Spencer White
11/10/20
English 8
Ms. Gibson
Tom Sawyer Prompt Paper
Social exclusion and inclusion show itself throughout the many characters in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. For example, Injun Joe, who could be considered the main antagonist of the story, is an outcast in society. Huckleberry Finn is also an outcast of sorts, having his mother dead and his father constantly drinking, leaving him to care for himself.
Huckleberry Finn’s father is the town drunk and rarely pays attention to him, leading Huck to become distant from his father, and leading him to become a loner and rebel, smoking pipes and swearing, things that were considered taboo by other children of the town. When Huck meets Tom, they become friends and Tom begins to influence his decisions, instead of Huck doing things just because he wants to. An example of this is at the very end of the book, when Huck is taken in by the Widow Douglas, who takes care of him until he runs away. Huck is forced to become accustomed with the ordinary lives of the other people in the town, going to school, dressing neatly, and not smoking or swearing. This is apparent in the quote “Huck Finn’s wealth and the fact that he was under the Widow Douglas’s protection, introduced him – no, dragged him into it, hurled him into it, and his sufferings were almost more than he could bear” (Twain 316). Huck becomes missing for a few days until he is eventually found by Tom under a tree. Huck explains to Tom that he dislikes the life given to him because he believes it to be too boring and ordinary. Huck is so used to the life of someone who has no one to care for him, he can’t go back, and would rather live a life where he smokes and swears all day and fishes whenever he wants than to live a civil life with the Widow Douglas. However, Tom does convince Huck to return to Widow Douglas’s house by telling him that if he runs away, they won’t be able to become robbers.
Injun Joe, the main antagonist of the book, is shown to be not very right in the head, killing his doctor and framing Muff Potter for his crime; however, Tom sees this and gives Muff Potter’s lawyer the information, along with revealing it at the trial of Muff Potter, leading Injun Joe to run away from the court and disguise as a Spaniard who tries to get revenge on the Widow Douglas. However, he gets stuck in a cave next to the Widow Douglas’s house and starves there. It is also revealed at this point of the book that Injun Joe had killed at least 5 other people. I personally believe that the lack of parents, good friends, and general social exclusion had led him to this mentality. Joe wishes to take revenge on the Widow Douglas because her husband had bullied Joe for being Native American, and because of this I think that Joe must have been pushed around by other people than just the Widow Douglas’s husband because of his ethnicity, so I don’t believe it would be a stretch to say that the people around Joe didn’t treat him very well either. I believe this is what led to him literally going insane and killing the people that he did.
Mark Twain presents his various themes of social inclusion and exclusion and the consequences they may bring via some of the supporting cast of the book, Huckleberry Finn and Injun Joe. Injun Joe has been bullied by society, which led him to becoming insane. Huckleberry Finn had an absent father and no mother, along with little to no friends, making Huck become an outcast, abiding by his own rules and laws, and not wanting to do what he’s told. However, he’s brought back into society by Widow Douglas and her kindness. In conclusion, social inclusion is presented in the characters of the book and how they act.
Works Cited
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Barnes and Noble Classics. New York: 2003.