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How Does Holden Escape

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In this extract from the picaresque novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huckleberry fakes his own death and then travels in a canoe to Jackson Island in order to physically escape from his abusive father. In the extract from The Catcher in the Rye, a bildungsroman novel by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist Holden Caulfield comes up with a plan to also physically escape with his date, mainly from the expectations placed upon him by society. Both are narrated in the first person and have an informal register. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn mainly uses a Southern dialect which contrasts with the colloquial style used in The Catcher in the Rye.

In both extracts escape is portrayed as a rushed endeavour. In The Catcher in …show more content…

Salinger uses repetition in The Catcher in the Rye: throughout the extract Holden uses a range of colloquialisms such as “phonies” “sore” and “lousy” along with taboo language like “damn” “goddamn” “crap” which represents an atypical idiolect for someone of Holden’s background- a wealthy and educated young man so his taboo language could be a way for Holden to escape what is expected of him from society. Similarly, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck states how he “fixed that place as good as I could…I fixed the piece of log back”. Twain’s repetition of “fixed” highlights the monotonous nature of Huck’s escape; he constantly has to amend and cover up all his tracks in order to ensure he can get away safely. When Huck later “looked out over the river” he said it was “all safe”. The river throughout the novel is thought be the ultimate symbol of freedom which could explain why Huck feels “safe” when looking at it, as it is the one thing that can help him escape from his …show more content…

Salinger’s use of a dash indicates Holden’s desperate attempt to escape from the present moment and the current conversation he is having with Sally as he doesn’t want to hear the truth about himself, suggesting that he cannot take criticism from other people. Salinger could also have used that dash in order to show Holden’s rudeness towards Sally, by cutting her off, which would have been unusual for someone of Holden’s background so perhaps Holden’s rudeness is one of the ways in which he likes to escape from the expectations placed on him by a post-war, capitalist society by rejecting their social norms and

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