Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Salingers The Catcher in

the Rye. Both texts deal with the theme of escape in a number of ways. For
example, in The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger creates a character who, at one
point, thinks about suicide as the ultimate escape. On the other hand, in
Huckleberry Finn, the protagonist pretends to kill himself, in order to escape
from his abusive and drunk father.
In The Catcher in the Rye Holden contemplates suicide after an encounter
with Sunny, the prostitute, and Maurice, the elevator operator, when they try
to take five dollars off him, which they think he owes Sunny. However,Holden
does not think he owes this money to Sunny so he refuses to give her the
money. After this he mopes around his hotel room for a while. He then starts
to think about suicide, What I really felt like, though, was committing
suicide. This suggests that he is depressed and lonely. Even though he
doesnt actually kill himself,he believes that death will get him away from all
his problems,and maybe even get to be with his younger brother, Allie, who
died of cancer, a few years before. The fact that Holden thinks death will be
the only chance he has to escape his life really highlights Holdens feelings,
and gives the reader an insight on how Holden really is. It tells us that Holden
is not a tough guy like he makes out, but he is actually a regular teen, like the
reader of his story. Salinger wrote Holden like this because he wanted
teenagers to be able to connect with Holden on an emotional level. The
sentence I thought I was dying perhaps foreshadows Holdens thought on
suicide, as it gives an insight of how Holden is feeling. This phrase tells us
that he is depressed, and by saying he felt like he was dying, it links in well
with when he says he wants to die. Both of these phrases link to the theme of
escape, and show that Holden thinks that death will be the ultimate escape.
Similarly, Huckleberry Finn also thinks that death will be the ultimate escape;
however, he actually pretends to be dead, in contrast to just contemplating it.
Both characters want to escape the lives they both live, and they seem to
think death is the only way to do so. The use of repetition of the verb,
hacked when describing the action in which Huckleberry kills the pig
because it portrays the violent nature of the action. This is to convey the
violent behaviour of Huckleberrys dads behaviour towards Huckleberry. The
death of the pig is perhaps used in order to represent the relationship
between Huckleberry and his father. The pig represents Huckleberry while
Huckleberry represents his father. Paps violent nature is shown through
Huckleberrys actions towards the pig. The verb hacking tells us that maybe
the pig was dying slowly, but painfully, just like Pap was slowly killing
Huckleberry with his drunken and abusive nature. By pretending that his
father killed him, Huckleberry is able to escape his current life with his
abusive father, which he so badly wants to escape anyway. However, Holden
was not able to escape the dismal life he lives.

Once Maurice and Sunny left Holden in the hotel room, Holden fakes a movie
scene. The use of the colloquial phrase I started pretending I had a bullet in
my guts conveys how Holden uses him imagination to try and make life
better for himself. By using the phrase I started pretending it tells us that
Holden is always pretending to be the tough guy but he is anything but the
tough guy, and is actually quite childish and immature when it comes to
being in the real world Holden is also being rather hypocritical because he
always comments about how he hates the movies because he thinks theyre
for phonies, but he is now acting like he is in a movie. In comparison,
Huckleberry Finn tries to escape his life by running away; he uses the canoe
to get away from pap once he has faked his death and smeared the pigs
blood over the floor of his house. Twains use of personification in the
statement I shot the fellow shows how Huckleberry doesnt really have any
compassion for the pig, or his father. He could easily kill an animal, and frame
his own father in order for himself to be able to escape his current life. This
tells us that Huckleberry is probably very depressed living with his father, and
would do anything in order to get away from him. Twains unusual noun
phrase the fellow gains the animal human qualities, as though the pig
represents Huckleberrys father, and how Huckleberry wanted to perhaps
harm his father, so he is using the pig in order to fulfil that.
In contrast, in The Catcher in the Rye, the adverbial phrase, All of a sudden I
started to cry tells us that Holden was in a very fragile state following the
incident with Maurice and Sunny. Salinger uses this to create a character that
represents the teenagers of America. Holden thinks of himself as a smart and
tough guy, who doesnt get upset easily. However this quotation tells is that
he does have feelings, and he can hurt, even if he doesnt show it. The
Catcher in the Rye is a novel intended for teenagers to read, so they can look
up to Holden, even if he is just a fictional character. This links in with the
theory that Holden is depressed. However, later on in the extract, Holden
says, I was still sort of crying which tells us he calmed down a lot quickly.
This links in with the theme of escape because in order to get away from the
sadness, he pretends to be in a movie. So he uses his imagination in order to
escape his depression and the turmoil in which his life is. Holden cant escape
physically like Huckleberry did, do he decides to use his imagination and just
escape his current life mentally, for now. This is supported by the quotation
with my automatic in my pocket. By saying this we can gather that he feels
depressed about allowing Maurice to hurt him in such a way that he would
start to cry. Holden pretends he is in a movie so he can play out what just
happened in his head, but change the events so he can feel better about
himself, and perhaps forget he allowed Maurice to make him feel in such a
way that he cried. Holden feels bad about allowing Maurice to make him cry,
so in order to get away from this he pretends that he has a gun, and he is
able to get revenge on Maurice by shooting him. Hed see me with the

automatic in my hand and hed start screaming at me. Holden does not like
the fact Maurice overpowered him and made him cry, he feels terrible about
himself and in order to escape the depression he is feeling, he uses his
imagination to make him feel better. Holden constructs an alternative
narrative, rather than existing in the real world, because that way he can
write the events and make them into something that he wants to happen and
how he wished the whole ordeal turned out.
This compares to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because in order to
make himself feel better about what he has just done, he uses the thoughts
of his friend, Tom Sawyer, to escape the guilt he is feeling for faking his own
death and killing the pig. This is shown through the quotation; I do wish Tom
Sawyer was here. Holden and Huckleberry both used their thoughts and
imagination to escape the way they are feeling. Both boys use their minds to
escape their current lives because they feel that this is the easiest way to
escape. This could be because in their imagination, they can write out events
to happen anyway they want them to happen, and not have to deal with the
bad experiences that happened in their lives, because they can just change
things and make them happen the way they want them to happen.
In conclusion, both Twain and Salinger address the theme of escape through
their protagonists using death as the ultimate way out. However,
Huckleberry uses the death scene as a way of finding a new life, whereas
Holden merely thinks about his way out, but ultimately makes no escape at
all.

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