“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 is only a boy of little education and no sophisticated culture, he has acquired his knowledge the hard way, through experience. At the opposite pole is Tom Sawyer, a minor character who plays an important role. He understands the world around him through one thing, books. His rallying 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 in the beginning, showing his bravado and how much Huck doesn't know. Ultimately, he must return to show how savvy Huck has grown and the all-consuming importance of experiencing life instead of just reading about it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Mark Twain wrote from experience, and although he was not very educated (he left school at the age of fourteen), he had a deep understanding of the true gem of intelligence. In writing Huckleberry Finn, he wrote only what he knew from personal experience, and never embellished what he didn't know. “Mark Twain was unfamiliar with the territory. He was looking for a plan to take them up the great river into territory he knew from his days as a pilot” (Emerson, xxv). He blocked the flow of his narrative until he could travel to the areas to have first-hand knowledge of what he was writing about. He wanted to avoid the mistakes of the Tom Sawyers who wrote only to inflate their literary egos with pompous narratives 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 Tom, well educated, who could read many books. So, she follows him out of innocence in hopes of learning more about life as is expected of all "ignorant" people, but all she ends up learning is that there is a difference between dream and reality, something that Tom lacks Sawyer. When he joins the band of adventure-seeking thieves and murderers and finds only childhood stories and fantasies, he can't believe the waste of time and energy. “Then I thought all that stuff was just one of Tom Sawyer's lies. In my opinion he believed in Arabs and elephants, but as far as I'm concerned I think differently. It had all the characteristics of a Sunday school” (Twain 19). Huck is too level-headed for people like Tom, even though he is young in age. 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, whether fiction or nonfiction, contain the ultimate truths of the world, that books are the definitive authority in a field, and that what is written is to be believed. However, even yesterday's most esteemed writers were occasionally found to be wrong or inaccurate. There is only so much practical knowledge a book can bring to everyday life. Tom is the firmest believer in the written word. In fact, his life did not require much practical experience with life. His family had protected him with culture and money, so the life he lived had become so restrictive that he had to do something just to prove he was alive. Tom represents the book experts who have read everything but experienced nothing of it. People like Tom tend to show off how much they know without doing much. The use of big words that no one understands and the discussion ofobscure topics that have no relevance to the situation at hand is how Tom amazes those around him. At one point he even starts a conversation about heraldry just to show off 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 using big words he doesn't really understand inflates his ego to prove to himself that he does, in fact, possess intelligence. When asked what he is talking about, he conveniently resorts to the scholastic excuse: «but that's how they do it. I've seen it in books; and so obviously that's what we have to do” or say (12). Right at the beginning of the novel, Tom Sawyer becomes a victim of the scholastic's quixotic way of thinking. Tom says that Huck is ignorant because he hasn't read Cervantes' Don Quixote, and by reading books like that one gains imagination. But unbridled imagination is the very source of the irony of these picaresque novels. A Handbook to Literature defines such novels as "presenting the life story of a low-grade scoundrel engaged in menial tasks and earning his living by his wits rather than by his industry... and offering the author a 'opportunity for satire of social classes' ('picaresque novel'). Therefore, Tom shows his own ignorance in referencing 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 stories he reads, and so goes on ridiculous adventures that no one else seems to understand except him. Huck is the complete opposite; has a desire to pursue knowledge for the sake of growth, not entertainment. “Huck has no imagination, in the sense in which Tom has it: instead, he has vision. He sees the real world; and does not judge him: he allows him to judge himself” (Eliot 74). Often by simply living life, he grows in maturity and knowledge without even knowing it. This is the way to experience the classroom instead of books. Everyone knows how long it takes to read a book and how simple it is compared to real life. This is why Tom is suddenly left out of the narrative and Huck continues in the class of life. The reader watches Huck grow as he continues his journey along the river. It is only when Tom returns at the end of the book that the reader sees how much Huck has grown as a real person. Of course he is the usual Huck, ignorant and anything but civilized, but he has what counts, morality and humanity; while Tom is still stagnant as a human being, experiencing life only through the eyes of others. The change in Huck is shown when he confesses to Tom that he wants to steal Jim from the slave owners. Tom jumps at the idea and chooses to do it for the fun of it; he thirsts for life in his books without knowing the true consequences of his actions. For him, only the hero and the villain exist, and no morals outside of his adventures. Huck wants to steal Jim because it's the right thing to do; he learned a lot from his travels. Through his real experiences outside of the literary world, he has grown to see things as they really are; colorful and not just black and white. Huck's humanity is further illustrated when he sees the king and duke finally captured. Although they did some heinous things to him and Jim, Huck gives good words of wisdom learned from life in the real world. “It hurt to see it; and I felt sorry for those poor miserable scoundrels, it seemed to me that I could no longer feel any 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 in his experiences and knows right from wrong, even if older people andintelligent than him they don't seem so. Whether we are human or animal is what Twain satirizes, and how much inhumanity one must endure and suffer before realizing that the truth is not what those in authority say, but what is in the heart, as one's conscience dictates . This is why Huck is in awe of the idea that someone in Tom's position could face the shame of stealing a