Huck Finn And Odysseus Essay

A hero is often distinguished within literature as being a ‘character that, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, displays courage and the will for self sacrifice, that is, heroism, for some greater good, originally of martial courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.’ (Wikipedia.) Thus it seems apt to suggest that both the main characters in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Homer’s The Odyssey demonstrate quite clearly these same character traits. Both Huck and Odysseus use their cleverness and sharp wit to overcome many different obstacles. Both characters are willing to lie for a good cause and are both fiercely loyal to the people they love, and thus it seems possible to see that their heroism also helps them to grow as characters.

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the character of Huck considers himself to be a wholly bad and ignorant character. However, throughout the story Huck manages to commit many selfless acts and to live through some remarkable adventures that would give to the reader the image of Huck as a truly selfless hero. During the time in which Twain’s tale was written many people were unaware of the incorrectness of society’s attitudes towards black people. Huck, however, through his heroism grows and learns from the experiences he goes through and manages to form his own perspective on race and discrimination, and indeed it seems to be that the adventures of the story really begin when Huck meets the escaped slave Jim. “I was ever so glad to see Jim. I warn’t lonesome, now.” (Twain, page 36.) It is apparent to the reader that Jim is not classed as just a slave to Huck but rather he is his partner. Thus, in t...

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...ing Pap as an imitation of Homer’s Cyclops. When Huck refers to his father as being ‘blind drunk’ it seems to be a reference from Twain to the fact that Odysseus blinds the Cyclops in The Odyssey. Twain also draws the reader’s attention towards Pap’s eyes when Huck tells the audience how wild they are, and Pap’s drunken frenzy can be seen as being very like the Cyclops’s savage and dangerous behaviour. The most obvious difference then between the two situations seems to be that the character of the Cyclops is mythical and Pap is a far more realistic character. It seems possible for an audience to find similarities within the two tales which would lead them to believe that Twain was attempting to use The Odyssey as an outline for his own tale, both the major scenarios that occur for both of the main characters in the novels happen very early on in both stories.