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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

by Mark Twain

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Who was the "juvenile pariah of the village" in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"?

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The "juvenile pariah of the village" in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunkard. Huck is depicted as a boy who lives freely without parental guidance, dressed in adult men's castoff clothes, and living a carefree life. Despite being seen as idle and lawless by the village mothers, who forbade their children from associating with him, he was popular among the children for his adventurous spirit.

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The "juvenile pariah of the village" was Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunkard.  Huckleberry

"was always dressed in the castoff clothes of full-grown men"...(and he) came and went, at his own free will...slept on doorsteps in fine weather and in empty hogsheads in wet...he did not have to got to school or to church, or call any being master or obey anybody...nobody forbade him to fight...he could sit up as late as he pleased...he never had to wash, nor put on clean clothes...he could swear wonderfully".

In a word, Huck basically raised himself, and grew up running wild.  All the mothers of the town "hated and dreaded (him)...because he was idle and lawless and vulgar and bad", and they forbade their children to play with him because they were afraid he would be a bad influence on them.  The children, of course, all loved Huckleberry and the carefree world he represented, and they played with him every chance they got (Chapter VI).

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