Responsibility in The Great Gatsby and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

A boy named Dave, is challenged with the responsibility to obtain what he wants. In the story you have this connection to this main idea that kids can't be mature and their parents can't have trust for them. Dave gets a gun by receiving his mother's trust to get money to purchase the gun. However, when his mother wants the gun he says he hid it. The next day he goes to the woods and shoots it, but he closes his eyes and shoots his mule. He ends up running away, thus he doesn't have to deal with this responsibility. This reveals that his mothers excessive trust leads to her son getting into major trouble. Will Dave Suanders find out that too much trust can lead to trouble.

Dave Saunders, a boy seeking trust through his parents. He develops this need for trust when he wants to purchase a gun. It seems like this means more than just Dave wanting a gun. It seems like he wants this feeling of maturity and power.  He provides us with this nagging attention towards this main idea of him trying to buy a gun. This sense of persistence is what carries him to try to gain his mothers trust. Throughout the start of the story we find out how his parents feel about him. We conclude that they treat him with slim to none trust and his challenge is to gain that trust. They always use the phrase “he is still just a boy”. It genuinely goes to show how much leverage he has with his parents. In the “Great Gatsby '' when Daisy has an affair with Gatsby behind Tom's back it in fact goes to show this untrustworthy theme as is shown in “The man Who Was Almost A Man ''. In the Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald it says “ "I called up Daisy the next morning and invited her to tea. Don't bring Tom I warned her''(Fitzgerald). This truly goes to show the loss of trust Daisy has and now has to somehow obtain that trust back. Dave shows in the beginning of the story that his mother had enough trust to let him buy the gun. However at the end of the story he loses that trust that his mother had for him by acting tremendously irresponsible; by irresponsible it means trouble.

However it's not just him getting in trouble or being irresponsible, it has a deeper meaning than that. When Dave accidentally shoots the horse you get this feeling like he lost everything good that was going for him in the story. As was repeated before, his trustworthy ability is gone, his maturity gone. He lost all that by an exceptionally careless mistake. When he holds the gun you get this feeling like he has gained power and stability. It almost seems like he gets cocky in a way because he says to the horse “He held the gun at arm's length. What the hell, Ahma shot this thing! He looked at Jenny again. Listen here, Jenny! When Ah pulls this ol trigger”. He gets over bearing feeling like he has to shoot the gun. He feels the gun almost over take him in a way, but it only leads to trouble. In “Marigolds' ' when the kids go to miss Lottie's house and behead the flowers it relates to Dave's incident not only because they got in trouble but it was a realization for the both of them. Lizibeth has a turning point in the story; she goes from being a mischievous kid to being a responsible adult, it was a realization for her. In Marigolds by Eugenia Collier it says “We had crouched down out of sight in the bushes, where we stifled the giggles that insisted on coming. Miss Lotte gazed warily across the road for a moment, then cautiously returned to her wedding. Zing- Joey sent a pebble into the blooms, and another marigold was beheaded”(Collier). This connection is trong because Dave and Lizibeth have the same predicament with a mutual theme. This also ties in to their maturity aspect of their situations. They both had to grow up if they liked it or not, they had to mature.

Dave did have to mature in the end of the story but it was extremely important to realize the way he matured. It wasn't a prolonged decision, he was forced onto this big step in his life. The pressure and responsibility is what overcame him and he just decided to leave it all. Maybe it wasn't the right decision but it was his decision and he had to mature. Dave not only shows his maturity by leaving it all but his individuality. It's not an easy thing even in the heat of the moment and the situation just to leave it all with no thought. In Huckleberry Finn, Huck shows his maturity through his fathers abuse. He escapes him and like Dave is on his own. In Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain it says ”I got out amongst the driftwood, and laid down in the bottom of the canoe and just let her float''(Edwards et al.). In this evidence there's a strong comparison to Dave and how he had the same situation, they both had to escape the cruelty and had to be mature. This all factors around this main idea of “coming of age”, and what it means to grow up.

All of these connections and similarities have this same coming of age idea. They all had to mature to some degree. They all had problems or conflicts in every story but we think that each one had a different perspective which was key to having the same end result. A question that was asked in my thesis statement was will Dave Suanders find out that too much trust can lead to trouble, we can confidently say yes. That’s exactly what happened: his mother gave him too much trust in buying a gun. However, what he did was shoot his own mule. If that doesn't show giving too much trust that eventually leads to trouble, we don't know what does.