twain wishes to convey. If only the immediate context of the novel is interpreted, the book could be perceived as a sanction of racism. Students should be aware of the cruelty that occurred in our nation’s past. It is a fallacy that students in junior high would be blind to Twain’s underlying references that denounce slavery and discrimination. Confronting these deep racial issues could enlighten students and ease existing race relations. Huckleberry Finn should be read in schools prior to high school because it educates students about important social issues. Those that oppose Huckleberry Finn’s presence in elementary and secondary school curricula claim that the advanced material in the novel is not suitable for children of those ages. At this point, students have not matured enough to form their own views and are susceptible to negative influences. Reading Huckleberry Finn would expose students to acts of prejudice and belittlement of the black population. For example, the repeated use of the word â€Å"nigger† is disrespectful and is not something students should hear used so frivolously. This word not only beholds a negative connotation, but it is representative of blacks’ entire brutal struggle with inequality. Further, Jim, the black protagonist of the novel, is ridiculed and reduced to less than human by the end of the novel. Jim’s character starts out as a typical enslaved black man oppressed by the white population. As he and Huck travel down the river, Jim loses his slave persona as he gains confidence and the reader sees his true intelligence and compassion for Huck. Shortly after, Jim is involved in Tom Sawyer’s extravagant plan to â€Å"free† him, where he is once again at the mercy of others’ cruelty. This vicious degradation of a human being is far too advanced for children of a young age to comprehend. Black students specifically may find this material embarrassing and discomforting. Young students of other races may have not yet had experiences that taught them the effects of this chauvinistic mentality and may see this behavior as acceptable. The belief that students in elementary and secondary schools cannot handle the messages present in Huckleberry Finn is a complete underestimation of their mental capacity. Discussing these issues could shape students’ ideas and thwart any preconceived derogatory notions. Leslie Fiedler, an advocate of Huck Finn praises the novel for, â€Å"enabling us finally—without denying our horror and guilt—to laugh therapeutically at the ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery† (Fiedler, 1984, Huckleberry Finn: The Book We Love to Hate, p. 6). He sees the novel as a way to objectively address slavery and free our nation of its lasting burden. In a classroom setting with the help of an instructor, every element of the story would be explained. Teachers are important mentors with their guidance each student could reach a full understanding of the evolution and importance of human rights. Descriptive Outline PROPOSITION: Huckleberry Finn should be read in schools prior to high school because it is informative about important social issues. PLAN: Present the argument. Take a position. Provide a concession to my position. Confirm my position with specific reasons. PARAGRAPH 1: Says: Huckleberry Finn is a complex novel, yet young children would be able to understand and benefit from reading it in a classroom setting. Does: Sentences 1 and 2 introduce the topic. Sentences 3 and 4 give one view of the argument. Sentence 5 serves as the link to the next idea. Sentences 6 and 7 state the other side of the argument. Sentence 8 is the proposition of the essay. PARAGRAPH 2: Says: Some believe that students are not mature enough at an elementary or secondary school level to see Huckleberry Finn for what it’s worth. Does: Sentence 1 states the topic of the paragraph. Sentence 2 supports clarifies the preceding sentence. Sentences 3 says the ultimate reason for this position. Sentences 4 and 5 state one reason that backs up this claim. Sentences 6, 7 and 8 state another reason for this claim with specific evidence from the novel. Sentence 9 connects these reasons to the proposition. Sentences 10 and 11 explain further the effects of this side of the argument. PARAGRAPH 3: Says: Students are entirely capable and should read Huckleberry Finn in schools at an age before high school. Does: Sentence 1 disproves the concession in the preceding paragraph. Sentence 2 gives a general reason supporting the first sentence. Sentence 3 is a direct quote from an advocate of Huck Finn that supports the proposition. Sentence 4 explains the quotation. Sentences 5 and 6 say exactly why the proposition is true. Kaila McDonnell Concession Essay Draft February 16, 2010 Moral Education through Literature The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn touches upon many racial issues that many people believe is not appropriate for young children. Understanding the satirical aspects of the novel require a certain level of intellectual maturity. While the book is read in many elementary and secondary school classrooms, some people feel that these students will only recognize the prominent issues of the novel and will overlook the inherent subject matter that Mark Twain wishes to convey. If