Tom Sawyer Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy of Adults in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

When it comes to society’s hierarchies of authority, adults are always placed above children because of the fact that children are not yet fully matured and are still young. In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the adults who populate St. Petersburg all look down upon the immature antics of children such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and believe that they are entitled to full authority because of their older age. However the adults, such as Tom’s Aunt Polly, are completely oblivious or are too arrogant to notice the fact that they themselves are rather similar to the children in behavior and reactions. Tom has a sense of self-importance that makes him a child, because children

Petersburg act in a similar fashion. Tom is notorious for “showing off” towards Becky, however adults also have the tendency to engage in the same behavior, especially in the church. For example, when the church is “faced with the unexpected appearance of a guest of honor, adults and children alike respond with the same show of self-importance”(McIntosh-Byrd 15). Whether it be Mr. Walters, the librarian, or teachers, the adults in church all begin to “show off” in order to impress “the great Judge Thatcher” (Twain 31-32). Judge Thatcher is a highly regarded and prestigious judge in the novel, so naturally everyone attempts to make an exceptional first impression. Mr. Walters begins to take authority and gives orders to others in the church to “show-off” his dominance, because commanding orders is a sign of higher status. Meanwhile, the librarians and teachers “show-off” by keeping busy with books and disciplining their pupils respectively. Amusingly enough, the adults who are attempting to make a valuable first impression upon Judge Thatcher are acting the same way Tom did whenever he sees Becky. Although the methods of “showing-off’ by Tom and the adults are done differently, they have the similar goal of improving their image to someone they are attempting to impress. Thus, church is a place where the adults’ hypocrisy truly shines in the novel, because

However, the adults of St. Petersburg do not truly follow through on the rules that they created themselves. As Tom’s motherly figure, Aunt Polly has to constantly keep Tom in check for his mischievous pranks and acts, so she is forced to punish him according to her own rules. However, out of love, Aunt Polly does not punish Tom as severely as she should be according to the rules she created herself because she “ain’t got the heart to lash him” (Twain 8). In fact, Aunt Polly is not the only adult who looks past her own rules. When Huck and Tom take a temporary absence from civilization, the adults all believe them to be dead. However, when the children return, they are treated like heroes despite the fact that leaving St. Petersburg would require them to break multiple rules. Furthermore, Tom and Huck had poor reputations with the people in town before they ran away, especially Huck, who “was cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town” (Twain 43). Huck is a typical rebellious “bad boy” who often takes his path and wears fringed and dirty clothes that make him an outcast to society. But despite how the adults loathed the two, they were more than willing to accept them back into society due to the thought of them being dead. In addition, it is a commonly accepted fact that Huck is not welcome in the society of St.