Canterbury Christ Church University’s repository of research outputs http://create.canterbury.ac.uk Please cite this publication as follows: Ciocia, S. (2016) "The world loves an underdog," or the continuing appeal of the adolescent rebel narrative: a comparative reading of Vernon God Little, The Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn. Children's Literature in Education. pp. 1- 20. ISSN 0045-6713. Link to official URL (if available): http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10583-016-9287-1 This version is made available in accordance with publishers’ policies. All material made available by CReaTE is protected by intellectual property law, including copyright law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Contact:
[email protected] “The World Loves an Underdog,” or the Continuing Appeal of the Adolescent Rebel Narrative: A Comparative Reading of Vernon God Little, The Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn Abstract The early reception of D. B. C. Pierre’s Vernon God Little (2003) has been characterized by comparisons with two canonical literary antecedents: J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951) and, at a greater remove, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). The three novels capitalize on the subversive potential of disaffected teenage narrators, whose compelling vernacular voices, and distinctive position as outsiders in the adult world, are powerful tools for social critique. This article offers an analysis of the continuities and discontinuities in the narrative tradition that links Vernon Little to Huckleberry Finn via the pivotal figure of Holden Caulfield, who is widely considered as the original, unsurpassed model of adolescent rebelliousness in modern literature.