Holden Caulfield and Huckleberry Finn: first-person narrators

A brief analysis of the narration choices of J.D. Salinger and Mark Twain for their iconic novel characters. Learn more about the novels by following these Amazon affiliate links:
J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye: A Cultural History
ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. Tom Sawyer’s Companion. A Volume in The 100 (One Hundred) Greatest Books Ever Written.

Watch the Hartiverse video about these two novels here: https://youtu.be/Z56gOiqI_II

This is a short analysis of the authors’ choice of narrator voices in two famous novels, The Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn.

When studying novels, it’s hard enough to keep all the characters straight, remember crucial plot points, look for themes and motifs, and try to understand any literary or historical allusions.

But if a novel has a first-person narrator, you have to ask yourself, “How much can I trust the person telling this story,” because having a first-person narrator is a very intentional choice on the part of the author. Think about how different J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye would be if it had a third-person, omniscient narrator instead of Holden Caulfield. How would it begin?

“Holden Caulfield was a well-meaning, if confused and misguided, young man who was never able to fully get over the untimely death of his brother Allie.” This may be a reasonable introduction to the character of Holden Caulfield, but it also essentially reveals everything the reader learns about Holden by reading his story. When Holden tells his story himself, you may find him first annoying, then frustrating, then curious, and finally pitiable. This is a young man who was exposed to the cruelty of the world too soon and, as such, is unable to have a functional relationship with just about anyone.

If you’re unable to go on this journey with Holden, hearing his account of everything he experiences and seeing the world and other people through his eyes, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to be as sympathetic towards him by the end of the novel. A third-person narration would not allow you to see the world through Holden’s eyes. Even though it would allow you to see all of the events in Holden’s life exactly as they occur, it’s unlikely that the Catcher in the Rye would be as powerful and enduring a novel if it were told from anyone else’s perspective.

The same principle applies to Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain may be one of the greatest American writers of all time, but would he have been able to tell that story in a voice other than Huck’s? It’s hard to imagine. Obviously, Huck and Jim’s story is a great one, but it could be argued that the strength of the story lies just as much in Huck’s voice as it does in the plot itself.

What would Huckleberry Finn’s quotes sound like in a voice other than his own? Huck says, “I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d a knowed it would make him feel that way.” What if, instead, he said, “It was never my intention to be so deceptive, and I never would have acted in such a way had I known it would cause my dear friend such pain.” Because what Huck’s language lacks in sophistication, it makes up for in personality. The reader learns so much about who Huck is simply from the way he speaks. That would all be lost if Twain had chosen a different kind of narrator.

Hopefully you got some insight into the narration choices of these two novels. Please subscribe to the channel and click like. Thank you!