ROLES OF PROTAGONIST

Roles of Protagonist

Roles of Protagonist

Introduction

The protagonists in Jane Austen's 'Emma', Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' and Chaim Potok's 'My Name is Asher Lev' are similarly portrayed as conflicted youths facing social and personal challenges in an arduous journey to maturity. Along the way Emma, Huckleberry and Asher learn more about themselves and their social environment and somehow come to terms with their own self-identities.

Analysis

In Mark Twain's novel, Huckleberry Finn, the role of the narrator is different. In this case, the narration is influenced by the colloquial speech of the protagonist/narrator and his growth can be traced only through the plot itself. Throughout the text, Huckleberry Finn remains essentially the same person through his language, but his growth and understanding of the world around him is affected by the several events of the story that force him to make decisions (Twain, 1982).

In Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, the growth of the protagonist, Huck, is a bit more challenging to trace. If one were to give a cursory reading to this text it may simply seem like a story about adventure rather than one of self-realization and understanding, but it is clear that Huck grows significantly throughout the course of the novel. For example, while he may have some reservations about helping an escaped slave, as his friendship with Jim grows, he sees that helping him is the right thing to do, just as telling little lies to stand up for a moral belief in what is right is also acceptable. It is also significant that by the end of the novel, instead of allowing himself to fall into the “sivilizing” hands of another well-meaning adult, he instead chooses to follow his natural inclination to travel west and become the man he wishes to be (Twain, 1982).

In this respect, he is much like Asher Lev since he is without a true place by the end, yet has a much clearer understanding of who he is and what his beliefs and passions are. Although Asher and Huckleberry Finn share this common element in terms of plot, the way this is related to the reader is much different. Twain relies on a narrative tactic that remains constant throughout the text, one that keeps the humor and colloquial speech of the protagonist and uses plot instead of language development to demonstrate Huck's growth (Zile, 2001).

In Emma, by ...