Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye essay Essay

The novels The Adventure of huckleberry Finn and The backstop in the Rye ar both(prenominal) set in times where the expectations of society differed from the mavins of today. huckleberry Finn is set in the latish 1800s, pre USA civil war and in a time where thr only was an accepted occurrence and the melt d possess of a hard worker was seen as lawfully and morally wrong. This was also a time in which church attendance and education were seen as tokens of respectability. A young boy, the eponymous character, Huck, seeks to reject all that he regards as oppressive and cruel in order to make believe an alternative life as a wanderer, far from liberal control.The Catcher in the Rye, on the new(prenominal) feed, was set in the late forties, a time when teenagers were just beginning to gain their own lives and organism allowed more(prenominal) than than license than ever before. The picaresque novel gives the reader an incursion into middleclass life in New York in the 50s and how one boy mat up trapped by the expectations of his parents and school. His period of comparative freedom leads to unexpected consequences as he falls victim to depression and tied(p)tual supervision in an institution, putting paid forever to his dreams of freedom.Both novels present the themes of freedom and escape and the selected extracts portray incidents in the characters lives which focus on this theme. In both of the extracts, the characters are supposeing to be person else, Huckleberry Finn a young girl and Holden Caulfield taking a false identity. The reader may infer from this that by assume a different and fake identity, the devil boys can escape from their own lives ones that are full of problems and worries. Escaping their lives allows them both to live a little more freely, even if just for a little while.However, Huckleberry Finn and Holden take on their natural identities for different reasons. For instance, Huckleberry Finn assumes the alternative identity in order to travel across town without being recognised by anybody, as he was alleged(a) to have died non long before. another(prenominal) reason he had to pretend to be a girl is to protect his and Jims safety. Holden on the other hand, assumes the alternative identity in order to befriend spate he meets on his journey without the people realising that he should windlessness be at school. Various auditions of the ii novels would interpret and receive the occurrences in the extracts very(prenominal) other than.For example, the earshot of Huckleberry Finn would be shocked at Huck escaping, living with a slave and then dressing as a girl. This is because the changes in society since Huckleberry Finn was pen are significant. In the late 1800s, young boys were to be well educated and then sent off to be a successful businessman, not to escape and run amok. Slaves were also seen as inferior and a self-possession and anybody helping them was breaking the law. Another thing that the different audiences would feel differently or so is the fact that Jim draw offs called a nigger quite often.An audience of the eighties would accept that as normal as they were used to hearing it, whereas an audience of the 2000s would be shocked by this, as the news nigger has a very malicious meaning nowadays and is considered a racist displease payable to the equality rights now instilled in the majority of society, out-of-pocket to the word undergoing perjoration. The audience of Catcher in the Rye would probably not be surprised at the behaviour that Holden employs, as teenagers in the late 1940s were gaining a new sense of freedom and the dangers of letting your children out into the human unsupervised had not yet been considered.They also would accept that he faculty befriend any stranger that he comes across. However in the 40s at that place still existed traditional views about respect for authority although they were gradually evaded. His parents al l the same do not approve of him staying in the hotel by himself. In the 2000s however, we would frown upon a young teenager travelling around alone, talking to strangers and qualification a hotel room in a large city. The maturity of the two different characters is also very different.Although Holden wants and tries to be mature, the reader very cursorily sees that he is in actual fact very childish and naive. This could be so that he can escape the realities of adult life, and stay in his idealistic childs world forever. Despite this, he does essay to seem more of an adult by using more restrict language and more complicated language around people who he would like to impress, like the females in the Lavender Room. For example, he says Im twelve, for Chrissake.Im big for my age. Although the word Chrissake, which is the words Christs sake after undergoing exclusion and with Holdens idiolect, is not considered taboo now, it was still frowned upon in the 1940s, as some sectors of society were still highly religious. Another taboo word he used a lot is deuced. Again this word, which is the words God damn that have also undergone riddance and are with Holdens idiolect, is no longer considered taboo or offensive, due to the change in society over time.This language choice illustrates Holdens immaturity as it shows that he believes that using taboo words and more complicated language will make him look more enceinte up, when in actual fact it simply makes him seem barbaric and pretentious. Huck, on the other hand seems quite comfortable with his maturity level, which is one that seems to fluctuate. For instance, he seems to treat the whole journey in the novel as an adventure, one that fuels his child-like imagination as is shown when Huck plays a prank on Jim. He says I went to the cavern to get some, and give a rattlesnake in there.I killed him, and curled him up at the foot of Jims blanket, ever so natural, thinking thered be some amusement when Jim found him there. This illustrates his immature side as children are more likely to play pranks and find them amusing. Another way that Twain shows Hucks immaturity and failed education is through his speech, as Twain uses elision in depicting Hucks speech and gives him a very strong idiolect and dialect. One instance of this is Who done it? weve heard considerable about these goings on, down in Hookerville, but we dont know who twas that killed Huck Finn. Huck uses the word twas instead of saying it was. victimisation elision as strong as this also shows us how poorly educated Huck is, despite the attempts of Widow Douglas to correct this. However, you do get to see the more mature side of Huck. One example of this is when he makes invents for his escape from his father. He makes a list of the things he needs and even fakes his own death so that he can never be found. This shows his maturity because he has the initiative to put the plans into place and fool the people he is escap ing from.Another example would be when he treats and considers Jim to be his friend, as it is obvious that he has to ignore society and make his own close to befriend someone who could potentially get him into trouble with the law. Also, he has to batter a moral dilemma when deciding whether to escape with Jim, or hand him over to Widow Douglas, to whom Jim rightfully belongs. The fact that Jim is a possession of someone else would shock modern audiences as they are not used to this due to the change in society.This particularly shows his maturity because he was making a decision about somebody elses life as well, as Jim would have been sold on if returned to Widow Douglas, therefore thwarting his plan to find his family. The decision that Huck had to make had consequences beyond his control and Huck was fully and completely aware of this whilst making the choice. The central characters in the two novels respond to the theme of escape in different but not quite contrasting ways. F or Huckleberry Finn, the journey he goes on allows him to grow up and realise what he wants for himself in the future.Hucks resolution to sweep traditional societal values by resuming his studies shows he has come to a positive decision about his future. On the other hand, for Holden the journey is a reality check, as it shows him that he is not ready for the outside and adult world because he hadnt even got the simple childs world right. He saw life as a game, and was stubbornly naive. His loss of autonomy at the end of the novel shows loss of dreams of freedom and little hope of escape from the downward spiral he has found himself in along the way.