The Awakening And Huckleberry Finn Analysis

As it turns out life is not as easy as everyone makes it out to be, and for the most part human beings are particularly pessimistic people living in a constant state of fear. In the novels, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, and “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, the main characters,Huckleberry Finn and Edna Pontellier, of either novel are absorbed in their own respective fears, which coincidentally are manifested into feelings of isolation, confusion, and rebellion to the point that they go through a series of dramatically, life-altering psychological change. They have experienced unfortunate tragedies at crucial moments in their lives rendering in them an insatiable devotion to searching for identity, or meaning in life. They

Their decisions for escaping from the mundane, routine-filled societies is done to further isolate themselves on their search to actually finding themselves, and acquiring freedom. For Huckleberry Finn, he is fleeing from his abusive father with Jim, and the society that is forcing him to change into somebody that he cannot see himself be; because he is fearful it would take away his freedom. In fact, Huck says the following in chapter 18 while on the mississippi river with Jim, "We said there wasn 't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft” (Twain 18). What this represents is Huck’s childish way of further persuading himself that being on the raft,free is isolating him from society 's problems because he does not have to be under the command of anyone but himself. This is the seed of freedom that is now en grained into his mind, he will reflect back onto this moment of serenity to further push himself away from the “sivilized” society that is nothing more than a way to keep him isolated. We see this similar occurrence in “The Awakening,” when Edna Pontellier begins going astray from the generally accepted societal norms

For example, Huck Finn is still a young boy so he does not fully understand the real dangers of the world and is particularly naive when confronted by other authority figures, leaving him,in many cases, morally confused. He expresses this in the following quote from chapter 3, “I must help others, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself. But I couldn 't see no advantage about it I reckoned I wouldn 't worry about it any more, but just let it go” (Twain). What this demonstrates is Huck already being imposed conformist ideas from society, further pushing his limits of what is morally right. In fact, later in the novel Huck is faced with the internal conflict about what the best course of action should be with Jim considering he is “property” and in aiding with his escape could mean he is stealing from someone else. In having his morals questioned, tested, and revamped he learns a lot about himself, clearing a lot of the mental confusion he has had to face throughout the search for his identity and pursuit of freedom. This is also applicable to Edna Pontellier, who is faced with quite a heavy load