only the immediate context of the novel is interpreted, the book could be perceived as a sanction of racism. However, now over a century since the first emancipation of slaves, the enactment of slavery should not be forgotten. Students should be aware of the cruelty that occurred in our nation’s past. It is a fallacy that students in junior high would be blind to Twain’s underlying references that denounce slavery and discrimination. Confronting these deep racial issues could enlighten students and ease existing race relations. Huckleberry Finn should be read in schools prior to high school because it is informative about important social issues. Those that oppose Huckleberry Finn’s presence in elementary and secondary school curriculums claim that the advanced material in the novel is not suitable for children of those ages. At this point, students have not matured enough to form their own views and are still susceptible to negative influences. Reading Huckleberry Finn would expose students to situations that are prejudice and belittling to the black population; for example, the repeated use of the word â€Å"nigger† in reference to blacks. This word not only beholds a negative connotation, but it is representative of blacks’ entire brutal struggle with inequality. Further, Jim, the symbol of the black community in the novel, is ridiculed and reduced to less than human by the end of the novel. This subject matter is far too advanced for children of a young age to understand its significance. Black students specifically may find this material embarrassing and discomforting, while students of other races may see this chauvinistic behavior as acceptable. The belief that students in elementary and secondary schools cannot handle the messages present in Huckleberry Finn is a complete underestimation of their mental capacity. At a young age, students should not learn to be blind to important issues, such as race relations. Leslie Fiedler, an advocate of Huck Finn says that he would have parents, â€Å"prize Twain’s dangerous and equivocal novel not in spite of its use of that wicked epithet, but for the way in which he manages to ironize it; enabling us finally—without denying our horror and guilt—to laugh therapeutically at the ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery. † Prior to high school is when students are developing their own opinions and need to be guided to proper moral judgment. Huckleberry Finn addresses many relevant moral issues. In a classroom setting with the help of an instructor, every element of the story would be explained and each student could reach a full understanding of the evolution and importance of human rights. Descriptive Outline PROPOSITION: Huckleberry Finn should be read in schools prior to high school because it is informative about important social issues. PLAN: Present the argument. Take a position. Provide a concession to my position. Confirm my position with specific reasons. PARAGRAPH 1: Says: Huckleberry Finn is a complex novel, yet young children would be able to understand and benefit from reading it in a classroom setting. Does: Sentences 1 and 2 introduce the topic. Sentences 3 and 4 give one view of the argument. Sentence 5 serves as the link to the next idea. Sentence 6 states the other side of the argument. Sentences 7 and 8 state and verify the proposition of the essay. PARAGRAPH 2: Says: Some believe that students are not mature enough at an elementary or secondary school level to see Huckleberry Finn for what its worth. Does: Sentence 1 states the topic of the paragraph. Sentence 2 supports clarifies the preceding sentence. Sentences 3, 4 and 5 say why this position is plausible with specific evidence from the novel. Sentences 6 and 7 state the importance and relevance of the prior examples. PARAGRAPH 3: Says: Students are entirely capable and should read Huckleberry Finn in schools at an age before high school. Does: Sentence 1 disproves the concession in the preceding paragraph. Sentence 2 expands upon the first sentence. Sentence 3 is a direct quote from an advocate of Huck Finn that supports the proposition. Sentences 4, 5, and 6 say why in fact the proposition is true. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay Ernest Hemingway probably summed it up best when he said, â€Å"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn† (source). We’re dealing with quite a book here. Published in 1885, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain’s follow-up to the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, carved new territory into the American literary landscape in several ways. As one of the first novels to use a specific region’s vernacular in its narration, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn set a precedent for many other distinctly American works to follow. Some readers didn’t exactly â€Å"get† this new colloquial style, however. Accustomed to the proper prose of Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Emerson, some readers didn’t know what to do with Huck’s particular way of storytelling. Aside from the novel’s new style of writing, Twain’s decision to use thirteen-year-old Huck as the narrator allowed him to include certain content that a more civilized narrator probably would have left