The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain are considered masterpieces of their time. Salinger has been criticized, however, for rewriting the American classic with a modern twist. Despite their differences, it is irrefutable that the books mirror each other in many ways. The Catcher in the Rye and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are similar not only in their structure but in the language, conflicts, and themes.
At first glance, these books do not seem similar. Twain’s novel is set in the mid-1800s, where a young boy named Huckleberry Finn escapes his abusive father by cruising down the Mississippi river on a raft. Along the way he picks up Jim, a runaway slave from Huck’s hometown. …show more content…
Alan Nadel explores the novels’ relations in the struggles of nonconformity, and outsiders who do not desire to be insiders. Holden wants to be unique, as shown with his hunting hat. He wears his red hunting hat everywhere, knowing that most people would not, to stand out. He struggles with depression throughout the novel because he is frustrated everyone wants to fit in boxes, while he desires to stand out. Huck wants to be a wild boy. Everyone from his old town wanted him to wash his clothes, pray, read; except he wanted to run around in one pair of clothes for the rest of his life. As discussed previously, both characters have common hatred for hypocrisy and search for integrity. Holden wants everyone to stop conforming and start to be themselves. Huck disapproves of the Duke and Dauphine’s scam of the girl’s whose father just died. Another common theme is that society leaves nowhere to flee from one's problems. Huck thinks he has found this place, only to realize he cannot stay on the river forever. Holden spends the entirety of the novel "searching for raft and river, that is for the margins of his sanity" (Nadel 351). In the end of the book, Huck is trapped by people who want to "sivilize" him. Holden if found in similar circumstances when we discover Holden is also trapped, in this instance by a psychiatric hospital that is trying to have him conform to the world that depresses
At first glance, these books do not seem similar. Twain’s novel is set in the mid-1800s, where a young boy named Huckleberry Finn escapes his abusive father by cruising down the Mississippi river on a raft. Along the way he picks up Jim, a runaway slave from Huck’s hometown. …show more content…
Alan Nadel explores the novels’ relations in the struggles of nonconformity, and outsiders who do not desire to be insiders. Holden wants to be unique, as shown with his hunting hat. He wears his red hunting hat everywhere, knowing that most people would not, to stand out. He struggles with depression throughout the novel because he is frustrated everyone wants to fit in boxes, while he desires to stand out. Huck wants to be a wild boy. Everyone from his old town wanted him to wash his clothes, pray, read; except he wanted to run around in one pair of clothes for the rest of his life. As discussed previously, both characters have common hatred for hypocrisy and search for integrity. Holden wants everyone to stop conforming and start to be themselves. Huck disapproves of the Duke and Dauphine’s scam of the girl’s whose father just died. Another common theme is that society leaves nowhere to flee from one's problems. Huck thinks he has found this place, only to realize he cannot stay on the river forever. Holden spends the entirety of the novel "searching for raft and river, that is for the margins of his sanity" (Nadel 351). In the end of the book, Huck is trapped by people who want to "sivilize" him. Holden if found in similar circumstances when we discover Holden is also trapped, in this instance by a psychiatric hospital that is trying to have him conform to the world that depresses