Huckleberry Finn vs. Holden Caufield

Your name

Teacher 's name

Course

Date

Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield

The tradition of American literature accurately reflects the notion of an American identity and purpose . In the great writing of American authors there is a repeated theme which pitches innocence against experience , freedom against the constraints of conventional life honesty against compromise and corruption , America against Europe Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye , though separated by a century , both stand centrally in this tradition , as do Thoreau in his cabin in the woods , Hawkeye

in the prairies , Isabel Archer in Florence and Ellen Olenska in new York . All of these characters , like Huck and Holden , seek an uncorrupted life , but are acutely aware that such a life is difficult to achieve . Huck Finn has to flee from the world which would sivilize ' him , staging his own death , even , but everywhere sees the folly , hypocrisy and cruelty of the human world . The Catcher in the Rye , in fact , is a kind of Huckleberry Finn in modern dress (Branch , 21 . Holden , like Huck , feels his basic moral sense offended by the modern world and seeks to flee from it . Holden accepts failure in the end , and perhaps Huck 's decision to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest (Twain , 369 ) is also doomed , as the territory ' itself becomes incorporated into the conventional world But Huck never loses his sound heart , as Twain called it , while Holden , perhaps because the progress of modernity has made hope so much more difficult , teeters on the edge of derangement , and sees only despair

Huck and Jim flee from what claims to be sivilization , but what in fact turns out to be , in the course of the book , a corrupt and immoral world . Its assumption of moral superiority is questioned almost instinctively by Huck 's practical questions . The widow and Miss Watson think that the problems of human life can be dealt with by their naive pious optimism , singing hymns and looking forward to going to the good place ' and sitting on a cloud . At the same time they are slave-holders . There is no living meaning to their religion . Compare it , with its spiritual gifts (Twain , 60 , with the solemnity of Huck 's feelings on the river

It was kind of solemn , drifting down the big still river , laying on our backs looking up at the stars , and we didn 't ever feel like talking loud , and it warn 't often that we laughed , only a little kind of a low chuckle (119

The language of the narration is important here in that it is a deliberate refusal to be cultured ' and to write a literary ' book Holden similarly talks to us in his own vernacular , describing those he dislikes for their dishonesty as phoneys . The main effect is to describe the world , and emotions , with a new freshness

The island is the location of their first essays in the free life , and it has many of the characteristics of Eden...