The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby were set over 75 years apart, the central characters of the story have characteristics in common as well as their obvious differences. Huck Finn is a young adolescent boy, growing up with no one really caring about him in his life. He runs away from home to join a runaway slave on a raft drifting down the Mississippi river. At the end of the story everyone that Huck lived with is now dead, and he is on his own. Jay Gatsby is the main Character in The Great Gatsby. He assumed to have no family, until we discover at the end he has a father, but he has a great deal of wealth. He loves a woman named Daisy whom is married to another man. Gatsby throws parties hoping she will attend, but to his dismay she never does. At the end of the story Gatsby is killed and his estate is left behind.
Huck and Gatsby are in many ways different but they also have some characteristics in common. Both of these characters are unhappy with their current situations. They are also alone in the aspect of family. Huck does have a father, but his father is as good as dead to him, while Gatsby is assumed to have no family. This leads to Huck's and Gatsby's search for love and family. Huck runs away to find a father figure. He finds that in Jim. Jim is a runaway slave, which means that because of his social status, he could never be Huck's father. Gatsby is looking for love and finds it with a married woman named Daisy. He as well cannot be with her because she is married to Tom Buchanan. Both Huck and Gatsby are mysterious or outcasts in their societies. Huck is known as a trouble maker and a problem child, which really is not true. Huck does not have any guidance due to the absence of his father. Gatsby is known as dangerous, and assumed to be unsafe. This is false as well, he is mysterious because he likes to keep to himself, and keeps a low key persona.