Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
Moral and Social Maturation
When the novel opens, Tom is engaged in and often the
organizer of childhood pranks and make-believe games. As the novel
progresses, these initially consequence-free childish games take
on more and more gravity. Tom leads himself, Joe Harper, Huck, and,
in the cave, Becky Thatcher into increasingly dangerous situations.
He also finds himself in predicaments in which he must put his concern
for others above his concern for himself, such as when he takes
Becky’s punishment and when he testifies at Injun Joe’s trial. As
Tom begins to take initiative to help others instead of himself,
he shows his increasing maturity, competence, and moral integrity.
Tom’s adventures to Jackson’s Island and McDougal’s Cave
take him away from society. These symbolic removals help to prepare him
to return to the village with a new, more adult outlook on his relationship
to the community. Though early on Tom looks up to Huck as much older
and wiser, by the end of the novel, Tom’s maturity has surpassed
Huck’s. Tom’s personal growth is evident in his insistence, in the
face of Huck’s desire to flee all social constraints, that Huck
stay with the Widow Douglas and become civilized.
Society’s Hypocrisy
Twain complicates Tom’s position on the border between
childhood and adulthood by ridiculing and criticizing the values
and practices of the adult world toward which Tom is heading. Twain’s
harshest satire exposes the hypocrisy—and often the essential childishness—of
social institutions such as school, church, and the law, as well
as public opinion. He also mocks individuals, although when doing
so he tends to be less biting and focuses on flaws of character
that we understand to be universal.
Twain shows that social authority does not always operate
on wise, sound, or consistent principles and that institutions fall
prey to the same kinds of mistakes that individuals do. In his depiction
of families, Twain shows parental authority and constraint balanced by
parental love and indulgence. Though she attempts to restrain and
punish Tom, Aunt Polly always relents because of her love for her
nephew. As the novel proceeds, a similar tendency toward indulgence
becomes apparent within the broader community as well. The community
shows its indulgence when Tom’s dangerous adventures provoke an
outpouring of concern: the community is perfectly ready to forgive
Tom’s wrongs if it can be sure of his safety. Twain ridicules the
ability of this collective tendency toward generosity and forgiveness
to go overboard when he describes the town’s sentimental forgiveness
of the villainous Injun Joe after his death.
The games the children play often seem like attempts
to subvert authority and escape from conventional society. Skipping
school, sneaking out at night, playing tricks on the teacher, and
running away for days at a time are all ways of breaking the rules
and defying authority. Yet, Twain shows us that these games can
be more conventional than they seem. Tom is highly concerned with
conforming to the codes of behavior that he has learned from reading,
and he outlines the various criteria that define a pirate, a Robin
Hood, or a circus clown. The boys’ obsession with superstition is
likewise an addiction to convention, which also mirrors the adult
society’s focus on religion. Thus, the novel shows that adult existence
is more similar to childhood existence than it might seem. Though
the novel is critical of society’s hypocrisy—that is, of the frequent
discord between its values and its behavior—Twain doesn’t really
advocate subversion. The novel demonstrates the potential dangers
of subverting authority just as it demonstrates the dangers of adhering
to authority too strictly.
Freedom through Social Exclusion
St. Petersburg is an insular community in which outsiders
are easily identified. The most notable local outsiders include
Huck Finn, who fends for himself outside of any family structure
because his father is a drunkard; Muff Potter, also a drunk; and
Injun Joe, a malevolent half-breed. Despite the community’s clear
separation of outsiders from insiders, however, it seems to have
a strong impulse toward inclusiveness. The community tolerates the
drunkenness of a harmless rascal like Muff Potter, and Huck is more
or less protected even though he exists on the fringes of society.
Tom too is an orphan who has been taken in by Aunt Polly out of
love and filial responsibility. Injun Joe is the only resident of
St. Petersburg who is completely excluded from the community. Only
after Injun Joe’s death are the townspeople able to transform him,
through their manipulation of his memory, into a tolerable part
of St. Petersburg society.
