But there are many signs of how these two figures were somehow twinned in MT's imagination. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, for example, Huck comes close to stealing the novel's attention away from Tom. Before that novel was even published, MT had begun Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- but by the end of that book Tom's character is moved back to the center of the stage. In the last section, in fact, Huck is Tom, at least to Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas. Another indication of this linkage is MT's desire to publish Huck Finn in a format designed to mirror the look of Tom Sawyer. |