Escape – Extract 2
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn “It was kind of lazy...”(p26) to “...till he got that chance.” (27) Collins Classics
The Catcher in the Rye “The funny thing is though...”(p13) to “...when you think about it.” (p16) Penguin

Analyse the extract in detail. Make sure you cover: * The ways in which the writer presents and develops Huck’s character. * The ways in which the writer creates a distinctive narrative voice. * The ways in which the theme of escape is presented. The ways in which any other themes are explored by the writer. * The ways in which the extract is a product of the novel’s social and historical context.
In both extracts the theme of escape is explored. In extract 1, Huck is planning to escape from his abusive father and in extract 2 Holden does his best to escape from Mr Spencer’s room. Both extracts are in the first person so that the reader feels the narrator’s discomfort. Both characters feel the need to escape from oppression of some type; Huck from physical abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father and Holden from what he feels is the oppressive, “depressing” atmosphere of Spencer’s room and Pencey in general. In both extracts the reader feels the anxiety of the main character. However, the two characters are quite different. Huck is practical, resourceful and admirably cheerful whereas Holden is portrayed as neurotic and judgemental. We seem to be presented with a hero in Huck and an anti-hero in Holden.
Both characters reflect their social and historical contexts. Huck, a product of poverty in 19th century Missouri, is trying to survive in a society with which he finds it impossible to come to terms. He is presented as a child of nature who has no time for Miss Watson’s rules where he has to “eat on a plate” and stop “cussing”. And, although he is “comfortable”, with no “books nor study”, he soon finds that life with pap is also intolerable. He tells us that “pap got too handy with his hick’ry” and that he was “all over welts”. He is describing pretty horrific physical abuse but in a typically cheerful, matter-of-fact tone. The alliteration and euphemism in “handy with his hick’ry” seems to play down the abuse and, typically, presents Huck as a pragmatist who accepts this type of treatment as something he has come to expect. Huck’s feelings are expressed in short, straightforward sentences such as “It was dreadful lonesome” and “I was scared”. There is a touching, naïve directness in such declarations that help create the character of a child. However, he doesn’t dwell on his misery. Instead, he takes practical steps to improve his situation. This is reflected in his decisive language like, “I made up my mind” and “[I] went to work”. There is innocence in the simple sentence, “I was scared” which reminds the reader that this is a child. However, he is a resourceful and self-reliant child who never succumbs to self-pity and rarely to introspection. He is soon describing the physical details of his escape: “the old rusty wood-saw”, “an old horse-blanket” all contribute to the sense that this is a character concerned with the physical world rather than his own mental state.
However, in extract 2, Holden seems removed from reality for much of the novel. He is also judgemental of others and hypercritical in contrast to Huck who is remarkably forgiving of his father. Indeed, Holden begins by telling the reader that, as Spencer was speaking, he was thinking about the ducks in Central Park. In fact, he goes on to tell us that he could, “shoot the old bull to old Spencer and think about those ducks at the same time”. He is a dreamer who can’t seem to focus. The first person narrative allows the writer to reveal Holden’s thoughts as he is speaking to Spencer and we find that he is constantly distracted. He judges others constantly complaining that Spencer was “always interrupting” and complains about his “bumpy chest” which “wasn’t such a beautiful view”. There is a strong contrast with Huck who refers to his escape plan as “work” suggesting a focused and determined nature. In fact, extract 2 begins with a recurring day-dream of Holden’s. He is distracted by the question of where the ducks go in the winter from Central Park. Here we have an insight into Holden’s character. The childlike fascination with the ducks and the idea that “some guy” might take them away to the zoo for the winter presents a kind of naivety that reveals Holden’s innocent side. The normally cynical, bitter character unconsciously reminds us that, much like Huck, he is only a child. It is reminiscent of Huck’s youthful fascination with all things natural. So, the two extracts show us characters that are contrasting in many ways but also, paradoxically, quite similar.
We are also given an insight into what the two boys are escaping from. Huck’s situation is relatively straightforward: he can no longer tolerate his father’s abuse and needs to escape from that environment for his own safety. At the same time, he tells us that he has no intention of returning to the widow to be “cramped up” and “sivilized”. Here we have a microcosm of a major concern of Twain’s. The writer uses the picaresque novel to satirise contemporary society. On one hand Huck encounters the strict, Southern morality and religious observance represented by characters such as the widow and the hypocritical Grangerfords. At the other extreme we encounter the feckless stupidity of the tobacco chewing yokels who set fire to dogs and the selfish pap whose aggression and idiocy are too much for Tom to bear. We can see that, although he is Pap’s son, he is by no means a similar character. He sees through Pap and gently pokes fun at him as he “got to cussing”. Here, the narrative voice effectively mocks Pap who we are told, “cussed everything and everybody” and then – rather comically – “polished off with a kind of general cuss all round”. He even cusses those he is forced to call “what’s-his-name”, because he doesn’t know their names. Here Twain satirises the ignorance of the character in his indiscriminate condemnation of everything and everybody through the naïve voice of Huck who seems merely to be describing Pap’s tirade. However, the image of him having “polished off” with a “general cuss” belittles Pap and exposes his stupidity. So, by having the child simply describe the idiocy he observes, Twain uses the naïve narrator to expose the faults in the antebellum South.
