Coming of Age in The Kite Runner, To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn
By Robin Sulkosky, published Jul 23, 2008
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Though written in and about three very different periods in history, the novels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Huck Finn), To Kill a Mockingbird (Mockingbird), and The Kite Runner (Kite Runner) all focus on the childhood experiences of their narrators. A common thread runs throughout each story, despite the massive differences in setting in each novel: the narrators' coming of age in the face of racism.Difference in place and time lends each novel an individual voice. The tribulations of Huckleberry Finn (Huck Finn), Scout Finch (Mockingbird), and Amir (Kite Runner) are all very trying and test each character's mettle throughout each respective story. Each must deal with ethical decisions of massive proportions at a very young age. Though somewhat similar in theme, each character's troubles are confined to the place and time in which he or she lives. Huck must deal with the rightness or wrongness of the concept of slavery while he travels up and down the muddy Mississippi river in the face of the racism of the early 19th century, and he must also do battle, to some extent, with himself-he was taught to hate but slowly learns to love. Scout, on the other hand, must face the more subversive double-standard of separate-but-equal in depression era Alabama where talk of equality among blacks and whites never quite brings the concept to fruition. She and Jem must face this double-standard in living color as they watch the trial of Tom Robinson unfold. Amir's challenges, taking place in Afghanistan circa 1970, are quite different from Huck's or Scout's in almost too many regards to be named. His childhood, though relatively easy-going, is riddled with secrets kept by and from him, racism (not black and white, but Afghani and Hazara), and war. Time and place change drastically between each of these novels and therefore so does the imagery, dialogue, and action. However, close examination of each novel reveals very common themes that seem to connect them.
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Posted on 07/23/2008 at 5:07:26 PM