The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1085He can, however, be affected by genuine reli-
gious sentiment, whether it comes in the form of
music, words, or even silence. Huck calls the hymn
led by the preacher at the camp meeting “grand,”
he is receptive to John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’S
ProgreSS even if he cannot understand every
word of it, and he feels more regret at the widow’s
silent disappointment when he has done some-
thing wrong than at any of Miss Watson’s rebukes.
After the king’s showy and insincere wails, Huck
feels moved, even cleansed, by hearing the other
mourners sing the doxology. In this last instance,
Twain quickly undercuts Huck’s appreciation of
genuine religious feeling by having him humor-
ously compare it to the joy he normally feels when
church lets out.
Huck is very good at distinguishing between
sincere and insincere kinds of religion. The yardstick
by which he measures the two is, again, the Golden
Rule. He dismisses Miss Watson’s idea of heaven
because it leaves no room for the down-and-out. He
is remarkably adept at imagining others’ feelings,
nearly bringing himself to tears as he remembers
Mary Jane Wilks crying silently in front of her
father’s casket. His empathy extends to strangers,
such as the circus performer whose antics make
Huck fear for his safety; and to those who have
treated him badly, such as the king and the duke,
whom he pities when they are ridden out of town
on a rail. Huck is appalled by cruelty in any form.
If there is one virtue he values as much as empathy,
it is mercy.
At the end of the day, Huck is more concerned
with the effect his behavior has on others than with
cut-and-dried moral precepts. Although he appreci-
ates honesty—and its corollary, naïveté—in others,
he would gladly tell a white lie if he thinks the truth
would do more harm than good: “[I]t’s the little
things that smoothes people’s roads the most, down
here below.” But on big issues, he finds, somewhat
to his surprise, that he is compelled to tell the truth.
In the crisis-of-conscience scene, Huck tries to
reconcile what he has been taught to do with what
he knows is right. He soon finds that his prayers to
be an obedient boy and turn in Jim as he has been
taught to do are pointless—”You can’t pray a lie”—
and says, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.”
But the heaven Huck is rejecting here is only
the heaven envisioned by Miss Watson. The Widow
Douglas, on the other hand, would be proud of
Huck for helping Jim, just as she would have been
proud of him for saving the murderers from drown-
ing. And hers is the version of religion Huck finds
more compelling, anyway, because “rapscallions and
dead beats is the kind the widow and good people
takes the most interest in.”
Cassandra NelsonTwaiN, mark The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer (1876)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was first published
in 1876 and is now considered a classic book for
children. It was followed by two sequels: Tom
Sawyer Abroad (1894) and Tom Sawyer, Detective
(1896).
The novel presents several episodes in the life of
Tom and his friends in a small town on the banks of
the Mississippi in the 1850s. Tom, a highly imagina-
tive and playful boy, does the usual pranks to escape
school and other responsibilities. One night, he
unwillingly witnesses a murder, and weeks later he
exposes the real murderer. He will meet him again in
the cave where he and Becky Thatcher get lost, then
realize that the villain, Injun Joe, buried his stolen
treasure in that cave. Tom and Huckleberry Finn,
his closest companion, become rich and influential
persons due to their achievements.
The major character is Tom, who stands for the
resourceful, clever, and courageous American ado-
lescent who loves to break rules, face the unknown,
and give full play to his impulses. Accompanied by
Huck Finn, Joe Harper, and Becky Thatcher, he has
to confront Injun Joe, who, in the end, is trapped in a
cave and dies. Tom is supported by his generous aunt
Polly and the town’s people.
In this novel, Mark Twain (né Samuel Clemens,
1835-1910) explored such themes as community,
innocence and experience, justice, childhood,
coming of age, and violence. The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer is a tender and amusing account of a
carefree childhood, but it also warns against evil that
may harm it.
Aloisia Sorop