On Successful Elements In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn And The Catcher In The Rye

The Catcher in the Rye (1951) immediately established Jerome David Salinger as a renowned author throughout the campus, and won fabulous admiration from the younger-generation intellectuals. Overnight J.D. Salinger was regarded as one of the most significant American authors after the World War II. However, this novel is not the first one in America setting a teenager in rebellion against the "phony" adult world. Prior to Holden Caulfield, Huck in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ?the masterpiece of the greatest realistic author in the late 19th century America, Mark' Twain, is also the legend of his time. Although The Catcher in the Rye was published almost 70 years later than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both of them are no more properly called than imperishable world classics.One exciting resemblance between these two masterpieces is that they both show vivid pictures of "escape". In other words they share the theme of "escape". As the experiences of escape witness the growth of Huck and Holden, the two could be described as American Bildungsroman: novels illustrating the moral development and attitudes of their protagonists. The point is, both Huck and Holden are indeed adolescent escaping from the adult society, their respective social backgrounds and life experiences reflect widely different social problems - from which we clearly identify the great changes in people's mind arising from the evolution of American society in nearly one hundred years. Huck and Holden see an ugly society during their escape. The people and the events they encounter not only enrich their experiences, but also grant us ?readers far away from the novels' backgrounds a chance to gain an insight into the ugliness. Therefore, we understand better the social problems of America in different times. Exerting their fascinating wisdom and sense of humor, both Mark Twain and J. D. Salinger pitilessly reveal, satirize, and criticize the ugly world. By comparing the two novels, the thesis is to analyze the three successful elements of each ?theme, kind and technique. It concludes that searching for freedom is an everlasting theme in American, even the world literature.Apart from a comparative study on these two masterpieces, applying the existentialist philosophy, the thesis makes an analysis of Huck and Holden's situation in society as well. Existentialism holds that each man exists as an individual in a purposeless and disordered world, and he must oppose the hostile environment through the exercise of his free will. Huck and Holden's alienation, loneliness and their pursuit of a genuine selfhood qualify them as "existents" of the philosophy of existentialism. Escaping from the society that they reject, Huck and Holden are questing for their authentic existence. However, closely studying The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye, we are led to the knowledge of such a basic fact that: Huck and Holden's escape relates both to the past and to the present reality in America. Their compromise with society is not merely the compromise pf two individuals but that of the two generations in America. Their failure is natural as well as inevitable because the American society has defined the radical mode: there is no escape.