English 8

12 November 2020

Ms. Gibson

The Friendship of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

            In the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer written by Mark Twain, Tom has a strong friendship with Huck. Throughout the book, the two boys go on many adventures together, including going to a graveyard at midnight, exploring an island, and hunting for treasure. Trust, their love of adventure, and their superstitious beliefs each play an important role in the friendship of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

One of the most important characteristics of Tom and Huck’s friendship is trust. This is evident when they go to the graveyard at midnight. After they see a murder take place, they run away to an abandoned house. Huck tells Tom, “Tom, we got to keep mum. You know that…Now look-a-here, Tom, less take and swear to one another – that’s what we got to do – swear to keep mum” (Twain 99). Tom agrees, and the boys sign their names with blood on an oath written on a pine shingle. Both boys trust each other, knowing that neither one will tell about what they saw Injun Joe do to an innocent man. Later, when Tom ends up telling what he saw to free Muff Potter, he leaves Huck out of the story.

The second characteristic of their friendship is Tom and Huck’s love for adventure and excitement. This is shown when Tom feels very down about everything going wrong around him, and he decides to become a pirate. He persuades Joe Harper, who is also feeling down, and Huckleberry Finn to join him. They decide to go on an adventure to a deserted island and become pirates. Mark Twain describes the adventurous side of their friendship when he writes, “Tom stirred up the other pirates and they all clattered away with a shout, and in a minute or two were stripped and chasing after and tumbling over each other in the shallow limpid water of the white sandbar. They felt no longing for the little village sleeping in the distance beyond the majestic waste of water” (Twain 135). All of the boys were happy and having fun playing on their deserted island, pretending to be pirates. They were enjoying their adventures on the island and, for the moment, gave no thought to home.

The third characteristic of Tom and Huck’s friendship is the boys’ beliefs in superstitions. These superstitions are displayed throughout the book, including the reason the boys were at the graveyard in the first place. They were there because they believed that a dead cat being thrown into a graveyard at midnight would remove warts. Another example of superstition in the book is when the boys are looking for buried treasure. They had been digging for a long period of time and were getting discouraged. Suddenly Tom said to Huck, “Oh, I know what the matter is! What a blamed lot of fools we are! You got to find out where the shadow of the limb falls at midnight and that’s where you are to dig” (Twain 225). Throughout their hunt for buried treasure, superstitions guided their actions.

Mark Twain made Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn’s friendship famous through suspenseful stories. These stories took them through a graveyard, onto an island, and into a cave. They highlight the boys’ trust of each other, their adventurous spirits, and their superstitious beliefs.

 

 

Works Cited

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Puffin Books. London: 2008.