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Devon Sams

AP English Language

Ms. Christopherson

13 November 2017

Functions of Tom Sawyer as it pertains to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Tom Sawyer, the adventurous friend of Huckleberry Fin from Mark Twains masterpiece,

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, may, at first just seem like someone placed into Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn to be a friend to Huck, but upon deeper investigation, Tom Sawyer fulfils a

much more critical role. In the beginning of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck has just

gotten back from his last adventure with Tom, from Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Tom has

been gone for some time. When Tom shows up, him and Huck does a few things and next thing

that Huck knows, he is on the adventure of his life in the Deep South with an escaped slave, Jim,

who is trying to get free. After all of this, Tom shows up at the end and shares the news that

Huck and Jim were wasting their time escaping death and being on the run Jim was escaped the

whole time. Tom Sawyer does not just serve one function in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,

but he serves a multi-faceted one. In the beginning of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom was

the hero to Huck-Huck looked up to Tom and what he said, but by the end of the novel Tom

helps show Huck what a bad person is. In addition to these contrasting roles in the beginning and

end of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom also serves the character archetype made popular

by Don Quixote and serves Mark Twains, the author, personal traits.

Tom Sawyers role differs significantly from the beginning of Adventures of Huckleberry

Finn to the end. The beginning of the book is after Tom and Hucks big adventure from Mark

Twains other book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and they are both great friends. This is
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evidenced by the actions of the first few chapters-Tom sets up a group of robbers with people

that he quite obviously sees as his friends. In the beginning, when Huck hoped from his window

to go hang out with Tom and Jim, Huck says we elect Tom as first captain [of their robbing

gang]. Huck would not make a decision for the group about the leader unless he really liked the

person. By Tom being immediately put in charge, it shows that Huck puts his faith and looks up

to Tom because he trusts him when doing their illegal activities that they are planning. Huck has

Another important role of Tom in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the way he is

developed relative to Huckleberry Finn to fulfill Mark Twains allusion to another literary

masterpiece by Miguel De Cervantes that predated Twain s book by over two and a half

centuries, Don Quixote. Before Don Quixote, long fiction came in verse form like the ancient

masterpieces such as, The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer, or in play form like Shakespeares

Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Nights Dream so, when Don Quixote was published, it

became said that it was the father of the European and American novel (Don Quixote and the

Adventures of Huck Finn). In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the relationship between Huck

and Tom are reversed that of what the relationship is between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in

the novel Don Quixote. Tom Sawyer, a secondary character, perfectly models Don Quixote, the

main character. Don Quixote reads many books, he makes himself a fool trying to live out the

fantastical situations that he reads about, the same thing goes for Tom Sawyer (reading about

robbers and books and then creating a band of robbers that dont ever rob anyone). Olin Harris

Moore furthers this point by noting that For the man Don Quixote, Mark Twain substitutes Tom

Sawyerwho has read a great many exciting tales, and desires to play the roles of his hero, he

also says that they are all romantic imagination, with little interest in reality. (Moore). Don
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Quixote and Tom Sawyer are simply living as children, doing whatever cool thing come to

them that day, but they also drag their companion, Huckleberry Finn and Sancho Panza, along

for the ride. Huckleberry Finn is parallel to Sancho Panza in the sense that they get dragged

along on their friends adventures that are based in fantasy land. There are no real lessons

learned from these adventures because nothing really ever happens, just that Don and Toms

foolishness is really exemplified to their friends. (Don Quixote and the Adventures of Huck

Finn). This relationship is the foundation to the allusion to Don Quixote that Mark Twain wrote

into Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. By Mark Twain adding an allusion of Don Quixote into

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he is tipping his hat to Miguel De Cervantes, acknowledging

Miguels importance in the development of the novel, and more importantly to Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn, development of the all important element called the anti-hero.

It is a common theme in writers to simply write what they know because, well, it is

simple for them and little effort is required to come up with a whole new character, situation, and

traits; this is exactly what Mark Twain did with Tom Sawyer, Twain wrote himself.