slave. He simply doesn't realize Tom's motives. For Huck, he is doing it out of love and respect for a friend, and Jim is not Tom's friend; he is simply an acquaintance. Tom steals Jim from glory for adventure. This is the main difference. Huck lives and adventures through reality. Tom seeks adventure in order to live outside of reality. That's why he has to create his own businesses, to find his own challenge. The adventure creates Huck and challenges him to a higher level. Tom, however, is the opposite. He tries to create the great escape to fit the books exactly for the glory of it. Huck then proposes a balanced plan for an escape that would give them freedom and no worries. On the other hand, Tom wants the romantic rescue that suits his books, but which will also create more work and possible discovery. Those who have no real life skills, and have only learned from books, seek the need for extravagant recognition because they only have the knowledge but not the lifestyle to make such bold moves. Are those who are educated necessarily more intelligent than those who are not? ? Tom likes to think so, but the simple stupidity and mechanicalness of his actions speak to his lack of knowledge of the real world. «The solution might be for you to take Jim out with a pickaxe, without letting him know, because you don't know how; but it wouldn't be for me, because I know better” (314). He asks for a suitcase knife with which to dig the hole and when Huck gives him one he states it again, wanting the ignorant to make the mistake of mistaking him for a suitcase knife. Although he cannot make any mistake in his effort, the ignorant can do so, because they are the fools. Huck becomes the scapegoat for Tom's misguided pride, and if an uneducated man who has experience in the world does not find what the educated say makes sense, it goes against all natural thought and the whole experience is considered a waste. It doesn't matter that the ignorant can actually teach the educated through the experience they have had. But even if they don't understand, they still have to conform as if what is being said is truth and not just opinion. When Jim complains about all the things he has to do as a prisoner according to the romance books, “Tom has almost lost all patience with him; and said he was simply loaded with more splendid possibilities than any prisoner ever had in the world of making a name for himself, and yet he did not know enough of them to appreciate them, and they were almost wasted on him. So Jim was sorry and said he would never act like that again” (336). It is a shame that so much practical knowledge has been lost over the centuries because “civilized people” consider the ignorant to be stupid. Thinking that education is intelligence when in practical terms is just nonsense spelled madness. Jim, being the most ignorant of all, is revealed to be the smartest throughout the novel because he has knowledge from experience instead of books. “And [Tom] told him how to keep a diary on his shirt with his blood, and everything. She told him everything. Jim, he couldn't see any sense in it, but he admitted we were white and knew it better than he did; so he was satisfied and said he would do everything just as Tom said” (316). How much culture and knowledge have been destroyed by civilized countries that know nothing more than what a man and a book tell them? An educated person can be aweight for anyone, and it would be better to suffer in ignorance than to be caught up in the thoughts of an individual who thinks he knows everything. Many nations mourn their wonderful days before empires came along to “civilize” them and create more problems than they ever had before. “I never knew it was so troublesome and troublesome 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 glory, to show off your intelligence, to be the first to do something no matter how senseless it may seem. "'Why, Mars Tom, I don't want such glory. The serpent tears off and bites Jim's chin, so what is glory?'" (333-334). Again the most ignorant may possess common sense , proving that education is not the only way to intelligence. Anyone who has gone out and experienced the world knows that life does not follow any rules. Usually, if the same situation repeats itself, another outcome will result. For true knowledge, truth comes from experience, but for those with higher education, who only study books in their ivory towers, truth is not essential as long as the rules are respected , and the rules do not always follow the truth. Something is not right, or is not understood, then they can create a new idea with a lot of fresh jargon to explain what cannot be and call it truth because of the color of their skin just because educated men told the world so! Furthermore, other educated men will believe it because it is published and then they teach it in schools. Only educated people will consider superstition a fact. Education is the illusion of truth and is what separates the educated from the ignorant. “'And don't call him Mullen, call him Pitchiola: that's his right name when he's in prison. And you want to water it with your tears.' “Hell, I got a lot 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). This is the typical school environment in which yesterday's cultured buffoons take away the common sense of tomorrow's youth. Many critics have criticized the ending of the book, when Tom comes in and takes away the glory that Huck deserves. However, this is exactly the point Twain wanted to illustrate. Ultimately, it is Huck who has learned the true meaning of life and is sensitive to the feelings of others. When he wants to go see Tom after being shot, he wanted to escape in the middle of the night, but seeing his surrogate aunt sitting all night waiting for Tom to return makes him reconsider. He feels the true wrong of what they did. “I wanted to do something for her, but I couldn't, only to swear that I would never do anything to hurt her again (360). In contrast, Tom had an adventure of his own and learned nothing new. Even when he gets shot, he's the happiest of all because he has a war wound, some trophies to talk about, and it doesn't matter that his life was on the line and Jim almost got captured and then gets captured. The innocent must continue to suffer at the hands of studious intellects who really know nothing more than what another writer tells them is the truth. However, it wasn't Tom's learned antics that saved Jim, it was Jim's humanity and caring for Tom more than freedom that allowed him to be seen as an equal. This was the person who had the most influence on Huck: Jim, an uneducated black man and not Tom, the educated and cultured white boy. Even on his deathbed, Tom still insists that the doctor be brought in according to the rules of the book. He still can't distinguish between dream and, 1994.