Huck Finn Analysis

Prompt #3: American literature has long asked difficult questions. One of these questions deals with the treatment of those in classes or races that are considered to be lower than the rest. Therefore, American authors have tried to answer in the voices of those part of the rejected and those who are on the outside looking in with lenses of sympathy.
One of the greatest examples is Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that follows young Huck Finn who escapes the captivity of his abusive father. His companion, Jim, is also running from captivity in the form of slavery. Twain uses Huck to examine the humanity of Jim and issue of slavery in pre-Civil War South. Huck goes from seeing Jim as a brainless slave to valuing him as a friend …show more content…
War is something that cannot simply be explained or contained. It makes no sense. This is communicated by O’Brien who experienced Vietnam himself and wrote prolifically on the topic of war’s indescribable quality. The death of the soldier Kiowa is seen through the eyes of the troop that eventually finds his body. Once someone experiences something horrific, it goes from make believe to reality. That is the truth about death in this story. Death feels abstract and impossible until the lifeless body of Kiowa is retrieved, and no amount of disbelief can breathe life back into him. He is lost and found again in a giant waste field where everything gets lost. This represents the war itself on a smaller scale because it is both a mess and a wonder at the same time. Each soldier has a different perception of the war. It is a beast without a name or image, and we cannot create one that is comprehensive. Memories change reality as well. What we experience in the moment is different from what we experience when we recall the event. O’Brien calls attention to all of these ideas, and he asks that the reader considers these different views of