Rule Of The Bone Analysis

Summer Reading Comparison Essay People tend to have a natural tendency to think back to their childhood and reminisce over the lighthearted moments of naive innocence, the security of not having to worry, and the flustered experience of having to grow out of it. It is expected that in order to become an adult, childhood should only be this temporary manifestation of nostalgic happiness where adolescents must then be stripped of their identity and sense of blissful charm. This idea of coming to age is one of the fundamental themes that both novels, Rule of the Bone, by Russell Banks, and Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, ponders over. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain brings to life a thrill-seeking, objective child, Huck, who captivates readers with his charm, while Banks takes his novels in a more dark and depressing tone with a more melancholic protagonist, Chappie, in Rule of the Bones. However, both novels represent a much more transcendent message about childhood that readers can praise and reflect on: it is that growing up doesn’t only mean stripping a child’s identity and forcing them to conform to …show more content…
Whether it be from times of curiosity or dread, purity or impurity, everyone has to move on with their life at some point. When confronted with the dilemma of growing up, both characters would agree that it is up to the readers to decide not only what they value in themselves, but what they value in others. Huck found in through the humanity in Jim and the ambition in Tom. Chappie found it in loving his friends. They both found it easier to grow up, not by listening to what others have to say about the process, but by finding the characteristics they admire and love from themselves and in