In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, why do Tom and Huck Finn get along so well?

Great question! In the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Tom and Huck get along very well throughout the story. Although there are many different factors that contribute to this relationship, some noteworthy factors will be mentioned.

Foremost, Tom and Huck get along because Huck is usually willing to participate in Tom’s plans. Although Tom has other friends, not all of his friends are always willing or able to follow Tom in his creative ideas. However, Huck normally is willing to follow. As the text reveals:

“Huck was always willing to take a hand in any enterprise that offered entertainment and required no capital, for he had a troublesome superabundance of that sort of time which is not money.”

Furthermore, Huck is not only willing to follow Tom’s ideas, but he is also able to participate. Although Huck does not have much money, he has plenty of time and freedom. Due to his unique family situation, Huck has very little supervision or rules in his life. Thus, he is able to go unsupervised, such as with Tom to visit the gravesite at night.

Not only this, but the boys also have similarities, which adds to their relationship. For example, both of the boys are extremely superstitious. They both also enjoy disregarding social rules. Lastly, both of them experience problems with their family, such as losing a parent.

Thus, Tom and Huck get along quite well throughout the story. Although Tom has other friends, he spends much time with Huck. Huck is willing and able to go along with Tom’s ideas due to his unique family situation. They also have similar commonalities that further unite the two characters.

Are Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn friends?

Despite the disapproval of the adults in St. Petersburg, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are close friends. Huckleberry Finn is an outcast, the son of the local drunk, but his mischievous nature and freedom to live as he likes appeal to the children in the community, including Tom. Though Tom is punished by his teacher for even speaking with Huck, he continues to spend time with him anyway.

The friendship between the two boys is a strong one. The duo treasure imaginative play, pretending to be pirates and robbers. Though they appear to be opposites, they complement one another: Tom is imaginative and book-smart, while Huck is daring and assumes a devil-may-care attitude regarding the rules of the civilized world. The two mutually admire and even envy one another, though this never spills over into malicious feelings.

Social disapproval only seems to make Tom cling more tightly to Huck. Though he too is an orphan, Tom pities Huck for having no guardian to properly care for him, especially when there is no one present to greet him at the boys' funerals. By the end of the book, he tries to find Huck a good home and convince him to live with the Widow Douglas in order to become civilized.

What are the similarities and differences between Tom and Huck in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?

Here is how the boys compare:

They are both approximately the same age and grew up in the same area in MO. They are best friends and both have a strong liking for adventure. On one adventure, they found treasure, and now each of them has $6000 apiece! Very wealthy young men!

Here is how they contrast:

Tom is a reader; in fact, all of his hare-brained schemes he concots throughout the book are based off of things that he reads in novels. Tom is more concerned with adventure than how the adventures may affect those involved (the trick he plays on Jim with his hat and the 5 cents for the candles). Tom is also from a loving, stable family.

Huck, on the other hand, is barely literate because he has had no family to enforce his going to school. He'd rather be wild and free than be forced to follow any rules. Huck is very concerned about those around him and grows emotionally attached to several of the characters in the book. Huck is very logical and rational--a real 'cut-to-the-chase' kind of guy--no fluff, no extra stuff, just do what you have to do to get it done!

Huck is very influenced by Tom--he stops to help the shipwrecked steamboat because Tom would've done it, when he fakes his death he says he wishes Tom were there to put on the flair and extra touches, and he follows through w/ Tom's ridiculous and insane 'escape' plan!

Tom represents Romanticism (the literary era that is much mocked and satirized throughout the book) and Huck represents Realism (the literary era in which Twain is writing--Romanticism came first).