Good Tom Sawyers Conflict Essay Example

Tom Sawyer is a playful, creative and adventurous young boy of the 1800s, growing up in a small town called St. Petersburg, Missouri, who has learnt to con others his way through. He is an orphan, living with his Aunt Polly, his cousin Mary and his half-brother Sid, and he is best friends with Huckleberry Finn, or Huck, in short, with whom he shares the same adventures. Despite his cunning character, and refusal to fit in the adults’ world and align with their rules, Tom will soon find himself on the spot, when he will have to face Injun Joe. The adventures of Tom Sawyer is full of conflicts, yet, the most dominant one is that of Tom and Injun Joe, a man versus man conflict that drives readers to a climax of events till the very end.
It all started when one night, Tom and Huck were out to the graveyard to bury the dead cat of Widow Douglas, where they heard the voices of the town’s drunk, Muff Potter, Injun Joe and Dr. Robinson. The latter had paid the other two to dig up a corpse that would serve as a lab rat for the doctor’s medical research. At some point the three men had a big fight which resulted in Muff Potter getting knocked unconscious and Injun Joe stabbing the doctor using Potter’s knife. It was obvious that everybody would see Potter as the murderer of a reputed member of the community, while Injun would be out and free. In fact, Injun Joe, in order to save himself, tried to make Potter believe that Potter was the doctor’s murderer. This is a scene that both Tom and Huck had witnessed, though. However, out of fear of Injun killing them, they made a secret pact, with a blood-bound oath they gave, not to reveal anyone he truth. The news travelled fast and the very next day the entire town knew of Dr. Robinson’s murder and who had –supposedly- committed the crime. Although Potter tried to proclaim his innocence, he finally asked Injun Joe to reveal the whole truth to the police, which is what the latter did, and framed Potter for a crime he had committed himself. This is the point, when the two boys, Huck and Finn felt trapped and were stricken by their conscious that made Tom have wild dreams and talk in his sleep about things such as blood and graves. Anyway, leaving aside the inner conflict of Tom, the two friends had to confront Injun Joe on a physical level. One day, when Tom and Huck were in the look out of an imaginary buried treasure, they came across Injun Joe and another man digging up a real treasure somewhere in an abandoned house. That event has set off the boys’ treasure-hunt ever since. They eagerly wanted to find where Injun Joe had hidden the unburied treasure. It was then, when Tom’s conflict got personalized and completely contradicting. He had conflicting emotions in regards Injun Joe. He was both afraid of him, and wanted to steal his treasure at the same time, which elevates suspense, through the pages of the book. Of course, both Tom and Huck gradually drive themselves crazy over the idea that Injun Joe was looking for them, in order to kill them.
Maybe be chapter nine, where the murder of Dr. Robinson takes place, comprises the turning point in the novel, and the sense of innocence distinguishing the life in the small town of St. Petersburg, the true climax in Tom Sawyer’s conflict with Injun Joe arrives a bit later, when Tom encounters Injun Joe in the cave. Tom and his friend and loved one Becky get lost in a cave and it doesn’t take long before they run out of supplies. They are desperate and feel they are actually going to leave their last breath in that dark where there is no way out for them. On top of that, Injun Joe is also inside the same cave. Excitement reaches extremely high levels when Tom and Becky overhear Injun Joe planning to kill Widow Douglas. Widow Douglas is an old woman living in a big house, right on top of a hill nearby St. Petersburg. Joe seems to have unclosed business with the widow’s husband and wants to take revenge by killing Widow Douglas. It is a scene that cuts breath. Fortunately, Tom manages to find a way out of the cave and get to inform the widow about the life being in danger. This is perhaps the turning point in Tom’s life, with Widow Douglas’ decision to take Tom in and put him under her protective wings, educating and feeding him.
Resolution seems to restore things. The entire conflict between Tom and Injun Joe comes to a permanent end with the first starving to death, leaving the two boys, Tom and Huck, feeling safe again, at last. It is perhaps Mark Twain’s way to pass on the worldview that just prevails, even if it takes longer than one might imagine.