By the end of Jim and Huckleberrys grand adventure to get Jim to freedom via the

Mississippi River eventually fails and they end up seeing Tom Sawyer again after a good amount

of time, Toms role in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn starkly contrasted that of his role in the

beginning of the novel. Rather than in the beginning when Huck and Jim would go on light

hearted adventures for fun, then ending is very deep, Tom is the main reason that Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn did not end with a big resolve to in, but instead it ended in tragedy. At the end

of the novel, Tom also shows Huckleberry what a truly bad friend/person is, which furthers his

character progression. Doctor Jocelyn Chadwick, a Harvard professor and expert of Adventures
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of Huckleberry Finn, said that Toms conscious deception and equally conscious disregard for

Jims visibility in humanity both reveal the dilemma of indifference (Chadwick). These actions

that Tom took, or rather did not take, do not go unnoticed to Huckleberry. By this time in the

story, Jim and Huck are good friends-they have escaped death together, had to rely on each other

just to stay alive. In addition to being inseparable friends by the end of the story, Huckleberry

has learned through spending a lot of time with a person of color, Jim, that they are just like

everybody else, there is not a reason for them to be treated any differently than any other person,

specifically whites, get treated; they should not be enslaved against their will. Based on all of

this, Huckleberry has no other way to look at things than, as Anna Wells (an English professor)

likes to put it, Tom as unendurable (Wells).

Upon first assumption and limited thought into Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom

Sawyer may just be thought of a supporting character that is just kind of there, like modern form

of literature and film. But upon any deeper thought/investigation into what Tom Sawyer actually

does/causes in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is very deep and extremely influential to Mark

Twains main story and themes that are developed and presented. In the beginning of the story,

Tom servers a role of a good friend and a hero/role model for Huckleberry Finn, which heavily

contrasts and contradicts his role at the end of the book, that is of showing Huck what a truly bad

person is and setting up a poetic, yet unfulfilling ending. Tom Sawyer also serves a vital role in

setting up an allusion to the book Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, which is considered the

father of the American and European Novel and it is the first time that the element of the anti

hero was introduced into literature. Perhaps a smaller, but still there and important, role of Tom

Sawyer, was that Mark Twain, the author of the novel, wrote his own personal character traits
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into the character of Tom Sawyer. Another more subliminal role of Tom that is parallel with

most supporting characters, especially bigger ones like Tom, is that he helped drive the themes

and storyline of the main character Huckleberry Finn. It must be stated one more time, but the

importance of Tom Robinson is of great magnitude and shall not be overlooked or taken

advantage of.
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Works Cited

Adventures of Huckleberry Fin. 3rd ed., New York, W.W.Norton and Company, 1999.

Chadwhick-Joshua, Jocly. The Jim Delema. University of Press of Mississippe.

Chadwick, Jocelyn. "Equality, Equity, and Ethics." Commonwealth Governors School, 23 Oct.

2017, Stafford High School, Stafford. Lecture.

"Don Quixote and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" ["Don Quixote and the Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn"]. Fairleigh Dickinson University,

alpha.fdu.edu/~jbecker/americanlit/huckfinn-donquixote.html. Accessed 18 Oct. 2017.

Fetterley, Judith. "Disenchantment: Tom Sawyer in Huckleberry Finn" ["Disenchantment: Tom

Sawyer in Huckleberry Finn"]. PMLA, vol. 87, no. 1, Jan. 1972, pp. 69-74. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/460786.

Moore, Olin Harris. "Mark Twain and Don Quixote" ["Mark Twain and Don Quixote"]. PMLA,

vol. 37, no. 2, 1922, pp. 324-46. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/457388. Accessed 18 Oct.

2017.

Wells, Anna Mary. "Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Samuel Clemens" ["Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer,

and Samuel Clemens"]. PMLA, vol. 87, no. 5, Oct. 1972, pp. 1130-31. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/461194?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=tom&searc

hText=sawyer&searchText=and&searchText=samuel&searchText=clemens&searchUri=

%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dtom%2Bsawyer%2Band%2Bsamuel%2Bcl

emens&refreqid=search%3Ad65c64708b20d868f27476f514312bb9&seq=1#page_scan_t

ab_contents. Accessed 18 Oct. 2017.

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