Tom Sawyer Final Essay

Have you ever had a friend that you would travel to the ends of the earth for, and know that they'd do the same for you? A friend that you'd support, no matter what? Well, that's like the friendship of Tom and his comrades Huck and Joe. They stick with each other through thick and thin, and look up to one another. Like brothers, they have their fights, but in the end they realize what fools they've been, and forgive each other. I think Tom is very lucky to have Huck and Joe, and they're lucky to have him, because everyone needs a friend.

Honestly, at times I think Huck and Joe are crazy. They stick with Tom, even when he gets them involved in a murder, drags them away from their life and civilization to a desolate island, gets them lost in a dark, gloomy cave, and brings them into his love life. But then again, isn't that what friends are for? To take with on your adventures and journeys, and help you through your problems?

I believe that Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, knows how important friendship is, and that's one of the reasons why he wrote Tom Sawyer the way he did, with friendship being one of the most important things in the context. He knows that without Tom's friendship with Huck and Joe, the story would be quite dreary. If the main character doesn't have a friend, he would be a lonely, poor fellow, and since Tom Sawyer's overall mode is obviously romance, the main character can't very well be a lonesome chap feeling sorry for himself throughout the entire book. Everybody needs a friend.

Tom Sawyer Quiz

*Authors Note:  PROMPT-Select one of the more interesting chapters we've read so far and discuss what you found of value in the text.

The chapter I’ve chosen to respond to is chapter 9, which is the graveyard scene where Tom and Huck witness Injun Joe murdering the doctor.  I find that this chapter is very key to the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, because it’s where the first real, severe conflict is formed.  Without this chapter, Injun Joe wouldn’t have become the murderer that the characters fear, and the book’s plot would be weak.  It would be weak because without Injun Joe and the graveyard scene, this book would be mainly about Tom’s on and off relationship with Becky, and his pirate adventures.  It would have no real seriousness in it.

Chapter nine is obviously irony.  It's very unrealistic, because what is the chance that two 12 year old boys happened to be at the exact same place at the exact same time as a terrible killing occurs?  Injun Joe, the evil in the chapter, is completely in control, and Huck and Tom are weak and stupid compared to him.  The only other character that had any potential to be good is Muff Potter, and he’d had a few too many drinks that night, and is therefore also weak and stupid.  The chapter starts off with Tom and Huck going off to the graveyard to use a dead cat’s body to remove their warts, then all of a sudden, three mysterious men arrive and Huck and Tom witness a murder, which is the major conflict.  In the end, the death symbolism is that if they don’t tell someone in authority, Injun Joe will get away and Muff Potter will be blamed and possibly hung for the murder, and if they do snitch on him, Injun Joe will most likely seek revenge against them and try to murder them as well.  Some symbols are the barking dogs that Tom hears, as well as the graveyard at midnight, the weeds that they’re lurking in, and the worm-eaten graves.

In conclusion, I believe chapter nine is one of the most important chapters in the book, because it’s where all the evil business with Injun Joe unfolds, and the plot begins to form.