out. At first, Twain’s novel was labeled crass by some readers. The book was even banned in schools for its use of the n-word which is ironic, given that the novel is up in arms over slavery. Even today, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn makes â€Å"Banned Books† lists. Look more:  social satire essay Twain’s novel jumped head first into one of the biggest issues of its day: racism. Although the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed over two decades before Huckleberry Finn’s original publication date, African-Americans everywhere were still victims of oppression and racism. They were technically â€Å"free,† but often by name only in Reconstruction-era America. Many southerners were bitter about the outcome of the Civil War. By guiding his characters through several states of the Confederacy, Twain was able to reveal the hypocrisy of many pre-war southern communities. As a southerner himself, Twain had first-hand experiences to draw on, and he was able to walk the fine line between realistic depiction and ironic farce. Not to mention, Twain created the now-iconic character of Jim, a runaway slave who convinces Huck that African-Americans are deserving of freedom, and that equality is a goal for which we all should be fighting. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is now considered to be one of the Great American Novels, mostly due to how it so heartily champions the American ideals of freedom, independence, and rugged individualism. Huck’s dedication to his own moral standards and his bold sense of adventure and self-sufficiency have earned him a place in the All-American Hall of Fame. In addition, Twain is a hilarious storyteller, and the plot of this novel is a roller-coaster ride of moral dilemmas – so trust us when we say that if you haven’t taken the ride yet, you probably should. Why Should I Care? Mark Twain wrote Adventures of Huckleberry Finn twenty years after the American Civil War. Slavery had been abolished, and the North and South were making up (albeit with some residual anger). So why publish a highly moralistic tale about a system that was no longer in place? Weren’t race issues a moot point once slavery was out of the picture? Hardly. Freedom didn’t mean equality by any means – not legally, socially, or practically. (See Shmoop History’s â€Å"Jim Crow in America† for more.) Actually, come to think of it, this isn’t an outdated notion at all. Rules and laws often don’t accurately reflect what’s really going on. From a legal standpoint today, we have equality of race; yet racism is still a problem. Men and women are equal, yet many still see a â€Å"glass ceiling† for women in the workplace, meaning they often have invisible boundaries to advancement. That doesn’t mean laws are useless. Laws may not immediately effect change, but we’ve seen that they do precede change. While laws can affect how people act, it takes more to change the way we think. We can’t rely on laws alone. That’s where The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn comes back into the picture. We need people like Mark Twain to remind us not to be self-congratulatory for starting a process in motion, but instead to realize that greater change is always necessary. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay What Huck finally realizes is that life’s questions should be answered from the heart. He also decides that humanity has evolved into a corrupt species whose ideas aren’t worth the â€Å"headache†. His answer is to flee society and all of it’s constraints and live in nature where he is free from civilization. Holden has a tougher decision to make since he must completely reverse his thinking. The first step is to realize his hypocrisy which he was able to do. Even though he was able to achieve this, it couldn’t truly solve his problem and he was forced to seek professional help in the end. Fortunately, both characters ultimately progress onto the next step by some means outside the conformity of normality. The Journey towards Maturity and Identity Life itself is a journey full of bonding and experiences which lead to wisdom and understanding. Without maturity one may never have these life teaching experiences. This leads to an empty shell of a person never truly feeling passion, love or peace. In the â€Å"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn† by Mark Twain, Huck Finn is trying to find purpose and identity through his moral battle with society, while Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger is an adolescent struggling to mature into manhood. In comparison they are both on a journey towards maturity and identity. Holden and Huck are similar in their threshold crossing, road of trials, and flee and return. The threshold crossing is the place or the person that the character crosses over or through into the zone unknown, being the place where journey into self discovery begins. Many times the call to their adventure includes going by desire, chance, abduction, or by being lured by an outside force. