Comparing Narratives

Comparing Narratives

Introduction

The paper will discuss two narratives that bear a theme of condemnation and forgiveness. The two narratives are only related in themes, one of them is known as the adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the other is the Crucible. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer which is a fictional story about two boys and their friends while the crucible covers a witch hunt processes in Massachusetts.

The Emotional Response

The two stories develop top come to climax at a point where there is condemnation of some kind and also forgiver ness. The main characters include Huck Finn who is smart and efficient though uncivilized and seeks to escape from home. Jim is his friend and enslaved by Miss Watson and he is also searching for his family. Miss Watson is Huck’s foster mother who tries to civilize him. Tom Sawyer is another boy about the same age as Huck; he is described as optimistic and hopeless romantic, always occupied by imaginations and creating things in his mind (Twain 2001). Huck and Jim become very good friends as Jim plans to escape from the fate that is ahead of him as his master wants to sell him to a farmer. He develops good friendship with Huck with whom they decide to sail the Mississippi River in an attempt to escape. Jim is black and hence enslaved by Miss Watson the same way in the crucible Tituba who is and Indian has been enslaved by Parris. Huck risk Punishment by not telling Watson where Jim was. Huck and Tom also risk rescuing Jim. Tom on the other hand suffers beatings from the teacher and his aunt Polly, the guardian.

The crucible is about witch hunting in Salem. It’s estimated that about 150 people were apprehended and about 20 killed in Salem, Massachusetts on claims that they were witches. The cause is basically implicated that Parris had enemies who wanted to destroy him. As the accusation begins, the social minorities are affected first (that is a beggar Sarah Good and a

Comparing Narratives

slave in the house of Parris) (Rosenthal et al 2009). This is because a group of young women were performing some rituals visiting Tituba, a slave to listen to her stories and also to foretell the future marriages. Two young girls soon become sick, experiencing crying fits and convulsions. The people in the community believed that this was as a result of witchcraft.

Writers Credibility in Fiction and Non-Fiction Narrative

Basically the non fictional narrative, the writer struggles to keep away from using scenarios that are not realities and hence make the work look more actual and as it its taking place in the real world. The fictional essay on the other hand, the massage to be conveyed is the main focus of the writer. Much attention is not given to the setting and critical analysis of how event take place but rather how the readers gets the message being conveyed (Rosenthal et al 2009).

Real places are mentioned in the non fictional essay while the fictional ones can use no real life places however to achieve credibility, the writer focuses attention not on places but events and bring out the theme. The story about Huck, Tom and Jim is a good example; the place is Mississippi river however the boys get lost in the dark as they sail downstream. The river is not particularly important in these cases as the interest is the events. Since the crucible is based on a true story, the place where the events take place is very critical to the analysis of the story (Twain 2001).

Communicating Serious Message

The fiction stories are meant for entertainment and inside them, they convey some serious messages to the people. For such cases, the writers usually use catch words for instance using the word a slave in the two narratives is critical and unique to convey the messages. We see in the crucible that Tituba the Indian woman was a slave and she was the only Indian woman in that area (Rosenthal et al 2009). Jim in the adventures of Huckleberry on the other had is black (nigger) in a society dominated by the whites. This is quite evident that it would strike the eye of the reader to think about it as why is it that the only black here is a slave or the only Indian is

Comparing Narratives

also a slave.

The facts of the narratives are related in the way they are presented for instance the slaves in both stories are considered to be having no rights. Jim is to be traded just like commodities and he is locked up so that he does not run away while Tituba is thrown to jail without further trial, her life had been miserable and she had no where to go (Gough 1996).

The theme introduced when the secret performances unveil. The rage is about the effects of witchcraft on the community began when Betty, Parris daughter, a slave called Tituba Indian and Abigail Williams (his relative) were found to be performing magic to make predictions of the people fortunes, especially in marriages of Abigail, Betty, Ann Putnam junior and several other girls in the neighborhood (Rosenthal et al 2009) Since they were performing magic practices, these individuals could all have been accused of the evil happenings themselves or to a certain extent they could have been considered as badly behaved women and children then punitive measures taken against them in view of that or all of them be ignored for that practice (Gough 1996).. When Betty falls ill, Tituba and other enemies of Parris are accused of witch craft. This becomes the major cause of the Salem trials. In Huckleberry Finn adventures, the theme is well brought out when they have to rescue Jim. Huck appreciates Jim as a fellow human being and a friend after their experience down the river while Tom is rigid with his beliefs from the while habitats. Huck falls into tears when he finds out that Jim is missing from the raft because he could not help it. And he declares that he would put his life at stake than see his friend Jim gets arrested again. Tom on the other hand views Jim as a ‘nigger’ who is of low class than human (the whites) and who is inept to feel for others or has emotions. Tom actually views Jim the way he was taught and only minds about his happiness and does not tell Huck that actually Jim was already freed (Gough 1996).

Conclusion

Conveying the message to the audience can be very difficult sometimes by use of fictional narratives or even the non fiction ones. The intention of the writer to come up with such an article is very important to be realized so that it can guide interpretation. Some readers may also be very critical trying to force a fictional story into reality and hence loosing the meaning. Critical

Comparing Narratives

thinking is also useful since it will help to establish facts together, and the meaning or the correct interpretation as well.

References

Gough N. (1996). Narration, Reflection, diffraction. Aspects of Fiction. In Educational inquiry. Australian Educational Researcher Vo. 21. No 3

Rosenthal B. et al (2009). Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt. Cambridge University Press. New York

Twain M. (2001). Introduction. The Annotated Huckleberry Finn. Introduction and annotations by Hearn M.P. W.W Norton & Company.