Charater Comparsions

If David Hayden, from Montana 1948, and Huck Finn, from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, were to meet each other it could be the start of quite an interesting friendship. Both boys are loners and inquisitive. They enjoy time in nature and don't always follow the rules. Most importantly, both David and Huck watch out for those around them and notice more than people think.

Both of the boys are very protective of those around them. For example, when his father and grandfather are fighting and Grandfather reaches into his coat pockets to look for something, David immediately connects this to the time his grandfather pulled a gun on a stranger at Uncle Frank's bachelor party. He thinks to himself, " Didn't he [Wes] know that his father was going for a weapon?" (Pg.116). David connects his grandfather's visible anger over Frank's arrest with his obvious disrespect for Wes. It is this connection that adds to David's fear for his father's safety, causing him to yell out "Dad" to catch his father's attention. It was with this shout that David hoped to keep his father safe from the harm he beloved his grandfather was capable of. Huck Finn works similarly to protect Jim. When the two of them pass by the men looking for runaway slaves, Huck leads them to believe his sick family is on the raft and he needs help, all the while saying things such as "it's the -a-the-well, it ain't anything much," (Pg. 90) when he's asked what's wrong with his pap on the raft. Through Huck's nervous actions and words, the men assume that his pap must have the smallpox, which turns them right around. Acting the way he did, Huck made sure the men wouldn't come to check his raft, and through doing this Huck was protecting Jim from certain capture by these men. David also works to protect his mother in the situation when the men with guns are coming from Grandfather's farm to break out Uncle Frank. He comes back from his brief search for his father to find his mother struggling with a shotgun in the kitchen. He thinks, "my mother was there in front of me, now trying clumsily to poke the shotgun barrel out through the hole in the screen, and I wanted to protect her...(pg.138)." David doesn't just want to protect her from the men but more from the emotional impact that her actions could have on her. His mother is such a proper and quiet woman that David is worried how she would deal with the guilt of hurting one of the men, even accidentally. In this scene David is trying to protect her from these men, but even more so he is trying to protect her from herself. When the king and the Duke set out to rob the sisters, Huck steps in to protect them. At one point during his first night there, Huck meets with each of the three sisters and his first thought each time is "this is a girl that I'm letting that old reptile rob of her money." (Pg. 174). He even feels worse when he sees the girls break down over their slaves being sent away and it is then that he breaks down. Huck goes and has a talk with Mary Jane and the two of them work out a plan to get the king and duke caught, and Huck even assures her that the slaves will be back. Through his guilty feeling and eventual plan of action we can see that Huck is worried about these girls' well being, and his plan is created to protect them from any further grief the men might cause.

David and Huck are also very observant. David for one notices the meaning of the name "Hayden" in Mercer County. He notes that, "it gave me a measure of respect I didn't have to earn." (Pg. 126). David hears the people talk about them in cafes, watch them in the streets and treat