“Human beings can be terribly cruel to one another” (Twain 294). No one understands the human condition better than Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Although he was only a boy with little education and no sophisticated culture, he acquired his knowledge the hard way, through experience. In contrast is Tom Sawyer, a minor character who plays a major role. He understands the world around him through one thing: books. His battle cry seems to be: “Because it’s not in the books, so that’s why” (12). To understand these two opposites at work is to understand why Twain ended the book the way he did. Tom is a central character early on, showing his bravado and how much Huck doesn't know. Ultimately, he has to come back to show how much experienced Huck has grown and the all-consuming importance of living life instead of just reading. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essayMark Twain wrote from experience and, although he was not highly educated (he left school at fourteen years old), he had a deep understanding of the true gem of intelligence. In writing Huckleberry Finn, he only wrote what he knew from his own experience, and he never embellished what he did not know. “Mark Twain did not know the territory. He was looking for a plan to take them across the great river to territory he knew from his days as a pilot” (Emerson, xxv). He stalled the unfolding of his narrative until he could travel to the regions to have first-hand knowledge of what he was writing about. He wanted to avoid the mistakes of the Tom Sawyers who wrote just to inflate their literary egos with pompous narration of ideas they didn't really know. At the beginning of the story, Huckleberry Finn is naive and ignorant. He follows Tom Sawyer's antics out of humility and emulation for someone as cultured as a well-educated Tom who could read many books. So, he follows him out of innocence in the hope of learning more about life, as is expected of all "ignorant" people, but all he ends up learning is that there is a difference between dream and reality, which Tom Sawyer lacks. When he joins the band of thieves and murderers in search of adventure and finds only childish and fantastical stories, he cannot believe the waste of time and energy. “So I judged it all to be one of Tom Sawyer's lies. I thought he believed in A-rabs and elephants, but I think differently. It had all the characteristics of a Sunday school” (Twain 19). Huck is too balanced for people like Tom, even though he is young. He is the average boy or man searching for truth and not finding it in the all-powerful institutions of knowledge. Most people believe that published books, fiction or nonfiction, contain the ultimate truths of the world, that books are the definitive authority on the matter. a domain, and that what is written must be believed. However, even the most respected writers of yesterday were sometimes found to be wrong or inaccurate. There is only so much practical knowledge a book can bring to everyday life. Tom is the strongest proponent of the written word. In fact, his life did not require much practical life experience. His family had sheltered him through culture and money, so the life he led had become so restrictive that he had to reach out and do something just to prove that he was alive. Tom represents the bookish experts who have read everything but experienced nothing. people likeTom tend to show off everything they know without doing much. Tom amazes those around him by using big words that no one understands and by discussing obscure topics that have no relation to the current situation. At one point he even starts a conversation about heraldry just to show how much he has read (329). He may know the words, but he doesn't know what they mean exactly so he uses them incorrectly. It's just for show and by using big words that he doesn't really understand, it inflates his ego to prove to himself that he actually has intelligence. When asked what he is talking about, he comfortably settles for the scholastic's excuse: "but that's what they do." I've seen it in books; and of course, that’s what we have to do” or say (12). At the very beginning of the novel, Tom Sawyer becomes a victim of the scholastic's quixotic way of thinking. Tom calls Huck ignorant because he hasn't read Cervantes' Don Quixote, and reading books like that gives you an imagination. But unbridled imagination is the very source of the irony of these picaresque novels. A Handbook to Literature defines these novels as "presenting the life story of a low-level rascal engaged in menial tasks and earning his living by his wit rather than by his industry...and affords the author the opportunity to satirize social classes" ("picaresque novel"). Thus, Tom shows his own ignorance by referring to the book Don Quixote by becoming exactly what the book satirizes, that of an impractical idealist. Tom , like Don Quixote, begins to believe that he is the hero or villain of the tales he reads, and thus embarks on ridiculous adventures that no one else seems to understand except him. Huck is the exact opposite; he has the desire to pursue his knowledge for the sake of growth and not for pleasure “Huck has no imagination, in the sense that Tom understands it: he has, instead, a vision He sees the. real world; and he does not judge him – he allows him to judge himself” (Eliot 74). Often, by simply living his life, he grows in maturity and knowledge without even knowing it. This is the way to experience it in the classroom rather than in books. Everyone knows how long it takes to read books and how simple it is compared to real life. This is why Tom is suddenly left out of the story and Huck continues in the classroom of life. The reader watches Huck grow as he travels down the river. It is not until Tom returns at the end of the book that the reader sees how much Huck has grown as a real person. Sure, he's the same old Huck, ignorant and far from civilized, but he has what matters, morality and humanity; while Tom is still stagnating as a human being, living his life only through the eyes of others. The change in Huck is evident when he admits to Tom that he wants to steal Jim from the slave owners. Tom jumps at the idea and chooses to do it for the adventure; he craves life in his books without knowing the true consequences of his actions. For him, there is only the hero and the villain, and no morality outside of his adventures. Huck wants to steal from Jim because it's the right thing to do; he learned a lot from his travels. Through his real-life experiences outside of the literary world, he has grown up and sees things as they really are; in color and not just black and white. Huck's humanity is further illustrated when he sees the king and duke finally captured. Although they have done atrocious things to him and Jim, Huck gives good words of wisdom from life in the real world. “It made me sick to see that; and I felt sorry for these poor pitiful rascals, it seemed to me that