Do you know someone who completely contrasts you? Someone who is the complete opposite in every way possible? As for Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer is the antithesis of Huck. Huck was brought up in a very uncivilized world, whereas Tom was brought up in a world of rules and regulations. Huck is a very free-spirited person and questions everything, but Tom is a very constrained person and accepts everything as it has been shown to him without question.
Huck Finn lived on the river with his alcoholic father for most of his life. He did not go to school and he did not have to follow any rules. He could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted and didn’t have anyone, except his father, around to influence him. As for Tom, he lived in a world of rules and regulations and books. Tom loved reading and loved to take what he read literally, “I’ve seen it in books; and so of course that’s what we’ve got to do” (17). He did everything exactly the way books said, with no exceptions, but Huck looked at everything in the most practical manner and questioned everything.
When Tom and Huck are robbing the Sunday school, Tom says that all the people there were A-rabs and elephants. Toms tells Huck that “it was all done by enchantment” (21) and if Huck “warn’t so ignorant, but had read a book called ‘Don Quixote’” (21), then Huck would have known without questions that all the people there were really A-rabs and elephants, but Huck doesn’t understand how they could have been if we couldn’t see them. Because Huck had such differing influences growing up he has be forces to thinks out for himself, and to him, it did not make sense how those people could have been anything other themselves. Whereas Tom has had a unified influence, and everything he has been told has always been the same, and he accepts that. So, when he reads something in a book, he automatically thinks, that whatever he does has to been done the way the books say. Huck’s contradicting influences have actually been a blessing in disguise. Huck able to look at people and society through fresh eyes and can actually see people for they are, but Tom see’s them through controlled eyes.
Tom’s view on slavery is exactly what would be expected. The blacks are not blacks to him, just slaves, but Huck’s view is completely opposite. Huck’s best friend was Jim, a slave. With Huck being so uneducated he did not really what slavery, and he did not have the education to naturally hate Jim. He saw Jim as a person, not slave. Tom, on the other hand, is very educated and has the natural inclination to hate Jim and treat him poorly, but in reality Tom does not really hate Jim. He actually likes to joke around with him and have fun with Jim, but Tom will not even think to ask any questions about it. Tom plays by the rules and whatever he has been taught, sticks with him and he won’t change it.
When Jim has been kept as a slave at Tom’s aunt’s house, Huck and Tom think up a master plan to free him. Little does Huck know, Jim actually is already free and has been for two months. Tom knows this and still continues to keep Jim captive and go through with his plan just because he can, “Old Miss Watson died two months ago […] and so she set him free in her will […] I wanted the adventure of it” (303). Tom only does it to have some adventure in his life, he does not care how it would make Jim feel, because Tom didn’t see Jim as a person. Huck, on the other hand, would never do such a thing. He actually does the complete opposite, he wants to break Jim out of slavery and he does not care what the cost is. Huck see’s Jim as an actual person, therefore he does not want to see Jim being treated so poorly. Because Huck has had such different influences he has been forced to figure slavery out for himself, and with his experience with slavery, while going down the river with Jim, he was able to see Jim for a person. Tom was never able to see that because his eyes were so controlled to what he was supposed to see. What he was told, so Tom does not have the gift, like Huck, to see things the way he wants to see them.
Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were brought up in two entirely contrasting environments, and with that comes two entirely contrasting views on life. Huck is able to see people for who they really are and see things for what they really are, but Tom cannot. Tom only sees people and things the way he has been told to see them. Tom’s influences were unified, everything he was told was the same, so he accepted that, but since Huck had very different influences, he was forced to think out things for himself, which enabled him to free from a constrained life, unlike Tom.
