To say this novel is even remotely similar to anything being read in my high school classes would be an outright lie. The philosophical themes of existential dread, nihilism, absurdism and general apathy are unlike those found in any novel. Thus, it is fortunately unlike a great number of books and ripe for comparisons. “Fahrenheit 451” and “Huckleberry Finn” come to mind, as those books have plots centered around active rebellious tendencies and great adventures. In the book “Fahrenheit 451” the protagonist Guy Montag, when presented with great danger, makes an incredible escape in order to pursue his life and his curiosity. In stark contrast to Guy Montag’s exciting escape from his inanimate doom, the narrator (his name is Meursault, left out in some translations) accepts his death sentence as an implication of the inevitable. He does not know whether his is guilty or not of his crime, only that he has been sentenced to the guillotine and that an attempt to prolong his existence is …show more content…
meaningless. In “Huckleberry Finn,” life is vivid and full of detail, painted through the eyes of an adventurous child.
His great many journeys tell interesting stories, and each encounter he has is a learning experience for both the protagonist and the reader. Comparatively, the narrator in ‘The Stranger” starts the novel off by visiting the vigil of his deceased mother, who was put in what is essentially a modern equivalent of a retirement home. He spends most of the novel drifting around to different locations, and has a few life changing experiences, but never changes his character. The narrator is mostly just and apathetic man who occasionally comments on nature of other people around him. To provide and example of his apathy, an interaction with his lover: “A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn't mean anything but that I didn't think so. She looked sad. But as we were fixing lunch, and for no apparent reason, she laughed in such a way that I kissed
her.” Whether or not this novel should be considered of intellectual value is subjective to your personal beliefs when confronted with such moralistic nihilism, but the fact remains that the author of the book Albert Camus won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1957) and is considered one of the most important existential philosophers in history. Awarding the author of a book the Nobel Prize for this craft is a rather prestigious way of declaring that his work is art and thus worthy of the highest literary praise.
In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag is a firefighter who burns illegal owned books, but later on begins to question his profession and an in turn, his life causing him to question the government's actions. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins tells the story of Katniss Everdeen, and how her life changes when her little sister is reaped into the games, but she volunteers for her and unknowingly rebels against the government. Even though Katniss and Montag both defy their governments in different ways, they both have a negative view on the higher power.
In the novel Huckleberry Finn, Huck goes through many adventures on the Mississippi River. He escapes from Pap and sails down a ways with an escaped slave named Jim. Huck goes through a moral conflict of how wrong it is to be helping Jim escape to freedom. Eventually Huck decides he will go against what society thinks and help Jim by stealing him from a farmer with the help of Tom Sawyer, a friend. In A+P the young man, Sammy, is confronted with an issue when he sees his manager expel some girls from the store he worked in simply because of their defiance to its dress code. In his rebellion against the owner, the boy decides to quit his job and make a scene to defend the rights he feels are being violated. In these stories, both the boys are considered superior to the authority that they are defying because of the courage that it took for Huck to free Jim, and for Sammy to quit his job for the girls because it was what they believed in.
"You cannot legislate morality" (Goldwater). Since the beginnings of civilization, the debate between legality versus morality has been highlighted. What is considered legal does not always coincide with people's moral values. Likewise, others argue that one set of morals cannot lay the law of the land. This fierce debate is a prominent theme found within two of America's most acclaimed novels, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. In both novels, the characters are seen as crooked convicts and fugitives in the eyes of the law alone; however, the readers come to love and root for these same characters throughout the novels because of the author's portrayal of their sense of morality leading them to break unjust laws. Furthermore, not only is this take on the strength of morality over legality found within the novels, but also within modern articles that criticize the immorality of the government throughout history. Consequently,
The bureaucratically controlled Fahrenheit 451 society and the technologically controlled Gattaca society depict similar, as well as different, aspects of dystopian dehumanization. There are also commonalities shared by Vincent and Montag in their struggles of gaining some control of their life, and staying under the radar while persevering to fulfill a desire that goes against societal conformity, yet they also contrast each other in some aspects.
In most stories we enjoy, may it be from childhood or something more recent there is many times a theme that shows a clear hero and a clear villain. But ordinarily this is not the case in real life, there are few times that this is quite that simple. There are many sides to each story, and sometimes people turn a blind eye to, or ignore the opposing side’s argument. But if we look at both sides of a situation in the stories we can more clearly understand what is going on, moreover the villains in the book or play would seem more real, instead of a horrible person being evil for no reason, these two people have their own agenda may it be a ruthless vengeance or misplaced trust.