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is forced with the dilemma of whether to stay with his father and continue to be abused or to leave. Huck leaves because he desires to begin his journey. He also realizes that he will be forced to choose between his morals and his conscience, and will have to decide which of these morals to hold true. Huck also witnesses a symbolic death. He sets up his fathers cabin to look like he was brutally murdered. He emerges from this as a runaway child and now must be careful of what he does so that he does not get caught. He tells people false aliases for himself so that no one knows his true identity. Every time Huck does this, he is symbolically dying and re-emerging a more experienced person. At this point, Huck is now on his way to begin his journey into self discovery. Just like Huck, Holden also crosses over into the zone unknown, but starts his journey in a different way. Holden Caulfield is a very privileged kid. Throughout his life, his parents were able to send him to wealthy private schools hoping he would mature and begin to learn more about his own self. His call to adventure comes because he is mentally torn between experience and innocence. It would seem to him that an outside force is luring him to do something, but in actuality he is beginning his journey because of his desire. It is evident that Holden cares nothing about school and about his own education. He wants to leave so he can begin the journey of self discovery and escape the phoniness that surrounds him. Holden’s symbolic death is very similar to Huck’s. Holden also uses fake names, but he symbolically dies through fainting, changing the position of his red hunting hat, and his association with bathrooms. The bathroom motif, or the reoccurring appearance of the bathroom, symbolizes death for Holden because he enters bathrooms with a neurotic and pragmatic frame of mind and exits with a cleared mind. The symbolic death is what gets Holden and Huck onto their journeys and into the road of trials, where they experience many things that will change them forever. The road of trials is where most of the characters journey takes place. It is on the road of trials that the character begins to experience different obstacles that will change his life forever. For Huck Finn, his learning adventure takes place on the Mississippi River. Huck finds freedom on the river and it is here that he truly learns about himself. However, he still faces problems with moral decisions of right and wrong and helping a runaway slave to achieve freedom. Huck’s companion’s in travelling is Jim. As anti- society that Huck is, you would think that he would have no qualms about helping Jim. However Huck has to have feelings that slavery is correct so we can see the ignorance of racial bigotry. Huck and Jim’s journey begins as Huck fights within himself about turning Jim over to the authorities, but he decides not to. This is a monumental decision because it shows that Huck has decided to turn his back on everything home stands for, and that his true moral identity is slowly shining through. Even though Huck has made his decision about Jim, early in the voyage we see Huck’s attitude change towards Jim as racist. Eventually Huck plays a mean trick on Jim, It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I wasn’t ever sorry for it afterward, neither. Again, we see Huck’s attitude changing when later in the story Huck saves Jim from two slave catchers by tricking them to think Jim is Huck’s small pox ridden father. What is going through Huck’s mind as he alters his attitude on Jim, is unknown, however, his own identity is one that is truly caring and just. When Huck encounters the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons, he becomes aware of the hypocrisy of the family’s feud with each other. When attending church with them, he is amazed that while a minister preaches about brotherly love, both the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons are carrying weapons. When the feud erupts, Huck hides in a tree wishing he never came ashore. The river allows Huck the one thing that he wants to be, and that is Huck. It is the river and what Huck encounters on the river that helps him to mature and to find purpose behind his own true identity. As Huck learned his identity on his adventure, Holden does much of same on his, so as to mature and to accomplish the journey of self discovery. Holden Caulfield’s road of trials takes place from Pencey Prep to New York City. Holden deals with his own mental hallucinations, cognitive disotience, and his desire to stay innocent. At the start of Holden’s journey, he appears to be a very irresponsible person. When he is assigned to look after his schools fencing equipment, he leaves the equipment on the train. He does not care about what he has done and does not even want to go back and look for it. Also, his attitude towards learning are atrocious, and when he finally flunks out of school, he does not bother to tell his parents. Instead, he escapes to New York City where he begins to learn things about himself and about others. However before he goes, he decides to visit his social studies teacher, who flunked him, to say good-bye. Also, he visits his previous English teacher to tell him he has flunked out of yet another school. Maturity is evident because he is trying to persevere relationships with people he cares about. Along his journey, though, small changes suggest that Holden is growing up. He was once