Thoughts and Reactions to the Moron, Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer. Thought to be a independent and intelligent child proved us all wrong with his uncalled for actions and the end of Huckleberry Finn. What was going through Tom's mind when deciding to abuse Jim just to have his own adventure? Even though he claims he wants to mimic his adventures from famous stories, does he really just want to abuse a slave? This constant thought kept occurring in my mind during Tom's adventures near the end of the novel. His plan was excessive and unnecessary and Huck and Jim knew that. All Tom wanted to do was to go on a harmful adventure.

   
When Huck and Jim tell him that his plan is way too excessive, Tom retorts, "It don't make no difference how foolish it is, it's the RIGHT way—and it's the regular way. And there ain't no OTHER way." The irony with this quote is that Tom says that his plan is foolish yet his dialect sounds foolish because of his accent. Besides that, Tom comes off to be a selfish leader who acts similarly to a dictator. In my eyes, his dictator characteristics have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the ending of the novel. If Tom was not included in the ending of the novel Huck and Jim would probably escaped a lot sooner and would have had a happy life together. Considering that Jim is the closest thing to a father figure to Huck, this ending would have pulled even harder at the readers emotions. Therefore, the ending of the novel would have been much better if Tom was not in the picture.