huck essay

William Lai

AP American Literature- Mr. George

March 21, 2009

Huck Finn contrasted to Tom Sawyer

            Have you ever compared yourself to one of your friends? How do you two differ? Usually there are some similarities but looking past those similarities there are vast differences. Mark Twain compares two characters in his book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He compares the lives and development of two boys: Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. And at first glance they seem to be quite similar due to their age, playfulness, and curious nature. But when you look deeper into their personalities, their actions, and their development through the story, the reader can see that there is a big difference in how the characters developed along the lines of their morality and their perspective of the world. Tom draws from the values and beliefs that he grew up with, while Huck adopts his own view of the world.

            Huckleberry Finn, the protagonist, is a young boy who lived in two worlds. He lived in the wilderness with his father, where he was brought up in a rough environment, learning survival instincts and a very crude perspective of the world. He also lived with Miss Watson, a devout Christian, who would instill societal and religious teachings upon him. As result of two totally different people teaching him, a drunk and a devout southern Christian, he has developed a conflicting moral compass. This conflicted compass has two polar opposites: one being a crude view of the world, the other being the societal views of the south. With these contradictory influences he has two wells of knowledge to draw from when he must drink from his moral goblet.

            Huck having two opposite perspectives of what the south offers as moral perspectives, realizes that both perspectives are wrong for him. For example, Huck clearly understands that his father is a bad example of how to live so as result he knows that most of what his father has taught him should be avoided. And at the same time we see that the societal view that Ms. Watson tries to teach him also does not seem right to him. Both perspectives have good qualities as well as their vices. One can see this when he travels down the river with Jim, and their adaption of the concept of borrowing:

Pap always said it warn't no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back, sometime; but the widow said it warn't anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it. Jim said he reckoned the widow was partly right and pap was partly right; so the best way would be for us to pick out two or three things from the list and say we wouldn't borrow them any more--then he reckoned it wouldn't be no harm to borrow the others… We warn't feeling just right, before that, but it was all comfortable now (Twain 76).

Thus we see that Huck recognizes that there is some good in what his Pap has taught him, so he tries to use a combination of what Ms. Watson has taught him to create a hybrid of what his Pap taught him and what Ms. Watson taught him. But as Huck journey’s down the river with Jim, Huck begins to formulate his own ideas of the world around him.

            One of the most flagrant violations of what both Pap and Ms. Watson have taught him is Huck’s perspective on slavery. Both Pap and Ms. Watson would agree that slavery should exist. But on his travel down the river, Huck is given a chance to have a fresh perspective on the world. On his journey, he is free from the influences of his father, Ms. Watson, and the rest of society, allowing him to build his own value system. As result, he is given a fresh perspective on slavery. On his journey down the river he sees a side of Jim that he would have never seen if he had been living with either Pap or Ms. Watson. He sees that Jim is a human being with feelings: “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger–but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d a knowed it would make him feel that way” (98). That is why he finds the wilderness so diverting because he is free from Pap and Ms Watson’s influence. The wilderness is where he can be “lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking and fishing” (34), carefree of what others have taught him as right or wrong, free to live and learn on his own. And through this journey he formulates his own beliefs due to realizing the injustices that exist in society’s view of the world. Tom Sawyer on the other hand accepts this regimented perspective of world.

            Tom Sawyer, Huck’s best friend, is nearly identical to Huck besides the fact that he is educated and has lived in society all his life. These subtle differences play a crucial role in Tom’s moral development. By living in society he is not given the chance to develop his perspective of the world, but instead must take on the views of society. He is told what is right or wrong through the community, through his education, and even through books. He is forced to live with a set view that is structured around what society dictates to be proper, rather than be allowed to formulate his own opinions as Huck can. That is why Tom Sawyer is a by the book character, “Any book will tell you that” (275). Even when he is questioned on what society dictates as right but is flagrantly wrong, he is ignorant to the truth saying that “It don’t make no difference how foolish it is, it’s the right way—and it’s the regular way. And they ain’t no other way, that I ever heard of, and I’ve read all the books that gives any information about these things” (Twain 257). Thus Tom epitomizes the social views of the time due to his adoption of its social views and beliefs.

            One social view that Tom accepts is the concept of slavery. He believes, just as society believes, that slavery is fine. Contrary to Huck, Tom has not seen the pain and suffering slavery can cause, and the humanity in the people who are being enslaved. He has only heard from society and books that it is a necessity and as result is justifiable. One may say that Tom does not believe in slavery because he had tried to help Jim escape, but looking deeper into Tom’s actions while trying to save Jim, one can see that Tom was not trying to save Jim for Jim’s sake. Instead Tom only helped Huck to save Jim because he wanted adventure and excitement that is preached and praised in books and society, comparably to Huck who actually wanted to save Jim. One can see this through his actions on the night they attempted to dig Jim out. Tom and Huck could have easily broke open the door and got Jim out immediately, but instead Tom elects to dig him out. And when Huck offers that they dig him out with picks, Tom elects to use case-knives, saying that “I’ve read all the books that gives any information about these things. They always dig out with a case-knife […] And it takes weeks and weeks” (257). Ergo, Tom is only trying to have a good laugh at the expense of Jim and his friend Huck, showing that Tom as result of society, has adopted its morally corrupt views of the world.

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are two characters that are so similar in their age, curiosity, and playfulness. But underneath that, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are actually very different characters when it comes to their view of the world. Tom Sawyer, growing up in society, requires rules and regulations that are dictated to him by society. Comparably, Huck who lives and finds peace in the wilderness, apart from civilization and society, lives life based on what he believes to be right or wrong. Thus Mark Twain creates a comparison of two boys, showing the affect of their surroundings on their development as adults and members of a seemingly unjust world, one boy being the upholder of this society’s unfair beliefs, the other, the beholder of its trully cruel nature.