Injun Joe Analysis

“Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice” -Desmond Tutu Social exclusion is the act of making specific groups of people feel isolated and unimportant ("Social exclusion definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary", 2018). Lack of self-esteem and control are common behaviors that socially excluded people suffer from. It can severely affect, in an unfavorable way, how they look at themselves. Mark Twain, an American author and humorist from the 18 hundred, wrote a novel called “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. Throughout the novel, some characters are excluded from society because of their differences, for example, Injun Joe. According to what Mark mentions in the novel, Injun Joe used to be socially

Did you think I'd forget? The Injun blood ain´t n me for nothing. And now I´ve got you, and you got to settle, you know!” (Twain, pg. 73). This phrase is mentioned in the novel right before Injun Joe kills Dr. Robinson (who Joe is talking to). Mark clearly states how Joe felt vindictive on the doctor for making him feel excluded a couple of years ago. This shows how social exclusion is directly linked to the way people feel and act. “But her husband was rough on me—many times he was rough on me—and mainly he was the justice of the peace that jugged me for a vagrant. And that ain´t all. It ain't a millionth part of it! He had me horsewhipped!—horsewhipped in front of the jail…” (Twain, pg. 185). This expression shows another example of how social exclusion affected Injun Joe´s behavior. He wanted to assassinate the Widow Douglas (wife of the men that horsewhipped him). These two events made Injun Joe become who he is known by in the story, a crazy and dreadful

Huckleberry Finn, a young homeless and motherless urchin, was excluded by some of his classmates and their mothers. This affected his behavior, making him feel avoided and deserted. “Shortly Tom came upon the juvenile pariah of the village, Huckleberry Finn, son of the town drunkard. Huckleberry Finn was cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town, because he was idle, and lawless, and vulgar and bad—and because all their children admired him so, and delighted in his forbidden society, and wished they dare to be like him.” (Twain, pg. 50). This passage tells the reader the outcome of what an excluded child grows to become. It negatively affected Huck's life permanently. As he was regularly unsupervised, he began acting in an inappropriate way for his age. Huck´s type of lifestyle was not a consequence of something he did, but in the contrary, it was the repercussion of how others treated