America has from the beginning been a culture ambivalent about the patriarchy. Rebelling against King George was only one episode in the antiauthoritarian genesis of New World social attitudes and practices. From Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Walt Whitman down to the Beats and Hippies of postwar years, the anti-patriarch has been a dominant hero figure in American writing. In film, two of the most important American genres--Westerns and detective stories--center on men who reject and rebel against--but at times rejuvenate--the world of the "fathers." I will discuss one film--Nicholas Ray's "Rebel without a Cause" and one novel, Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" to illustrate how sons reject their fathers and father figures, but can sometimes also redeem them, with consequences for the psyches of both individuals. The elements of the stories I will discuss are very widespread in American fiction (including music and drama as well as writing and films) and can be said to constitute an American archetype.