A Comparison Of Huckleberry Finn And On The Road
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was written by Mark Twain in 1884. The second book, On the Road, was written by Jack Kerouck between 1947 and 1950, although it was not published until 1957. My discussion will center on a particular theme which both books have in common. The theme which my paper will examine is that of personal freedom and why personal freedom was important for the characters in both novels. Both novels express the road experience through travels and the characters being their own "identity."
In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the author uses the character of Huckleberry Finn to narrate. In Jack Kerouac's On the Road, the author uses the fictional ...
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times Huck's remarks are two sided- Huck is serious about what he is saying, and Twain is using Huck's character to show the underlying humor. Also, like Kerouac's Sal, Huck is a magnificent observer: Huck notices the details of what everyone around him is doing.
One of the first things that becomes apparent about Huck's character is that he values his personal freedom more than he values money. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom and Huck found $12,000 worth of buried treasure, which they split. After the money was invested, it began earning them $1 a day in interest, which, by Huck' account, "was more than a body could tell what to do with" (Twain 1). However, the man with whom they trusted their investment had found a way to pay Huck the consideration of the dollar, for which Huck signed away all rights to his small fortune (Twain 17-18). Huck was aware that he was giving away all of his money, but he did not care. Later when Pap Finn sues Judge Thatcher to get the money ...
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and the ability to make his own plans, however foolish, was more important to Huck than his newfound fortune. Huck would rather spend the day admiring the sunrise over the Mississippi than go to school or work. For example, as he and Jim were rafting down the river together, Huck describes the scene they saw each morning. The air was still, "just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes bullfrogs a-cluttering" and "you see in the mist curl up off the water and the east reddens up…and everything smiling in the sun" (Twain 113-114). For Huck, it was lovely to live on a raft (Twain 115). He preferred the free and easy lifestyle of floating down this beautiful river to ...
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"A Comparison Of Huckleberry Finn And On The Road." Essayworld.com. July 7, 2007. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Comparison-Of-Huckleberry-Finn-Road/67647.
"A Comparison Of Huckleberry Finn And On The Road." Essayworld.com. July 7, 2007. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Comparison-Of-Huckleberry-Finn-Road/67647.
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