Huckleberry Finn Compare And Contrast

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In Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, many characters believe that learning from books is more important that practical “common sense” knowledge. Other characters, however, believe the opposite. Tom Sawyer believes the former. Whereas, Huckleberry Finn evolves between the former and the latter throughout the book. Within this story, these beliefs are very important for the development of each character.
Tom Sawyer firmly believes in his “book smart” ideal. He is imaginative, mischievous, and absolutely, hilariously, impractical. He represents his own version of adventurous and magical way of life. He believes that everything he does needs to be extravagant, and leave a legacy behind that people will continue to discuss for many years to come. …show more content…

Yet, at the beginning, he has absolute faith in whatever Tom Sawyer has to say. For example, when Tom wants to form a gang of robbers with their friends, Huckleberry completely relies on what Tom says because he knows nothing about robberies. While they’re meeting for the first time, one of the boys says this to Tom: “Now, that’s something like. That’ll answer. Why couldn’t you said that before? We’ll keep them till they’re ransomed to death; and a bothersome lot they’ll be, too—eating up everything, and always trying to get loose.” (2) This shows that no matter what Tom says, they’re going to put their faith in him. Yet, by the end of the story, Huckleberry has begun to question Tom’s ideas. This happens prominently when Tom is taking full control of Jim’s escape plans. When Tom suggests they dig a mote, Huckleberry says to him: “What do we want of a moat when we’re going to snake him out from under the cabin?” (35) After Tom mentions sawing Jim’s leg off to add to the adventure, Huckleberry says: “why, there ain’t NO necessity for it. And what would you want to saw his leg off for, anyway?” (35) Again, he is opposing the thoughts of Tom Sawyer. While he still goes on with Tom’s plan, he knows that there are much better and efficient ways to doing

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