How To Kill a Mockingbird Vs. Huck Finn

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Courtney McPhillips How to Kill a Mockingbird vs. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are two timeless American classics. Though the two novels seem to be very different when not looked deeply into, there are many comparisons that can be made between them. A lynching mob goes after Colonel Sherburn in a scene in Huck Finn. This scene is very similar to a scene in To Kill a Mockingbird in which a group of men from Maycomb confront Atticus at the jailhouse. The similarities that these sequences share truly show a connection between the two novels. First off, in each of these scenes, there is a particular character that is the leader of the crowd. This character gets singled out by another as a representation of the rest of the group. In the mob scene in Huck Finn, the targeted character was Buck Harkness. Colonel Sherburn clearly criticizes him and his moral issues, using him as an example for the rest of people involved in the mob. He says, “You brought PART of a man—Buck Harkness, there—“Sherburn continues to refer to him with that negative connotation throughout the speech. For example, he later says, “But if only HALF a man—like Buck Harkness, there—shouts ’Lynch him! Lynch him!’ you’re afraid to back down…” In the jailhouse sequence in Mockingbird, Mr. Walter Cunningham is the main subject of moral attack. Though it is a less straight forward approach, and almost unintentional, the point is still given across to the reader. Scout inserted herself into the confrontation and did not exactly know what was going on. She was being friendly with Mr. Cunningham and personally mentioned him, his family and his legal affairs. She says, “Hey Mr. Cunningham. How’s your entailment gettin’ along?” She later mentions his son, Walter, saying, “He’s in my grade… and he does
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