Huckleberry Finn Vs. Tom Sawyer

3 Pages 784 Words

In the novel, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain uses a contrast of
characters to bring out the Society vs. Freedom aspect of the novel through the
two characters of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer, throughout the
novel, uses rules and what is "always done in the books" to control how he and
Huck do things. On the other hand, Huck goes for the simple things that help
him and come the easiest to him when planning things out.


In the beginning of the novel Tom tries to start a band of robbers and brings
all of his gang to a secret hide-out to sort out the details and rules that they
would abide by. Tom Sawyer is always telling his little gang how they have to
follow the books that he has read `cause that is how it is done and it would not
be right to do otherwise. For example, When Tom brings up the act of ransoming
people, and none of the boys know what that is, they agree that they probably
should take it out of the oath. Tom disagrees and says, "Why blame it all,
we've got to do it. Don't I tell you it's in the books? Do you want to go to
doing things different than what's in the books, and get things all muddled up?" (12). Since all the boys want to follow
Tom, they keep in the part about ransoming even though they do not know exactly
what it is. This brings out Tom's character as a boy that follows the rules
very clearly and tries to be like society.
Also, when he tells Huck about the Arabs with all the jewels, elephants, and
camels that they are going to go attack and they end up in a Sunday school
picnic, Tom tries to tell Huck that they were hidden by Genies because Tom uses
his imagination and romanticism. Huck tries really hard to believe him but he
just cannot, and ends up just asking a lot of questions. Finally when Tom
cannot answer any more he just says to Huck, "Shucks, it ain't no use to talk to
you, Huck Finn. You don't seem to know anything, somehow-----perfect slap head"
(18). ...