Huckleberry Finn And Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself

I consider The adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a literary piece ahead of its time. Mark Twain pushed the boundaries of American literature with this novel. Earnest Hemingway once wrote “American Literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn”. The story line covers topics that were generally not discussed in literature during this time period, topics such as slavery, conforming to society and freedom. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can be described as a reflection of modernity as well as American identity. Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself has similarities to Huck Finn in relation to its attitude towards modernity and American identity. As I mentioned earlier Twain was ahead of his time when writing Huck Finn, for instance the shear fact that one of his main characters is a runaway slave shows his ability to push the envelope of his readers. Slavery during this time period was not something commonly talked about in literature. Its as if Twain could predict where slavery in America was headed making this topic relevant to his readers, while also giving an insight to slavery back in the day for Present Americans. Twain gave Jim (the runaway slave) the identity of a person instead …show more content…
Whitman was an Author who said what people were too afraid to talk about. He pushed the limits of his time period by writing about sex, religion, and slavery in Song of Myself. “The runaway slave came to my house and stopt outside” (paragraph on pg. 30) this shows a reaction to slavery that was uncommon during this time frame. Another example of his stretch would be his provocative side. Sex was not something discussed throughout this time, an example of Whitman’s racy poetry would be (pg.41 the first paragraph). Whitman’s bluntness and shamelessness relate directly with modernity. Whitman’s Song of Myself also shows the reader his views on America during that