The Friendship of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

The Friendship of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

Thesis: Through escapades, the South, characters, and two novels, Mark Twain

Develops the famous friendship of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

I. Introduction

II. Friendship

A. Differences of status

B. Adventures

C. Loyalty

III. Huckleberry

A. The basis for Huckleberry’s character

B. Huckleberry’s and Tom’s loyalty and friendship

C. Huckleberry’s concern with status

IV. Tom

A. The basis of Tom

B. The exasperation and appeal of Tom

C. The depth of Tom’s character

V. Treasure

A. Symbolic of the boys’ journey

B. The responsibilities and changes the treasure brings

VI. Conclusion

Born in 1834 as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain set out on his own when he was eighteen years old. He traveled America, working as a riverboat captain, gold rush explorer, and finally as a writer. As a newspaper reporter in Nevada he wrote articles poking fun at politicians. To keep his identity secret he signed his articles “Mark Twain.” The name is a term he learned as a steamboat captain. The term means that the water is deep enough for a steamboat to sail safely (Rinaldo 7).

June 6, 1876, Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published in England. It would not appear in America for another six months (American Heritage 96). Mark Twain once said of Tom Sawyer, that it was not a boys’ book at all, but would be read only by adults. He had given the book his full powers of serious communication and did not want it to be thought of as a mere children’s book. Ever since its publication in 1876 until quite recently, the readers have mainly been children. He wrote the novel while he and his family were living in Hartford, Connecticut, and while Twain...

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LeMaster, J.R. and James D. Wilson, The Mark Twain Encyclopedia, New York:Garland, 1993. 110 – 129.

Machlis, Paul. Union Catalog of Clemens Letters. Berkeley: University of California

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Pinsker, Sanford. “Huckleberry Finn and the Problem of Freedom.” Virginia Quarterly Review, 77.4 (2001): 642 - 650.

Rinaldo, Denise. "Make'em Laugh." Scholastic Scope 3 September 2001: 13.

Trilling, Diana. Novels for Students, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. New York: Harcourt, 1964. 17 – 29.)