Huck Finn Vs. The Odyssey Essay, Research Paper

In “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain, Huck considers himself to be an ignorant fool, and an over all bad person that should be looked down upon. However, through out his story, without ever realizing it, Huck manages to live through many incredible adventure, and commit selfless acts that would consider him to be a true hero. It could even be taken to the extent that Huck Finn lived a more down to earth version of Homer’s “Odyssey.” After all, they are both stories of a reliable person going through the biggest adventure of their lives, while facing certain types of monsters, and using their cleverness in order to escape many obstacles. The only main difference in this is the fact that while Odysseus faced more mythical challenges, Huck braved through the challenges of his modern society, and the types of people in it. But even so, one could easily say that Huckleberry Finn made almost the exact same journey as Odysseus, with a slightly modern twist.

To start with, let’s look at both characters reasoning behind their journeys. Odysseus began his sea bound adventure because of the fact that he was allowed his freedom from Calypso, who has been holding him captive in hopes of turning him into her husband. So Odysseus is allowed to set sale to homeland. Huck set out on his adventure because he was attempting to escape from his drunken Pap, who was holding him captive in order to get money. Huck manages to escape on a raft, and set sale. At the end of Huck’s adventure, he does in fact end up in what will be his home. The two scenario’s are similar for many reasons. For example, both Huck and Odysseus are being held captive for one reason or another. Calypso wanting Odysseus for a husband is just like Pap wanting Huck for his money. And to add onto this, both of them manage to escape through the use of a raft. The only difference there is the fact that Odysseus is setting sale through the seas, while Huck takes on his adventure through Mississippi River.

Next in comparison between the two stories would be the use of “monsters” used through out them. In The Odyssey, Odysseus is forced into fights and challenges that largely deal with monsters, such as the Cyclops, which is a giant, single red eyed beast with the body of a human.. Odysseus is trapped with some of his men in a cave with the Cyclops, who eats several of them, and tries to kill the others. While it sleeps, Odysseus stabs its eye, which blinds the enormous beast. However it still is alive, and continues its attempts to trap and kill Odysseus and his men. Odysseus manages to fool the Cyclops with his ability to think quickly, and rides on the belly of one of the Cyclops’s sheep in order to escape. Huck Finn uses similar quick thinking to overcome his own Cyclops, his Pap. This would be in chapter six, where Pap goes into a drunken frenzy, and attempts to grab Huck and kill him. During this, Huck makes several references to Pap’s eyes, by saying that he is “blind drunk,” (page 28), and then says, ” I never see a man look so wild in the eyes” (page 28). Luckily, Pap passes out before he can kill Huck. From there, Huck grabs his Pap’s gun and aims it at him, but falls asleep with out ever actually shooting it. The next morning, Pap wakes Huck, taking the gun from him, and then asks why Huck had it in the first place. Huck, through his use of quick thinking, says, ” Somebody tried to get in, so I was laying for him,” (page 30) and fools his father. These two situations compare in both Odysseus’s and Huck’s Odyssey for two reasons. First off, it shows their ability to think quickly in a tight situation in order to escape. Odysseus escapes by thinking to ride the sheep’s belly’s, where the Cyclops can’t reach them, and Huck uses this quick thinking by telling his father that somebody was outside, so he had the gun in case the ‘person’ should attack. Next would be the heavy similarity between Huck’s Pap and the Cyclops. First off, they are both locking the narrators into a space that they believe the narrators can’t break free from (and in both cases, the heroes do break free). Next off would be how Huck describes his Pap’s eyes, almost as if Pap were the Cyclops. When Huck says “blind drunk,” it’s almost a reference to the fact that Odysseus blinds the Cyclops. Another point of attention made toward Pap’s eyes is when Huck says how wild they are. Also, is the fact that Pap’s drunken frenzy is much like the Cyclops’s savage behavior. And just to point out another fact between the two over all stories, both the situations between Odysseus and the Cyclops, and Huck and his Pap happen early on in the stories, almost as if Twain was attempting to use The Odyssey as an outline for his own story. In fact, the only major difference between the situations is the fact that The Cyclops is mythical, and Pap is a much more realistic character.

