Differences Between Huck And Holden

The Progression of Huck and Holden
Along Holden and Huck’s journeys to adulthood, both experience many personal factors in their lives that influence their growth. Huck is forced to mature into understanding what is happening in the society he is living in. Holden has to decide whether or not he wants to grow up and let go of the past. Both characters have their own way of thinking and are very critical of society and the human race. Huck ends up questioning slavery, while Holden is trying to understand the changes that occur in his everyday life. Holden’s paradoxical nature is that he does not seem to want to grow up and he is undecided on what he actually wants to do in his life. He cannot seem to get out of the state of mind of a child
Holden is so caught up in all the “phonies” and people around him that annoy him ,and he ends up having a hard time focusing and taking care of himself. Everyone around him annoys him except for those who truly understand him, like Phoebe and Jane. Many people in the novel do not understand that Holden is not being raised in the environment he needs to actually learn to grow up. He requires a stable unchanging environment, in which he is not receiving because his parents are not around to guide him. Instead, they continue to send Holden to schools in which he cannot completely handle because he is surrounded by tons of people who irritate him. He latches on to his memories though, which is why he is thrilled when Stradlater has a date with Jane, because Jane means the world to him. Holden has a hard time accepting the fact things are constantly changing around him. Part of the reason for why Holden is caught in his childhood is for the reason that he wants to revisit all of the good times that he had with Allie. This is described in, “Like everybody else in the book, Antolini fails to see what ails Holden is the death of his brother, Allie, plus parental neglect. (Marks 507).
In a world in which everyone tells him it is okay, he has to discover it for himself. In the novel, Huck often does not want to be told what to do and is very rebellious. He looks up to Tom because of how Tom is able to do adventurous things. Huck’s growth is explained in, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn provides a means of observing his growth and change. As the narrative progresses, the succession of thefts performed by Huck- from the imaginary "julery" and "ingots" stolen by Tom's harmless band of robbers, to the very real act of slave stealing on the Phelps's farm- char Huck's growing moral depth and awareness. “(Link 305). He slowly grows as he becomes more aware of what is going on around him in the world he is living in. He learns to value his friendship with Jim over what society thinks about slaves. When Tom agrees to help Huck with stealing Jim, Huck agrees to follow the plan that Tom comes up with. Tom makes the situation so much more complicated and yet Huck goes along with it. Huck is typically more practical, but he goes along with Tom’s plan because in a way he does not want to have to be the leader. Without guidance, similar to Holden, Huck has to learn about things for himself. He has no one really to rely on when Jim is captured. Huck questions whether or not he should just turn Jim in or save him. By making this moral decision, he grows