In contrast, Salinger has his character directly criticise those around him. However, it is more difficult to see exactly what Holden is escaping from. After all, he is at a prestigious school and has all of life’s advantages including wealth and education – a stark contrast to Huck’s situation. Not only does Holden complain about Spencer’s physical appearance, he doesn’t like his tone which he describes as “sarcastic, but sort of nasty too”. Later, he outlines one of the reasons he left his old school. He tells us about a “phony”, Mr Haas. We are told that Hass, in Holden’s opinion at least, was as “charming as hell” unless a parent was “fat or corny-looking”, in which case he avoided them. This kind of hypocrisy and shallowness is exactly the kind of thing that Holden “can’t stand” and could be interpreted as the writer expressing a sense in which US society, at the time, felt restricted and rule-governed – particularly for the young.
At the same time, Holden seems unable to listen to Spencer who seems to be doing his best to help the confused young man. His language is peppered with hedges like “sort of” and “I mean” which have a tendency to make him sound vague and unsure of himself. He also generalises with the phrase “and all” in sentences like, “Everybody goes through phrases and all, don’t they?”. This particular part of his idiolect has the effect of making him sound vague and evasive, as if he has more to say but can’t or won’t express his ideas fully, either because he feels too uncomfortable to do so or is simply too lazy. These features of Holden’s language effectively create the voice of the teenager, but also characterise him as confused and unclear. Also, reassurances like “I really do” and “I mean it” make him sound vague and evasive. When he is making excuses to leave, he says “I have quite a bit of equipment at the gym I have to take home with me. I really do.” Here, the addition of the last sentence gives a sense that he does not really expect that he will be believed. We have the sense that he knows that Spencer will suspect he is lying. In this extract he also contradicts himself by saying he has “concern” for his future and, in the next breath, “not too much”. So, in Holden we have a character that is capable of insight into the hypocrisy and shallowness of authority figures like Hass, but who comes across as unreliable and vague to the reader. Salinger deliberately prevents the reader from taking sides. Is Holden trapped in a stilted, shallow and hypocritical society or is he simply a confused and shallow character himself? The answer is probably somewhere in between. In contrast, Huck’s open, naïve quality and determined nature leaves us in no doubt that it is society that is at fault and not Huck. The boy is simply seeking a life free from restriction and abuse.
The contrast in the characters is emphasised by how the situations have some things in common. In Pencey, Holden is escaping from authority and in Spencer we see an authority figure that Holden can see is trying to help him but whom he feels is, “too much on opposite sides of the pole”. What he might mean by this is unclear. However, he seems disturbed by any signs of aging or decrepitude that he sees in Spencer. He is put off by the “grippy smell”, “his old bathrobe with his chest showing” as well as the way he “kept missing the bed”. Here we see the beginnings of the theme of innocence that is developed later. Holden wants to be a “catcher in the rye”, a saver of the innocent. He is disturbed by the adult world and Spencer’s illness seems too much for him to bear. His fear of growing up is apparent in his fantasy of “saving” the children and it is also hinted at when Spencer refers to the future. Holden’s reaction is to write: “I didn’t like hearing him say that. It made me sound dead or something”. Although this novel is often characterised as a bildungsroman, ironically, Holden seems afraid to grow up.
In contrast, Huck is forced to grow up quickly and takes responsibility for himself and his future. He spends little time judging others; in fact he merely describes his father without passing judgement. The closest he gets to condemnation of Pap in this extract is to say that he was not in “a good humour” and therefore, “his natural self”. Unlike Spencer, who is doing his best to help and understand a young person, Pap is prepared to treat Huck as a commodity. This is reflected in the language which is dehumanising. We are told by Huck that his father is prepared to “stow” him as if he is cargo and not a human being. Huck’s reaction is to take decisive action. He tells us that he “wouldn’t stay in hand” to find out if his father was serious about hiding him where, “they couldn’t find him”. Huck has no time for holding on to innocence and, unlike Holden, he faces the future decisively.
The two extracts illustrate many of the similarities in the narrative voice between the two novels. Both are written in a conversational vernacular creating an informal tone and a close relationship with the reader. Huck Finn’s voice, for example, contains much repetition which creates the sense that this is real, unrehearsed and unpolished. For example, in the extract Huck uses “pretty” as an intensifier frequently: “pretty careful”, “pretty soon”, pretty uneasy”, pretty good”. He uses “reckon” or “reckoned” three times and “considerable” twice. These words are used frequently through the novel and help create his idiolect and his distinctive voice.