very selfish and did not like to share. However when he encounters two poor nuns travelling to another church, he gives them a large portion of his remaining money. This is a major step in Holden’s own self discovery. Holden requires much help to come to terms with his maturity. Even though he constantly speaks as if he is experienced in connection and bonding, they were always just facades. Even when in the city Holden feels he is superior to his environment because he has a false knowledge of it and it’s workings. This is shown when he wants to have a meaningful relationship with his old friend June but does not know how to come to grips on how. Despite of all he thinks he knows he is really only the faker he despises. While in the city Holden finds much comfort when with his sister Phoebe. When Holden first checks into the hotel, he is depressed and wants to call Phoebe but doesn’t because its too late. But I certainly wouldn’t have minded shooting the old crap with Phoebe for a while. In comparison, Holden and Huck in their adventures show that they choose to live in a decadent society in order to help other live as they wish to live rather than to withdraw in order to preserve their own scruples or force their own brand of salvation on others. The road of trials that both Holden and Huck experienced helped them to mature and find their own true identities. What Holden went through helped him to grow, and what Huck experienced helped him to mature. This now brings way to their flee and return where both Huck and Holden are forced to make decisions with where they want to go. The flee and return comes after the character completes his obstacles and is allowed to return to reality, the real world. At this point, the characters have now mentally grown and have shown new signs of maturity. Huck and Holden are both social misfits and want to escape civilization. After Huck frees Jim, he chooses to set out for new territory. He has arrived at maturity and self sufficiency and he is poised at the end in a delicate balance. So many things Huck witnessed like the cheating of the King and Duke, the lack of caring by the townspeople for Boggs, the naive of the Wilks’ sisters, and the lack of common sense by Tom Sawyer guided him to making the right moral choices. Throughout the adventure you have Huck Finn trying to find the one thing he could only find on the river, freedom, but a person can only stay on the river for so long, and so you have to go on land to face the injustices of society. As harsh as it seems its true. Huck may never understand why society is the way it is, but his flee is from all that’s wrong. However Holden Caulfield has nowhere to set out to. Consequently he is placed in a mental institution where he is forced to accept his own problems. Holden is fated at the critical age of 16 years, to fall from innocence, to experience the death of the old self and to arise a new Holden to confront the world afresh. The flee and return for both characters comes at the end of their journeys because now they have grown and have understood more about the society’s they each live in. Huck wants to just set out and find new territory. He wants to flee to nature where he is free from civilization. In Holden’s case, he has to realize his hypocrisy and accept that his problem forced him to get professional help in the end. Holden and Huck are similar in their threshold crossing, road of trials, and flee and return. Both Holden and Huck completed their own journeys to become more complete individuals. Children have an innocent perception of the world around them, but as adults we realize the world is not black and white but various colours. Huck and Holden’s journeys can be compared to the metamorphosis which a caterpillar goes through. The caterpillar starts out innocent (black and white) and goes through stages or obstacles to become a butterfly. In the end the caterpillar emerges colourful as well as more complete and experienced. Salinger has embodied in his novel a dream of innocence, of a sincere subtlety in the characters and has made it during general aiming at success and enrichment, and consequently, and on moral indiscriminateness. Holden Caulfield has become a kind of common noun, a person possessing the thinnest sense of what he called â€Å"falseness†, artificiality, a pose, self-deception and narcissism. And his hero was ready to leave school, lose privileges and material security in order to keep this granted to him the god vigilance to the truth. America has easily forgotten a moral climate of war. But Salinger with his military experience did not want to give in to vanity. In his works there are no absolutely any political implied senses. But his heroes always are in obstinate, though and not demonstrative opposition to authorities, including authority of opinions accepted by all. If this authority too presses on the hero, he runs away from it. Holden Caulfield has remarkable predecessors in the American literature – Huckleberry Finn in the XIXth a century and the hero of Hemingway – Jack Barns in the XXth. When Huck felt that he can’t bear any more the close frameworks of public establishments, he ran away on the river, in a wood, in the places which were yet not habitable by people. And Hemingway’s Barns