Already mentioned is the fact that both Odysseus and Huck are held against their will in the beginning of their stories. Every time they manage to escape, but do end up getting trapped again later. The first time Odysseus is trapped is in the beginning of his story, where he is being held captive by Calypso, who wants to make him her husband. Although, as mentioned, this compares strongly too Pap holding Huck captive for money, it also compares to the very beginning of the story, where Huck is living with Widow Douglas, where Huck says, “?She took me in for son, and allowed she would sivilize me.” (page 1) Of course, just like Odysseus was found yearning for freedom by Hermes, Huck shows his longing for escape and freedom by saying, “?when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar hogshead again, and was free and satisfied.” (page 1) And of course, the reasoning behind both characters being held hostage is similar. Calypso wants to marry Odysseus, which is much like how the Widow Douglas wants Huck to be civilized. Either way would be a change in lifestyle.

Traveling by sea is another strong similarity used through out the stories. Not only

the fact that both start off traveling on a small raft or canoe, but the fact that they’re both thrown into danger while on their vessels. In “The Odyssey,” Odysseus’s men are punished for eating The Cattle Of The Sun by being thrown into a sudden storm, where Odysseus is thrown overboard, and narrowly escapes. This is much like Huck’s run in with a ferryboat. It comes right out of nowhere, just like the sudden storm. And when it hits, Huck is thrown overboard, and is forced to swim for shore. Huck even describes the ferryboat as if it were a storm by saying, ” She was a big one, and she was coming in a hurry, too, looking like a black cloud with rows of glowworms around it; but all of a sudden she bulged out, big and scary?” (page 93).

Another strong, and more-long term similarity between “Huck Finn” and “The Odyssey” is the fact that both Huck and Odysseus end up in the company of some real bad misanthropes. Odysseus, through out his story, is stuck with the crew of his ship, who are greedy, self centered jerks. They are the ones who looked into the bag of winds, which threw their ships way off course. They also ended up eating sacred cattle after being warned not too, which causes Odysseus to be thrown off of his ship in the violent storm. These men are related to Huck’s own unwelcome company, The King and Duke. These are two men who are completely filled with greed, and continually con person after person for their own needs. The best example of this would be when the two men con an entire town by pretending to be the Wilks brothers. They do this by attaining information by getting a minor character, Alexander Blodgett, who gives them an entire story about two English brothers (one’s a preacher, and the other deaf), who are heirs to a great fortune, but live in England. The Wilks brothers were sent notice of their other brothers death, and so far haven’t arrived. Should they, then they would be staying with their brothers daughters, Mary Jane, Susan, and Joanna, who has a harelip. So with this new information, The Duke and King take Huck and Jim, the runaway slave, to the town, and pretend to be the Wilks brothers, and con everybody in it, while selling all of the property, and attempting to take the entire fortune. When Huck describes exactly how he feels about them, he says, “It was enough to make a body ashamed to the human race” (page 160). The Duke and King are related with Odysseus’s crew because of the fact that they simply don’t have any morals. When both groups know that there is a certain danger in what they’re doing, they still go for what they can get. This is shown in “The Odyssey” through the eating of sacred cattle, and in “Huck Finn,” through the Duke and King continuing their con over the Wilks daughters (and entire town for that matter), even though they’ve already gotten plenty more then they would actually need for quite a while. Over all, either of the groups (being Odysseus’s men and The Duke and King) behavior is as though they are the house-guests that just won’t leave.

Another strong relationship between both stories would be how Both Huck and Odysseus hold a certain loyalty to the person that they care the most about in their stories. Odysseus had a wife, named Penelope, who was in his homeland, which he was trying to reach. And despite many temptations, like when the princess of the Phaeacians asks him to marry her and become a king, Odysseus keeps on traveling home in order to see his wife. This is similar to Huck’s relationship with Jim, the runaway slave. At one point in the story, Huck is given a chance of living a very good life with a feuding family, the Grangerford’s. They live in what they consider to be a very high lifestyle, and offer Huck to stay with them for the rest of his life (or until he’s killed by a Shepardson, which ever comes first). He is thrilled by the offer, and enjoys how friendly they are, but after Buck Grangerford, Huck’s new friend, is killed in a small battle, Huck parts too the raft, where Jim is waiting. The last thing that Huck says in chapter eighteen, where he and Jim are off on the Mississippi again, is, ” You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft,” which over all means that he’s perfectly happy with his peaceful life with Jim, in their own little society. The two situations compare between Odysseus and Huck because of the fact that either one of them could have had it all, but still knew that home is where the heart is, and decided that they would remain loyal, by going to their loved ones.

So, as one can see, Both “The Odyssey” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” are highly similar stories, right down to the main characters being somewhat alike. They both have similar plots, ideas, and their narrators both go under many challenges, which they always rise above from. And with that in mind, one can’t help but wonder if Mark Twain was in fact cleverly rewriting “The Odyssey,” or if he just happened to have written it similar out of pure irony.