Journeys

Journeys

  • Submitted By: mike1023
  • Date Submitted: 12/01/2008 1:49 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 874
  • Page: 4
  • Views: 643

Many of the characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain; East of Eden, by John Steinbeck; and Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, go on journeys. This is best exemplified by Huck Finn’s physical, emotional, and developmental journey in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Adam Trask's physical and developmental journey in East of Eden, and Lennie’s emotional and developmental journey in Of Mice and Men. Each character’s journey is unique, but contains certain themes that are common among the three books.
Huck’s, the main character in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, physical journey begins when he runs away from home, and sets sail down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave named Jim. They meet many different types of people in the small towns that they visit as they travel down the river. However, the real journey is within Huck’s mind.
Huck’s developmental journey begins when he is kidnapped by Pap, his father. When living with his father, he begins to realize that the life that Miss Watson, the woman in charge of the house he lived in, was giving him really wasn’t what he wanted. He took a liking to Pap’s relaxed lifestyle; the only drawback was that he became lonely very quickly. His loneliness eventually drives him to leave his father’s house and live on Jackson’s island.
While on Jackson’s Island, he meets Jim. Huck does not realize that Jim can have feelings and has a family. He just knows what society taught him, that Jim is a piece of property. As Huck’s journey progresses, he starts to view Jim as a friend, and realizes that he is a person just as much as a white man. This is a major step in his developmental journey.
The final milestone in his journey is when he feels guilty about leaving the robbers on the steamboat wreckage. Prior to this event, it is evident that he only cares about his own well-being, rarely thinking about others. By the end of his journey, he realizes that both slaves and white men...

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