Malala Yousafzai Essay

Jon Carr Bildungs Who? Period 4 Mr. Danforth
In 2014 Malala Yousafazai became the youngest laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize when confronting conflicts with her society, regarding women's education in the Middle East. Showing unwavering bravery and dedication to her beliefs proved nearly fatal from a gunshot wound to the head. In another act of courage, Malala spoke out against the tyrannical rhetoric of republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, who recently made incredibly insensitive comments regarding Muslims. She responded against this hate with maturity and conviction, not standing for injustice. Malala's stance against the grain of society is similar to Mark Twain's main character from his coming of age novel The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. Commonly referred to as a bildungsroman, this story reveals the main character, Huckleberry Finn, growing up and changing amidst his southern antebellum society. Throughout this novel, Huck encounters dilemmas that shape his morality.
Young and impressionable Huckleberry Finn first finds himself in a life altering decision when aboard the Walter Scott, a sinking ship filled with three dangerous murderers. In this life or death situation, Huck and Jim decide to steal the raft the murderers took to board the ship, leaving them for dead. Huck begins to feel incredibly guilty for the men, saying "there ain't no telling but I might come to be a murderer myself, yet, and then how would I like it" (68). Huck is beginning to understand that life is precious, even if these people may be murderers, they don't deserve death. This is big step forward for Huck, considering all that he had been
Carr 2 through with an abusive father. In fact, Huck is so committed to his belief of the value of life that he manufactures a brilliant lie to a ferryboat watchmen. This attempt to save the lives of these men shows a change in his ethics. Although at a heavy price, Huck's transformation continues.
On more than one occasion in the novel, Huck questions what he is doing with Jim.
Why is he putting so much on the line to save this runaway slave? He faces an intense moral dilemma between his societies opinions and something inside of him that says helping Jim is imperative. He feels bad for assisting Jim because he is hurting Miss Watson, Jim's owner. He really struggles with this because Miss Watson had never hurt Huck, in fact she tried to help him early on in the story. Huck blames himself for helping Jim, stating, "you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a paddled ashore and told somebody" (82). After wrestling with this problem for a bit longer, Huck was presented an opportunity to rat out Jim when a skiff with two men called passed by. They asked Huck who else was in the raft with him and he answered "it's pap that's there . . . He's sick" (84). Once again, Huck conjures up a brilliant lie which scares the men from boarding the raft, and saves Jim's life. Huck faces an important "fork in the road" with his relationship with Jim, and through his actions he chooses to further his moral development, but at the cost of potentially being ridiculed by his
society.
Royalty is typically sought after, but swindlers Duke of Bridgewater and King Louis XVII make Huck change his perception of royalty. In their most elaborate scheme, the King and Duke impersonate William and Harvey Wilks, deceiving an
Carr 3 entire town into believing they are the brother of deceased Peter Wilks and obtaining part of his fortune. Huck realizes that taking advantage of this dead man's family is unethical and immoral, leading to the sabotage of the King and Duke's plan to get as much money from this situation as possible. He takes the money and hides it in Peter Wilk's Coffin. Later, Huck tells Peter Wilk's daughter, Mary Jane, the truth about these conman, "These uncles of yourn ain't no uncles at all-they're a couple of frauds-regular deadbeats" (170). Huck reveals everything to Mary Jane and in doing so, he takes responsibility for his actions and helps her. He abandons his involuntary relationship with the King and Duke and in doing so, he continues his moral metamorphosis. He realizes that the King and Duke are just one more example of the questionable morale of the antebellum south.
The trials of youth mold a person, this mold may take many shapes.
Holden Caulfield, from J. D. Saliger's Catcher in the Rye, attempted to put off this molding by running running away to the "Big Apple". During his "road trip" through New York City he faces challenges that lead him to maturing. Similarly, Huckleberry Finn faced much adversity throughout the novel. He gradually became aware of the society he was growing up in. Huck underwent transfiguration becoming aware of life's worth, no matter if you were a murderer, a slave, or a victim. He became acutely aware that every human being is a distinctive individual that needs to be treated as
such.