left abroad – for France. But the uninhabited grounds are not present more. The abroad is inaccessible to the teenager, and for Holden Caulfield there is no place to leave, except for how to leave in itself. † Salinger’s works belong to the old American cultural tradition revealing discrepancy of the validity to democratic ideals, the contradiction between material progress and spiritual impoverishment of the person. The aversion of the world around is combined by Salinger with searches of strong values on which it is possible to build, as he said, a life which is† beautiful and peaceful†. The novel â€Å"The Catcher in the Rye† rejected the conformist like-mindedness and consumer way of life. Teenager Holden Caulfield sharply feels the dissonance in a society, school and family relations through the false world of adults. To a certain extent the novel has expressed moods of the writer and sociologist P. Goodman who has referred a phenomenon of public immaturity to that part of youth which did not wish to mature. The society is deprived of worthy purposes. However the writer did not become isolated in self-sufficing negativism. Freedom for Caulfield – it doesn’t not end in himself, and society seems to him hostile, first of all, because it does not allow make disinterested, kind businesses. The impossibility to reconcile with the existing causes confusion in Caulfield’s soul. Salinger accents infantilism of the hero that is not a tribute to a literary fashion, but conscious author’s reception. Defects of the bourgeois world are especially evident if to take a pure, natural glance from the country of the childhood. The generality of Caulfield’s picture of the world with a vital position of other â€Å"natural† people of 50th is doubtless. Honesty and freshness of a sight, and also the constant Caulfield’s â€Å"aspiration for revolt † (fighting, runaway from school, etc. ) gave to Salinger’s to narration a strong conflict background what made his novel rather popular. Huckleberry Finn of the Bilberry and Holden Caulfield undertake trip to self-opening. Huck also tries to find the worthy purpose and identity among inconsistent morals. While Holden Caulfield in â€Å"the Catcher in the Rye† is the teenager who is trying to find a maturity and courage. On comparison, both of them are on their way maturity and identity as the life is a long trip as well. Huckleberry Finn – a young boy deciding which of morals to follow. Searches of what way is correct are long and confusing. During his adventure he is compelled to choose between his moral and his conscience. When he faces hunters of generosity, he is compelled to make one of these decisions. He should choose whether to turn in his impetuous friend to the slave. Fortunately, his desire is strong, and he resorts to a complex lie in order to prevent Jim’s capture. Huck searches for a refuge in area where the lie does not exist and the beauty of a life will be what is really important. Bibliography 1. Salinger, J. D. â€Å"The catcher in the rye†. Little, Brown & Co. : 2002. 2. Christopher Brookeman, â€Å"Pencey Preppy: Cultural Codes in The Catcher in the Rye,† in New Essays on The Catcher in the Rye, Ed. Jack Salzman, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, 57-76 3. Pinsker, S. , Pinsker, A.. Understanding The Catcher in the Rye. Greenwood Press, 1999. 4. Constant, P. Just Like ‘The Catcher in the Rye’. Seattle’s Only Books Section. 2006. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay The name comes from the Biblical phrase â€Å"casting pearls before swine†. This shows how Hester felt about the people in town who judged her based on her mistakes. She never tried to hide Pearl. In fact, she did quite the opposite by dressing her in elaborate dresses. Hester basically cast her â€Å"pearl† before the â€Å"swine† of the community who condemned her for her wrong-doings. The author used several other symbols in his novel that all could have been and are seen differently in each person’s eyes. Mark Twain, much like Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses many different symbols in his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck and Jim travel along the river on a raft which symbolizes something like a utopian world. Before their journey began, their lives were hard. Jim was a slave, as he is a Negro; therefore he was treated as property, which is rather self-explanatory. Huck was living very unhappily as an orphan with the Widow. He felt somewhat â€Å"trapped† because he was being raised an entirely different way than he was meant to be. He wanted to be â€Å"free†, an impossible idea due to the way he was being raised. As they begin their journey along the river, the raft gives them a sense of hope. On the raft, Huck and Jim can be whoever they want to be. There is no one to tell them how to act or what to do. In their eyes, the life on the raft is perfection, in itself. The Mississippi River begins as the ultimate symbol of freedom for Jim and Huck. Literally, Jim is searching for freedom from his being enslaved. Figuratively, Huck is searching for freedom from living with fear of his father and from becoming civilized. They find this freedom as they float along the river. As time passes, however, the river becomes more of a symbol of life, in