Analyzing Friendship and Loyalty in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the themes of friendship and loyalty in Mark Twain's *The Adventures of Tom Sawyer*. The paper examines how Twain intricately weaves these concepts through Tom's interactions with various characters, particularly his relationships with Huckleberry Finn and Becky Thatcher. The essay highlights the significance of the blood oath between Tom and Huck as a symbol of their friendship and loyalty, showcasing how their shared adventures and trust solidify their bond. Furthermore, it explores instances where Tom demonstrates loyalty to his friends, such as standing up for Huck when Aunt Polly shows him disrespect and showing his love to Becky. The conclusion emphasizes Twain's masterful use of these themes as a cornerstone of the novel, illustrating their impact on the characters' development and the overall narrative. The essay utilizes literary analysis, supported by cited works, to demonstrate the depth of these themes within the novel.

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Friendship and Loyalty in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer
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Friendship and Loyalty in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer
According to Tindol (2009), Mark Twain has intricately woven the themes of friendship
and loyalty in the Novel of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He has meticulously illustrated these
concepts through Tom’s life and how he interacts with various characters that he has encountered
in the novel. Twain has shaped the character of Tom around the themes of friendship and loyalty,
especially the bond of camaraderie that Tom forms with Huckleberry Finn and Becky Thatcher
(Trupej 331). Through the profound relationship fostered between Tom and Finn, the author
Mark Twain demonstrates how adventures can make two unknown people be compatible and be
in a closer bond of friendship that is denoted with loyalty. Besides, Mark Twain shows how
significant the feeling of love can transpire among people in adventure and how loyal Becky and
Tom has to be to fortify their friendship for a long time. Therefore, in this paper, I will
demonstrate how the themes of friendship and loyalty emerge the critical concepts in the novel
of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
The themes of friendship and loyalty are mainly illustrated by the blood oath that is taken
by Tom and Huck. Their friendship sprouted when they found a common point of interest and
began sharing how to cure warts. Both of them had numerous superstitions of how to do this with
the main superstition is going to the graveyard at midnight with a dead cat. According to Huck,
the devil would follow the corpse. The cat would follow the devil, and eventually, warts would
follow the cat leading to the eradication of this disease (Bonilla 117). This superstition led them
to have an adventure to the graveyard as they attempted to put this superstition into the test. In
this graveyard adventure, Tom and Huck witnessed the murder of Doctor Robinson that
frightened them. After escaping from the precarious graveyard, they vowed never to utter the
ordeal that they had experienced and signified their vow with a blood oath. “Now look-a-here,

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Tom, less take and swear to one another that's what we got to do-swear to keep mum.” but their
order is writing ‘bout a big thing like this and blood’. (Tindol 123). From these two excerpts
from the novel, a clear understanding of friendship between the duo is observed as they exchange
loyalty and trust that each of them will not utter the incidence that they saw in the graveyard
through the blood oath. The trust demonstrates the height of their friendship and loyalty that both
of them would adhere to the blood oath.
These themes are also shown in the scenes when Huck and Tom escape from their foster
home and the adventures they experience in Jackson’s island. During one night, Tom decided to
return home and check on how his family members, Sid, Mary, and Aunt Polly, were doing. As
he was hiding under the bed, Tom realized there was a funeral arrangement for Joe, Huck, and
himself on Saturday afternoon. To prevent this, Tom, Huck, and Joe reemerged at the church,
and everyone was eccentric about their return except for the cold shoulder that was given to
Huck during the welcome back greetings. Huck felt uncomfortable with the displeasure that Aunt
Polly showed him, and Tom tried to stand up for him, scolding Aunt Polly for showing
indifferent attitude towards Huck. As a result, Aunt Polly relieved her resentment of Huck and
welcomed him warmly. Tom standing up for Huck’s decry, illustrated friendship as he cared for
how Huck felt and decided to plead with his Aunt, who was making Huck feel left out in the
welcome back party.
In this novel, Mark Twain portrays friendship and loyalty between Tom, Huck, and
Becky Thatcher in the engagement between Tom and Becky. Tom and Becky's first connection
begins when Becky is punished for playing hooky, and she is reprimanded to sit next to Tom.
Through this scene, Tom eventually admits that he is in love with Becky and gets engaged to her.
However, this relationship meets an abrupt end, and, in the process, both Tom and Becky start

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doing things that would inspire jealousy. Later on, they makeup and head to an island together
where they get lost. During their adventure on this island, Tom expresses the magnitude of his
love for Becky by supporting Becky and providing solace in her sufferings. This also shows the
depth of friendship that the two have.
In conclusion, Mark Twain has managed to make the themes of friendship and loyalty to
the cornerstone of this novel. He has managed to illustrate this through the relationship of Tom
and Huck as they vowed to keep a secret their incidence at the graveyard, Mark stood up for
Huck when Aunt Polly resented Huck and Tom showing his love to Becky.

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Works Cited
Tindol, Robert. “Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher in the Cave: An Anti-Captivity Narrative?.”
The Mark Twain Annual 7 (2009): 118-126.
Bonilla, Joe Montenegro. ‘The American Past and Present: A New Historicist Approach to The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” LETRAS 64 (2018): 109-129.
Trupej, Janko. “Recepcija Romanov The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn v Sloveniji,” Journal of Foreign Languages 11.1 (2019): 327-342.