I could no longernever feel harshness against them in the world. It was a terrible thing to see. Human beings can be terribly cruel to one another” (Twain 294). Huck has developed a conscience through his experiences and knows how to distinguish right from wrong, even if those older and smarter than him don't seem to. Whether we are human or animal is what Twain is satirizing, and the degree of inhumanity one must endure and suffer before realizing the truth is not what those in authority say, but what is in the heart, as conscience dictates. This is why Huck is impressed that someone in Tom's position would face the shame of stealing a slave. He just doesn't realize Tom's motivations. For Huck, he does it out of love and respect for a friend, and Jim is not Tom's friend; it is only knowledge. Tom steals Jim for glory for the adventure. This is the main difference. Huck lives and experiences adventures through reality. Tom seeks adventure so he can live outside of reality. This is why he must create his own exploits, find his challenge. The adventure creates Huck and challenges him to a new level. Tom however is the opposite. He's trying to create the Great Escape to match the books exactly for the glory. Huck then comes up with a level-headed plan for an escape that would give them freedom and worry-free. On the other hand, Tom wants the romantic rescue that suits his books, but will also create more work and possible detection. One who lacks real life skills and has learned only from books seeks the need for extravagant recognition because he only has the knowledge, but not the lifestyle, to carry out such actions. bold. Is someone who is educated necessarily more intelligent than someone who is not? ? Tom likes to think so, but the sheer stupidity and routine of his actions speak to his lack of knowledge of the real world. “You may have to dig Jim out with a pickaxe, without anyone letting on, because you don't know any better; but that would not be the case for me, because I know better” (314). He asks for a knife to dig the hole and when Huck gives him one, he repeats it, wanting the ignorant man to make a mistake by mistaking a pickaxe for a knife for him. Although he cannot make any mistake in this business, he who is not instructed can do so, for they are the fools. Huck becomes the scapegoat for Tom's own clumsy pride, and if an uneducated man with experience in the world doesn't find meaning in what the educated say, it goes against all natural thinking , and the whole experience is considered a waste. It doesn't matter that uneducated people can actually teach educated people through the experience they have had. But even if they don't understand, they should still comply as if what is being said is the truth and not just an opinion. When Jim complains about all the things he has to do as a prisoner according to the romantic books, “Tom has almost lost all patience with him; and he said he was simply loaded with more garish opportunities than a prisoner had ever had in the world to make a name for himself, and yet he didn't know enough to appreciate them, and they were to pretty much wasted on him. So Jim was sorry and said he wouldn’t behave like that again” (336). It's a shame that so much practical knowledge has been lost over the ages because the "civilized" view the uneducated as stupid. Thinking that education is intelligence when in practical terms, it is only written nonsense and chicanery has become the prerogative of the “civilized” world". madness. Jim, being the least educated of all, is shown to be the most intelligent throughout the novel as he possesses knowledge from experience rather than books. “And [Tom] told him how to keep a newspaper on the shirt with his blood, and all that. He told her everything. Jim, he didn't see the point of all this, but he admitted that we were white people and that we knew it better than him; so he was satisfied and said he would do just as Tom said” (316). How much culture and knowledge have been destroyed by civilized countries who know nothing more than what a man and a book tell them? An educated person can be a burden to anyone, and it would be better to suffer in ignorance than to be caught in the twists and turns of an individual who thinks he knows everything. Many nations mourn their wonderful days before empires came to "civilize" them and create more problems than they ever had before. “I never thought it was so much trouble and trouble to be a prisoner” (334). For Jim, because a book says it, it must be true. If a book says snakes can be tamed, then anyone can do it. The first rule of intellect is to do it for the glory of showing off one's own intelligence, of being the first to do something, no matter how stupid it may seem. "'Why, Mars Tom, I don't want such glory. Snake removes and bites Jim's chin, so what is glory?' » (333-334) Once again, the less educated can demonstrate common sense, proving that education is not the only way to acquire intelligence. Anyone who has gone out and discovered the world knows. that life does not follow any rules Usually, if the same situation is repeated, another result will result. For true knowledge, truth comes from experience, but for those who have higher education, who only study. than books in their ivory tower, the truth is not essential as long as the rules are followed. A highly ordered life requires rules, and the rules do not always follow the truth. is not understood, then they can create a new idea with a lot of new jargon to explain what cannot be and call it the truth Black men are inferior because of the color of their skin just because educated men. have told the world! Moreover, other educated men will believe it because it is published and then teach it in schools. Only educated people will call a fact a superstition. Education is the illusion of truth and it is what separates the educated from the uneducated. “And don’t call him Mullen, call him Pitchiola – that’s his real name when he’s in prison.” And you want to water it with your tears. “Well, I have plenty of spring water, Mars Tom.” “You don’t want spring water; you want to water it with your tears. That’s how they always do it’” (336). It's a typical classroom setting where yesterday's educated buffoons teach common sense to tomorrow's youth. Many reviewers have criticized the ending of the book, when Tom comes in and takes away the glory that Huck deserves. However, this is exactly what Twain wanted to illustrate. In the end, it is Huck who has learned the true meaning of life and is sensitive to the feelings of others. When he wants to visit Tom after getting shot, he wanted to escape in the middle of the night, but seeing his surrogate aunt sitting up all night waiting for Tom to return makes him reconsider his decision. He feels the true wrongness of what they did. “I wish I could do something for her, but I couldn't, only to swear that I would never do anything to upset her again (360). On the other hand, Tom lived, 1994.