general, and all its misleadings and injustices. Despite their newfound freedom, they find they are not completely free from the evils and influences of the towns and the river’s banks. The river also brings them into contact with criminals, wrecks, and stolen property. This is the breaking point at which reality intrudes upon them and their raft paradise. The Mississippi River truly represents a false sense of freedom and the reality of life. Uncertainty of the future is seen in Jackson Island. On one hand, it symbolizes a life in which Huckleberry and Jim can live exactly the way they’d like to – free of scrutiny and judgment for the way they are. On another hand, however, life on the island would mean living in fear of being found and sent back to the wretched lives they escaped from. Again, like Hawthorne, Twain’s novel contains numerous other examples of symbolism and each can have a different meaning, depending on the examiner. There are so many forms of symbolism in today’s world and novels. Life, itself, can even be considered a symbol for something. However, no matter how many different types of symbolisms you come across in your lifetime, there will always be someone who sees their meanings differently than you. The old saying goes along perfectly with this idea. â€Å"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. † Symbolism is in the eye of the beholder. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Miscellaneous section. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay Growing up, children are often told things that grown ups would question, as people grow they learn to question those things too. In the book The Adventures of Hucklberry Finn written by Mark Twain. Huck faces the challenge of either following what everyone is telling him is right, but he knows is wrong, or going against the grain and standing up for what he knows is right. Throughout the book Huck is unsure in what he believes and struggles to determine if what he is taught is wrong. The widow took over the role as guardian for Huck since his father and mother are both out of the picture. When Huck was being raised by his father he wasn’t taught any morals or values, so the widow took this as an opportunity to make Huck into a person whose life was all about morals. In the book the widow tells Huck that hell is bad and that heaven is good, but Huck is unsure that he should believe everything that she is telling him. Huck decides that going to â€Å"hell,† if it means following his gut and not society’s hypocritical and cruel principles, is a better option than going to everyone else’s heaven. â€Å"All right then, I’ll go to hell! (245). † This is Huck’s true break with the world around him. Huck faces the moral conflict of whether or not to turn Jim in because it is what society dubbed as the right thing to do. â€Å"I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me (89). † Right off from the beginning, Huck wanted to turn Jim in because it was against society’s rules to help a slave escape and Huck knew it. But when Jim said that, â€Å"Huck; yous de bes fren Jims ever had; en you is de only fren; ole Jims got now (89). † helped Huck to grasp the concept that there is a friendship in the making. Even though Huck didn’t turn Jim in, he is till troubled by his conscience when the slave catchers were leaving because he knows it is wrong to help a slave. Still Huck cannot bring himself forward to tell on Jim, thus showing that his innate sense of right exceeds that of society. The con-men’s attempt to pose as the brothers of the late Peter Wilks is an important part of Huck’s moral development. The Duke and King try to take Peter’s estate, however, Huck decides to return the money to Peter’s three daughters. This action demonstrates further moral growth, as he does choose to abandon the two con-men. Huck learned that people can be nice and show each other that they care about one another. Women would walk up to Peter’s daughters and â€Å"kiss their foreheads, and then put their hand on theirhead, and looked up towards the sky, with the tears running down, and then busted out and went off sobbing and swabbing, and give the next woman a show (159). † Huck has never seen anything â€Å"so disgusting. † When Huck Finn sees one of the daughters crying beside the coffin, it makes a deep impact on him. Hucks religious beliefs and moral standards cross pathes as he handles the situation. When Huck says, â€Å"All right then, I’ll go to hell! (245). † He has decided to go against what society tells him to do by freeing Jim. Throughout the entire book Huck struggles with separating his own moral beliefs and what society tells him is the right thing to do. From the beginning of the book Huck showed that he did not always believe what people told and went against the grain when he said he wanted to go to hell instead of heaven. The moral development that Huck shows throughout the book causes Huck to develop other traits as well, such as compassion and sincerity towards others. Huck really came out of his shell and fully developed his moral beliefs when he gave the money back that the con-men stole to the three girls. It allowed Huck to get in touch with his emotional side of his moral beliefs and it told him what th right thing to do was.