Examples Of Foil In Huckleberry Finn

A foil is a character in a book who erodes the identity of another character. One example of a foil is Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer is Huckleberry Finn’s foil throughout Mark Twain’s book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck and Tom each have their own individual character, but when Huck is around Tom’s character his character falters. Others however believe that neither Tom nor Huck have good character. Huck’s character is one of kindness, naivete, and curiosity. Huck exemplifies being kind by knowing wrong and right. Huck sees the Duke and the King conning innocent townspeople and cannot stand to see the townspeople be hurt, so he tells Mary Jane, a young girl, that the town is being conned (Twain 132). Huck displays his naivete when he accepts the two men he meets as a duke and a king without questioning their story. Huck details the way he and Jim “set to majestying him, and doing this and that and t’other for him” to show the king how much they respected him (Twain 94). Also, while journeying down the river with Jim, Huck’s curiosity is shown when he describes his yearning to explore the “place right about the middle of the island” (Twain 36).Huck convinces Jim to let him explore and see what resources the island had. Tom’s character is reckless,

He becomes Tom’s follower. One example of this phenomenon is when Huck devised a quick and simple plan to free Jim from prison, but Tom argued that the plan needed to be more daring. Tom then crafted his own plan which Huck went along with. Mark Twain even notes on this phenomenon in his autobiography when he says “When people let Huck Finn alone he goes peacefully along, damaging a few children here and there and yonder...It is only when well-meaning people expose him that he gets his real chance to do harm” (Twainquotes). Huck’s character is good, but when exposed to others, especially Tom, Huck loses his way and causes more