One thing I noticed in Huckleberry Finn is that Tom Sawyer is always trying to make things harder than they really need to be. For example, in the beginning of the book when they are making the robber’s gang, Tom insists that they ransom the ladies. No one knows what that is, but Tom insists that they have to because it’s in the books and all the heroes do it.
Another part is where Huck and Tom are trying to get Jim out and Huck comes up with a plan: get Jim out of the window and run away. He tells Tom and Tom scolds him because his plan would take only a day, but Tom bets he could come up with one that would take at least two years. Then he says that they need to steal two knives, one for a knife, and one for a saw, but when Huck says he found an actual saw, Tom give him a pitying look and says that they have to make the saw out of a knife because that’s what all the books say to do.
They also need to sneak the saw in to Jim so that he could cut off the leg of the bed he was chained to and eat the sawdust (even though they just had to lift up the bed), and they needed to dig him out with spoons, even though they have shovels. Then Tom climbs the lightning rod and almost kills himself in the process and Huck just goes in the door (which wasn’t locked).
They also have to dig a moat so Jim can send messages (even though he doesn’t write). Sometimes – okay, a lot – I think Tom is crazy. It seems like he is out to get Huck, and himself, through his plans.
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