How do Twain and Salinger explore the theme of escape in the two extracts?

As Huck’s parental figure, Jim has the obligation to serve as Huck’s moral compass, guiding him with his decisions. Jim is the closest thing to a father to Huck and it is his duty to protect him and guide him in the right direction. When Jim realizes that Huck had pranked him into thinking they got separated from each other in the fog, Jim tells Huck, “What do dey stan' for? I'se gwyne to tell you. When I got all wore out wid work, en wid de callin' for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos' broke bekase you wuz los', en I didn' k'yer no' mo' what become er me en de raf'.

Twain feels that by making Huck do this Twain is poking fun at Huck's intelligence. Not his nature intelligence but his book intelligence. In other words Twain is making fun of Huck.

In the middle of the book, Huck starts to distinguish what is the right thing to do. He starts to think if all the things he was doing before with Jim and Tom were too mean and stupid to do. One specific example is when he decides to steal the money that the king and duke have, “I got to steal that money somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they wont suspicion I done it." (Twain 133) After Huck stole the money Huck and Jim didn’t feel bad at all, and knew that they did the right thing after all. He learns that not everyone can be scammed on, that the real life is important and that you can’t do anything stupid like that. He sees eye to eye with Jim and realizes that he cant have someone taken advantage of just because of their

Huck has only ever known his father as the uneducated drunk that he was in the book. Therefore, when he is out with Jim for such a long period of time, he begins to look up to Jim and his outlook on life. In Document E, in the letter Huck wants to write to Miss. Watson, we see him explain somewhat the adventure him and Jim went on. Specifically, when they were traveling down the river, “...and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was;” (Document E). To me, this not only shows how Huck saw Jim as a father figure, but how Jim treated Huck as his own flesh and blood. Also in Document E, we see Huck decide to help Jim rather than telling Miss. Watson where he is. This exhibits how Huck is okay with the fact that this will always be on his conscience, “‘All right then, I’ll go to hell’--and tore it up,” (Document E). Huck deciding this on his own shows us how he didn’t want anyone to know where Jim was because he wanted him to stay in his life. He also wanted to save Jim so he would still have that father figure in his life. In spite of the fact that Jim has no rights, Huck is able to learn valuable things from this man on their adventure down the

Twain does not let the reader thing badly of Huck for very long, though, having Huck?s true voice shine out by the end of the confrontation. By page 67 Huck is almost loathing to go and turn Jim in, seeing the act as an obligation rather than a moral right. He says, "Well, I just felt sick. But I says, I got to do it-I can?t get out of it." Twain wants the reader to see Huck?s change in judgment. The reader is able to see Huck?s newfound reluctance, brought on by Jim?s words of appreciation. These words bring Huck back to the realization that Jim is a friend, not property. And

to be the catcher in the rye. These are just some of the themes that run through

While Huck does not revert to his arbitrary way of making decisions, he does decide to move West, which is uncomfortably reminiscent of his early tendency to run from his problems in order to evade dealing with them. The commonalities between Huck’s early actions and later ones could be interpreted two ways. One interpretation is that Huck knew what was moral all along, he simply let society take hold of his emotions and divert him from a moral path. The second interpretation is that by having such stark similarities between Huck’s early and late mortality, Twain is implying that humans, at their core, are not as superbly moral as they are portrayed in religion, for example. Independent of these interpretations; however, is another idea worth noting: Huck only made “good” decisions when he experienced just the right amount of empathy. For example, Huck witnesses the Duke and King being tarred and feathered and feels bad for them, so bad for them; in fact, that Huck begins to feel guilty despite obviously having no role in what happened to them. Similarly, Huck’s chronic feelings of lonesomeness and displacement have dual effects. Huck’s empathy does not begin to develop until he is displaced from society as he knows it. Prior to Huck’s physically leaving his

His initial instinct when he meets Jim, a fellow outlaw, on Jackson's Island is to promise he won't tell on him. His last temptation obviously demonstrates his understanding that through helping Jim he loses not only his standing as a citizen but more importantly his humanity. He learns to have empathy for others which leads to his inner growth. Through these trials, he begins to feel a responsibility to a larger community than ever before. Huck never surrenders to conformity and conformity never surrenders to Huck. In the end, his genuine heart doesn't threaten any institutions and he does not end up freeing Jim. I suppose Mark Twain would have been pleased with Huck's growth, but it would be far from realistic to recreate a society in which Huck would triumph over. Huck will feel freer to construct a new life with others who have also abandoned a patterned society to build from

Holden is struggling to become a young adult throughout the story.The first example is when he is fascinated thru the streets of New York.”my bags were there and all,and I figured I’d sleep in that crazy waiting room where all the benches are”.This quote shows that Holden is not ready for the adult world after getting kicked out of pency he chose these bad choices.He had to sleep in a waiting room of a subway and is going thru lots of problems.He had to sleep there because he does not want to tell his dad that he got kicked out of pency and does not want to accept his Consequences like a real adult.

Holden has a trauma in the past, his brother died, and lack of the support of his family makes it harder for Holden to overcome this trauma. Holden says, ”I felt so depressed, you can't imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie” (Salinger 53). It shows that he couldn’t overcome this trauma, which shows up several times in the book. However, his brother died quite a while ago, and if his parents weren’t neglecting him, they would know that he couldn’t overcome this trauma. So they would guide and support Holden, but they didn’t because they neglect

“I felt so lonesome, all of the sudden. I almost wished I was dead” (Salinger 48). This familiar statement expresses the grief Holden, the main character, feels in J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye. In the book Holden shows little to no prosperity.

Huck had never been able to go out a certain distance of the little shaft him and his father had lived in. His father would lock him up when he left not letting him have a place to escape. Huck wanted freedom from his father and the little town he once grew up in. He came up with a plan to escape and the plan he made was to make his father think he had been killed for an example, “ I pulled out some of my hair, and blooded the ax good, and stuck it on the back side, and slung the ax in the corner.” (Page 46) He knew that his father would think he was dead leading him to the freedom he had

Huck was running from the civilized life with Widow Douglas and his father Pap. He wanted more for himself and his way of living. He wanted to be out adventuring with Tom Sawyer. Twain claims, "But it was rough living in a house all the time…and so when I couldn't stand it no longer, I lit out. I got into my old rags, and my sugar-hogshead again, and

He makes it seem like Huck lives in like a grand story, as he tries gain freedom and independence. Huck is used to characterize everyday people, showing that everyone wants to be free and happy. Nobody wants to feel like they are trapped and Twain does a very good job at addressing that. Twain also uses Huck’s innocence to capture what he wants to see in an ideal America. He wants every one to be free and be able to do what they want, when they want.

He like the majority of the Deep South’s population was forced to submit to popular religion in the form of Christianity, being racist and not being able to criticize the institution of slavery, as well as acting like a “proper” boy and being civilized with manors, rules, and restrictions. However, he is the polar opposite of the ideals expressed by his society. Huck is forced to reside with Widow Douglas, he describes the experience in the first chapter, “She took me… allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time … I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn't. She said… I must try to not do it any more.” (Twain, 2). In this particular environment, Huck is forcefully civilized by the Widow Douglas as well as Miss Watson. This essentially shows an indirect form of slavery in which Huck is forced to do as society and his elders dictate regardless of what he believes in which many of us are also subject to. This enslaves him and leads him to decide that he needs to relocate himself as far away from society as possible. Therefore, he forges his death and runs away meeting Jim on the way. This idea of Huck being controlled by society influences him through the novel, for instance he thinks about turning Jim in because it is wrong to steal since Jim is