In a similar way, Salinger has Holden use repetition. He uses “old” before the names of characters very often: “old Haas”, “Old Spencer”, “old Thurmer” etc. It might be interpreted as a term of endearment but he tends to use it indiscriminately suggesting it is just part of his idiolect. His favourite simile “as hell” is used twice in the extract and other verbal “tics” like “and all”, “sort of”, “I mean” and “I guess” are all very evident in this passage.
The repetition creates a feeling of spontaneity and forms a distinctive narrative voice – that of the adolescent who, while expressive in his own way, is not learned or literary in his expression.
However, it is clear that Huck is not an educated young man and this is reflected in his language. The authenticity of his voice is reinforced by his Missouri dialect. He uses double negatives as a matter of course: “no books nor study” and “I didn’t want to go back no more”. Whereas, the more educated Holden does so less often. He also uses non-standard verb agreement as in, “there was ways to put it off” and non-standard verb forms like “Thatcher knowed”. In contrast, Holden, a middle class boy, generally uses standard grammar with the occasional slip. For example, Huck uses adjectives rather than adverbs routinely, like “dreadful lonesome” and “This shook me up considerable”. Here we can see a similarity when Holden uses the same forms in, “He didn’t say it just sarcastic, but sort of nasty too”.
There are other features of Huck’s language that identify him as a character of a particular place and time. For example, phrases such as “by and by” and words like “cussing” would seem incongruous in the more modern, urban vernacular of Holden’s. Also, a verb like “pecking” at someone seems to come from a rural rather than an urban environment. In Salinger’s novel we see some evidence of language change over time. Holden uses words that Twain would not have encountered in his lifetime. For example, “phony” appeared in American slang around 1900, “corny” in the 1930s and “bull” as an abbreviated version of “bull-shit” (the sense in which Holden uses it in to “shoot the bull”) around 1915.
The heavy use of profanity in “Catcher” is also in contrast to Twain’s novel. In the extract Holden uses his favourite profanity “goddam” twice (it is used 89 times in the novel as a whole), “hell” twice and “bastard” once. Although the profanity caused much controversy when the novel was published, it reflects a change in attitudes towards the use of taboo language in literature since the publication of Huck Finn merely by the fact that it was published at all. In Holden, Salinger created a rebellious teenager before the teenager had even been invented. In Holden’s use of profanity we see a character who does not want to conform to society’s expectations and, therefore, uses the language of an outsider. It is interesting to note, though, that Holden is still aware of society’s rules and refrains from using the most offensive taboo lexis. Another interesting aspect of Holden’s use of profanity is that, in this passage, and in general, he uses it in his narration but not in his interactions with other characters. When he talks to Spencer he is polite, using “Sir” at all times, and self-deprecating, calling himself a “moron”. However, in his internal monologue his anger and frustration are expressed using profanity and slang. The contrast between the Holden that the reader knows form his narration and the face he presents to the outside world is effective in creating a close reader/narrator relationship. We feel that Holden has chosen to confide in us. Holden’s use of profanity and slang, therefore, is an effective way of portraying a character that will not conform to society’s expectations and, instead, longs to escape from any attempt to shape or guide him. He repeats the metaphor that he and Spencer are “too much on the opposite sides of the pole”. What he means is not clear at the moment but as the novel progresses it seems he need to escape the pressure to conform.
The pressure to conform can be connected to the novel’s historical context. The 1950s in the U.S. has often been characterised as a time of social conformity. The economy was booming and the suburbs were expanding. Mass consumerism was born and the middle classes were growing. The perceived threat from the U.S.S.R. and communism encouraged America to turn in on itself and pull together. The dissent that had characterised the national mood in the 1930s and the great Depression has been reversed to a more conservative feeling of consensus. As a middle class boy from a successful and conventional family, Holden’s desire to escape represents a rejection of convention. He can see the hypocrisy in “old Haas” and it drives him crazy. He also seems to see the future in Spencer and feels as “sorry as hell” for him, yet “couldn’t have sat there another ten minutes”. It is significant that his revulsion for Spencer is centred on aging: he can’t abide to see his “old Bathrobe”, “his bumpy chest” and the “grippy smell”. The need to escape from the process of aging and to somehow stop time is another theme explored through the novel and evident in this passage. In time when the pressure to conform was strong, Salinger created a character that seems to foreshadow the youthful rebellion that was to follow in the late 50s and 60s.
Huck is also a non-conformist but less self-consciously so. And here is a key difference between the characters. Holden is quite clear and specific about what he “can’t stand”. He hates hypocrisy, money, convention, the self-regarding – the list goes on. He is explicit about his feelings towards others and judges them, most damningly as “phony”. Haas, for example has a “phony smile”. Huck also tells us what he dislikes: that he couldn’t continue to live conventionally where he had to “eat on a plate” and how he “couldn’t stand” the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. However, he rarely passes judgement. Instead, he seems to accept the flaws he finds in others and simply take himself away from the situation. For example, he merely reports his father’s rant and “general cuss[ing]” without judgement. He is concerned with his personal safety and that he was beginning to feel “pretty uneasy” rather than criticising others.
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