Opposites: The Relationship of Tom and Huck

A detailed Summary of Opposites: The Relationship of Tom and Huck

Opposites: The Relationship of Tom and Huck

In Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the central characters Tom and Huck, may at first appear to be very similar if not the same person. When looking closer at the novel, Sawyer exaggerates their differences, which tend to be extremes. He singles out aspects of their education, each boy's imagination, and also they way they dealt with multiple situations in his sharp development of character persona. Aimed at life in the 19th century, Twain depicts two types of people in the 19th century: the by-the-book, impractical, glory seeking Tom Sawyer and the education despising, practical, and morally sound Huck Finn.

Huckleberry Finn, the character for which the book is titled, is a boy both confused in search of who he really is yet while being guided by Miss Watson. Miss Watson is trying to get the boy his education, manners, and also at the same time is offering religious guidance as seen in chapter 1. In a scene around the coffee table in the living room, Miss Watson is lecturing on and on about Moses and attempts to teach Huck how to spell. Afterwards we catch him getting fidgety as Miss Watson scolds him for having his feet on the coffee table. All this education i

When comparing the boys' imaginations, it is important to notice the fact that their imaginations aren't really different or unique, rather Huck and Tom have the same approaches to pretending. The key thing that makes their characters' imaginations different is that Tom imagines glorious outcomes to situations whereas Huck mostly uses his imagination in a practical manner.

In saying this, we learn that Huck, even though can be trained to "tolerate" education, dislikes formal education.

In all, Tom Sawyer can be deemed a pro-slave, 19th century person whereas Huck Finn represents the anti-slave during the nineteenth century. Not only does this finally aid in Twain's depiction of the two opposing, yet best friends, story, but also gives a sense that Twain was actually giving strong social commentary on slavery when he wrote the novel. By putting Huck on the rational and moral side at the same time as being anti-slavery, Twain points out the immorality seen in slavery. With Tom, the insensitive, glory seeker, it is obvious that slavery existed because of people like his character. Slave owners were insensitive and only out to make a profit. Impracticality and the desire to have good old fashioned fun, played major roles in the reason that slavery lived on as long as it did; people like Tom exploited it for their own entertainment. Practicality prevailed in the end of slavery, such as Huck prevails in the end as Jim ends up becoming a free man.

Tom, on the other hand, doesn't use his imagination for practical matters for the majority of the book. One example of Tom being impractical can be seen in book when he and Huck are attempting to sneak out of the house for a quick smoke. As they crawl past the house, a noise is made that awakes Jim causing Tom and Huck to be caught in a bind as Jim is standing nearby. Jim eventually falls asleep and Tom and Huck should be getting on to engage in a quick smoke. But instead of just leaving, Tom decides that the given situation of Jim being aslee

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Approximate Word count = 1348
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels