Tom is Evil

Although Tom Sawyer appears in less than fifty pages in this book, he makes sure that his presence is felt. Toward the beginning of the book he seems like an okay character, just a leader in his group of friends. However toward the end of the book, it becomes clear that Tom is evil. When Tom agrees to "help" Huck free Jim, there is situational irony, because Huck is unaware that Tom knows Jim is no longer a slave. Even though he knows this, Tom still agrees to help Huck because he wants an adventure. On page 257 Tom explains why he didn't tell anyone Jim was free: "Why, I wanted an adventure of it; and I'd 'a' waded neck-deep in blood to- goodness alive, Aunt Polly". This is a horrific and disgusting thing for Tom to do, especially because he makes it much more complicated by "doing it by the book". Tom forces Jim to have a creepy pet, attempts to have him cut his limbs off, and notifies his uncle about Jim fleeing. Tom is such a sick character who is subdued by what society believes that he goes as far as showing pride in his bullet wounded leg. This just shows how evil of a character Tom was.

The River

In this novel, the river is seen as a very important symbol. Throughout the book, Huck is trying to get away from society. The river was Huck and Jim's place to get away from society. They were able to escape civilization when they were on the river. They felt a sense of freedom when they were on the river and Huck even says, "So in two seconds away we went a-sliding down the river, and it did seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big river, and nobody to bother us" (183). When Huck and Jim were on the river, they were alone and no one could bother them, and therefore they felt safe. Also, Huck and Jim were able to be themselves on the river. They did not have to put on their masks. They were able to get away from society and society's view of them. They did not have to be who society said they should be while they were on the river.

"The Great American Novel"

In "Say It Ain't So, Huck," Smiley tries to argue that Huck Finn is a horrible choice for a book to call "The Great American Novel," and contends that it is because Huck Finn was considered, as Ernest Hemingway put it, the "one book" from which "[a]ll modern American literature comes from" that what we now-a-days consider typical "American Literature" as actually severely flawed and not at all exemplary of true American values. Smiley seems to think that Uncle Tom's Cabin would be a far better choice for a great American novel.
However, I would say that this is a misguided statement. In this argument, Smiley makes the same mistake she makes throughout her entire essay: she tries to narrow the entire topic down to the singular issue of slavery. While Smiley is correct in saying that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a far more resounding argument against slavery, the flaw in her logic arises when she implies that the issue of slavery is the only significant aspect of true "American literature". But the truth is that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a far more American novel because it deals with the larger, more permanent issues of a flawed civilization and an escape into nature. While the slavery was certainly a big issue during the time of both Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, this was not a fundamental part of American values. The whole reason we don't read Uncle Tom's Cabin in high schools is that slavery is no longer a huge issue in America - we all know slavery is wrong. However, the issues dealt with in Huck Finn - fighting conformity, questioning the morality of "civilized" society - are still very prevalent on America today and are thus important to think about.
This is the biggest difference between Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in terms of being a perfect example of the American novel. Uncle Tom's Cabin deals with a single, temporary issue, while Huck Finn deals with many issues that remain important to this day.

Tom vs. Huck, AKA Romanticism vs. Realism

In the final chapters, in which Tom and Huck form and execute their plan to free Jim, Tom and Huck have two very contrasting ways of going about things. Tom wants freeing Jim to be a big, exciting adventure, complete with all sorts of special adventurous things he read about in his books when it comes to escaping prisoners - things like rats and snakes, the prisoner carving a message into the wall, and chopping off the prisoner's foot to escape the chains. Huck, on the other hand, knows deep down that Tom's plans are completely ridiculous and instead attempts to convince Tom to use methods that are more easy and reliable. In this storyline, Tom represents Romanticism while Huck represents Realism. Tom has read many Romantic novels and is thus completely obsessed with the Romantic ideas of epic adventure. Huck, however, is far more grounded in reality, and focuses less on what would be "the right way," as Tom puts it (257) and more on what would actually work. Tom and Huck's bickering and their failure to ultimately carry out a majority of Tom's plans (and then Tom still getting shot) is Twain's way of showing that the Romantic ideals that Tom so violently strives for simply do not work in the real world. The stories Tom reads are fiction, and while these adventures may be fun to read about, they just are not possible within real life.

Tom Takes Over

When Tom and Huck are planning the escape for Jim, Tom becomes the new leader, making him in some ways, a kind of dictator. When he does this, the story loses it's tone that is being spoken from Huck's conscience and turns more into a book written for children, because it carries the aspect of adventure. When Tom becomes the leader of Jim's escape plan, he deems all of Huck's plans as completely unrealistic. By doing this he tends to block out Huck himself at certain parts of the story. For example on page 151, (online text) Huck states, "He had forgot me and everything else." Tom does things like this when trying to grasp what to do in the situation.

The End

On the last page of the book, Huck decides that he does not want to live with Aunt Sally and become civilized. Here is the passage "But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before" (185 online text). This confuses me because at the beginning of the book Huck wanted a family, and even in the middle he says he would fit in perfectly with the Grangerfords. Furthermore the whole novel is about being uncivilized and how Huck hates it and wants to live a normal life with some adventure. I guess in a sense the whole book being about living an uncivil life and the end Huck refusing to settle and become civilized. But I believed that there were times when Huck wished to be back with Miss Watson.