Huckleberry Finn and Daisy Miller

Huckleberry Finn and Daisy Miller represent the outcasts in a society who may not see themselves as misfits but are visibly in conflict with the society. Daisy is a "flirt" who is unaware of her own behavior and how it is perceived by others while Huckleberry Finn is a man motivated by his own heart and conscious and refuses to conform to society's norms. They represent those in our society who refuse to accept society's dictation and cannot bring themselves to conform to what society expects them to be. They may not always succeed in life but they know they have been true to themselves. Huck Finn succeeds on his path to personal freedom while Daisy is less fortunate but they are both happy being their own person.

Daisy is perceived as a flirt though she never really sees anything wrong with her behavior. People slowly started distancing themselves from her as Winterbourne observed: "…shrewd people had quite made up their minds that she was going too far. They ceased to invite her; and they intimated that they desired to express to observant Europeans the great truth that, though Miss Daisy Miller was a young American lady, her behavior was not representative -- was regarded by her compatriots as abnormal." Winterbourne struggles to understand her and is often frustrated that Daisy doesn't seem to worry about people turning away from her. Winterbourne wanted to know "how she felt about all the cold shoulders that were turned toward her, and sometimes it annoyed him to suspect that she did not feel at all. He said to himself that she was too light and childish, too uncultivated and unreasoning, too provincial, to have reflected upon her ostracism, or even to have perceived it. Then at other moments he believed that she carried about in her elegant and irresponsible little organism a defiant, passionate, perfectly observant consciousness of the impression she produced." (Henry James, p.45)

Winterbourne knew that Daisy was basically a very innocent person and it was her innocence that was responsible for her disposition. Huck Finn was also guided by his innocent and generous heart. He tries to seek answers to moral issues through his own heart than any ill-guided dictates of the society. The most enlightening moment for him comes when he is torn between returning Jim to Miss Watson and rescuing him from slavery. He resolves the issue by thinking of Jim's human worth and deciding that he may go to hell for rescuing him but so be it.

"And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind…..I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: "All right, then, I'll GO to hell" -- and tore it up." (Mark Twain, p. 193)