Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are characters from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The only similarities the boys share are their age and their appearance when the Widow Douglas attempts to “sivilize” Huck by dressing him in “them new clothes”, which is a brief spectacle. The boys share different experiences, which help to characterize their individuality. These experiences, along with the contrasting schooling levels, family life, and moral standards make for an interesting comparison.
Schooling
The boys display contrasting levels of school experience throughout the novel. Although they share the same uneducated dialect, Tom exhibits an interest in reading, which has greatly augmented his ability to weave fantastic tales and grand schemes. It is clear that he does not understand everything he reads.
Tom’s misunderstanding is evident when he tries to trigger his reading into action; his band of robbers plans to keep their prisoners until “they are ransomed to death (Chapter 2).” Tom does everything by the book and if Huck “warn’t so ignorant… [he] would know without asking (Chapter 3).” Several times throughout the novel Tom refers to Huck as a “somehow-perfect saphead” and Huck never disagrees because he believes he is “low-down” and “ornery”.
Huck’s school experience is nowhere near that of his friend Tom. Huck has a basic level of reading; however, his life experiences make him a much more dependable and knowledgeable character than his much-admired friend Tom. Huck has a deep-rooted survival instinct, which he has developed as a result of his abusive father.
Family Life
When Huck escapes from his father, he does it to survive. However, Huck still wishes his friend Tom were there to approve when he schemes his plan to get away from his father: “I did wish Tom Sawyer was there; I knowed he would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in the fancy touches (Chapter 7).”
Experiences
It is evident in chapter 42 that Tom is not the rebel he makes himself out to be when he offers to help Huck free Jim. Tom knows from the beginning that Jim is a free man. He is only going through the motions of breaking the law; he secretly knows there’s nothing criminal about setting a free man, free. Tom, however, is a rule follower; he does what should be done and because of his upbringing in a well-to-do family he will be a respectable and successful man in his day.
Huckleberry, on the contrary, is not concerned with what should be done; he goes with his heart. He went with his heart when he escaped his Pap; he went with his heart when he befriended Jim and took an oath to keep his secret.
Throughout the novel, Huck spreads his goodness in times of need. He has an inner quality that he has maintained despite the hardships in his life. When Jim offers to sacrifice his freedom to save Tom, Huck says the best thing a white man could say during that time, “I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he’d say what he did say… .(Chapter 40)”
Because the boys have taken drastically different paths in life: education, family, and morals, it is hard to believe that Huck would allow himself to be persuaded by Tom. For this, the reader sympathizes with Huck because he is the better person in the novel. It is no wonder, after all he has seen on his voyage down the mighty Mississippi River that Huck would draw away from civilization because he had “been there before (Chapter the last)” and seen it all.
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