There are many writers that convey their purposes using different methods. Many writers use different techniques to persuade their audience towards a specific idea in their writing. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain tells the story about a boy named Huck, who takes on many adventures along with Jim, a runaway slave. Throughout their journey, Huck starts to realize that African Americans are much the same as white Americans. He sees that the treatments of African Americans is wrong and cruel. Huck’s view on African Americans changes through the course of the novel because Twain introduces his idea of racism being immoral through the different uses of techniques. Writers like Walt Whitman, Brent Staples, Langston
“Revealing the truth is like lighting a match. It can bring light or it can set your world on fire” (Sydney Rogers). In other words revealing the truth hurts and it can either solve things or it can make them much worse. This quote relates to Fahrenheit 451 because Montag was hiding a huge book stash, and once he revealed it to his wife, Mildred everything went downhill. Our relationships are complete opposites. There are many differences between Fahrenheit 451 and our society, they just have a different way of seeing life.
In Fahrenheit 451 and Lord of the Flies, the characters are alike in some ways. In Fahrenheit 451 the characters are Montag, Faber, Clarisse, and Beatty. In Lord of the Flies the characters are Ralph, Piggy, Simon and Jack. Jack and Beatty, Ralph and Montag, Simon and Clarisse, and Piggy and Faber all have some similarities. Jack and beatty both want to take control over everyone and sells fear. Ralph and Montag want to move on and find a better plan to make everything work. Simon and Clarisse are Christ-figures. Piggy and Faber are very intellectual and are wise men. The books may contain different story lines but have very similar types of characters.
“We shall either find what we are seeking, or free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we do not know.” ― Mary Renault. In many dystopian texts and films, there would always be a person who rebels and looks for change, like Jonas in the Giver,. In Pleasantville and Fahrenheit 451, the main characters are living in a dystopia and they rebel in diverse ways for a change.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Ferris Bueller’s day off are completely different yet have a lot in common even though they’re set in completely different eras and times. Both Huck and Cam both have father issues as both their fathers aren’t the nicest to their kids, even though huck’s situation was a lot worse they still had fathers that hurt them. In both stories the characters are hiding from someone,both stories involve an epic adventure, also both stories involve great friendship.
also says that each of the wives would tell the king a story and he
Now with over 15 million copies in print translated into forty languages, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is highly regarded as a masterpiece of American literature. It stands strong beside bestsellers such as “The Joy Luck Club,” “The Catcher in the Rye,” and “Huckleberry Finn.” But what, one may ask, are the similarities between these chartbusters?
Throughout history, there has been a prevalent connection between literary works of differing time periods. And this prevalent connection is that the link between history and social events has influenced American literature. Not only do historical events motivate authors into writing, literature; history influences the way such authors write that literature. Take such as the work of Mark Twain in “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Set around the year 1845, Twain’s beloved novel focuses on thirteen year-old Huck Finn, an adventurous boy living in the slave state of Mississippi. The dialect of the piece is a mirror image of that period in the South, containing plenty of grammar misuse from a slave named Jim, as well as a heavy dose of the word nigger. Another fictional piece that shows history’s influence on literature is the sequel to Twain’s first Huck Finn
Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and Albert Camus' The Stranger, both feature protagonists in situations out of which arise existentialist values. Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts . In The Metamorphosis the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, realizes his existentialism towards the end of the novella. In contrast, Monsieur Meursault, the protagonist in The Stranger, knows of his existentialism, only realizing his life's lack of meaning moments after he is sentenced to death. Despite the somewhat absurd nature of The Metamorphosis, and the realistic nature of The Stranger, similar values are communicated to the reader. The easiest to pick out being that it is up to the individual to create his/her own life, and that the inhuman behaviour presented by both protagonists will eventually lead to very bad things; namely death in both novellas. These deaths are, however, very different, as are the methods through which Kafka and Camus have made each novel nothing but `a philosophy put into images' .
I feel that Huckleberry Finn in a way is similar to Red Badge of Courage and not in a bad way. In this story, I find it similar because most of the focus is on Huck and in Red Badge of Courage we follow the youth for the entire novel. However, we see a change when the youth doesn't really change much and his character development stays generally flat and even the whole way through. But in Huckleberry Finn it's different we see Huck's character change unlike the youth's. Most of us toward the end or even the beginning of the novel we were itching to get out of the youth's head but in this book, I enjoy following the changes in Huck. For example, in the first few chapters, we see a rowdy kid but through living with the widow we see a change.