| "Growth" has been an enduring theme in literature, and the writing of growth novels also has a long history. In the history of American literature, there is a large number of classic works with the theme growth. "The Adventures of Huckleberry ? Fen"and "The Catcher in the Rye"are typical representative works.Mark Twain (1835-1910), known as the "Lincoln in American Literature", is a outstanding representative of American realistic literary in the late nineteenth century. In "The Adventures of Huckleberry ? Fen", one of his masterpieces, the whole story was narrated from the first person, and the hero's adventure was told from the perspective of children. Jerome David Salinger (1919-2010), one of the renowned contemporary novelists in American literary, was well-known all over the world for his "Catcher in the Rye". This novel was very popular in United States in the 1950s, especially in young people. Similarly, the novel took the way of the first-person narration, and went to the inner world of young men to show their depression in their growth process, so that the hypocrisy of the adult world would be criticized through the youth's "eyes".In recent years, the growth of young people has been the focus of attention, and there is no doubt that the two novels, classic representatives of growth novels, are bound to more problems about the growth of young people. Protagonists were at an important age, and they chose to leave their home in such a period. The focus of the novel is that how they encountered obstacles keeping them from matures during the period of wandering from home, how they crossed the crisis-ridden adolescent to go into another stage of life, and how they faced and solved these difficulties in this process.This article based on perusal of the text combining with writer's narrative mode, character image molding, and the historical context the protagonists in, tries to excavate the differences and similarities in the growth course of the two a protagonists. From the establishment of self consciousness of Hark to Houlton watching alone, we can take it as evolution of American spirit, and of today, with the development of the society, the American spirit is constantly changing. Here, we compare the two novels again, in combing the development of American bildungsroman, in order to better understand the heritage and development of American culture. It also can help to further excavate adolescence tortuous growing journey. The text is divided into three parts; citation part describes the research status at home and abroad to the two novels, and gives an inductive analysis of two novels. At the same time it presents the author's theoretical framework. The first part based on perusal of the text focus on the "runaway" of the protagonists. Through analysis and comparison of Hanker and Holden's runaway, it reflects social features of the time they lived in. According to the thesis, the social environment, mainstream social values, family and school education is important to the growing up of the youth, which shape their physical and mental together. Actually, Huck and Houlton run away into the life means a new step of them. The second part began with the descriptions of the journey of Huck and Holden, analyzed the wandering places of them. This part of the paper is divided into two sections, the first section discusses from the literary point of view of space. Huck and Holden were wandering on the river and the streets of New York respectively. One was a natural landscape; the other was typical representative of urban culture. Therefore, these two different literary spaces determined that the two heroes inevitably had different experiences and feelings in the process of wandering. The second section started discussion on the point that young people will meet a guide who leads them towards the next period during their growing up. The two heroes'guides became the key to their growth and played a crucial role in their smooth transition to the next stage of life. In the third part, through the growth of the two characters, we can see the heritage and development of American spirit. By comparing the endings of the two novels, we can summarize the factors that affect young people's growth, know how the American spirit is showed and make prospect of the development trend of the American spirit. |
PDF Full Text Request