The Return of Tom

     Just when we think Huck has begun to cut ties with Tom Sawyer and his romanticized view of life--full of adventures, murder, and heroic events--he proves us wrong.  Huck keeps referring back to Tom and what he would have done along the way, sometimes modeling his life to look like Tom's, and chapter 32 is the culmination of this.  Huck literally takes on Tom's identity, which is something, it seems, he has been striving for all along.  It is extremely frustrating as a reader to see Huck begin to think for himself, only to revert back to his old ways.  When Huck is away from his old society and Tom Sawyer's opinions, it is so easier for him to begin to think for himself, to feel sympathy for Jim and to want to help him for the right reasons.  But as soon as Huck is reminded of where he came from and what he has held true his whole life, he loses all the progress he has made.
     Even though Tom agrees to help Huck get Jim out of his "prison," he isn't doing it for the right reasons.  Tom doesn't seem to understand that freeing Jim is a matter of life or death; he just sees it as another adventure.  For me, it was so irritating to listen to Tom's ideas on how they would break Jim out.  He made everything way more complicated than it needed to be, because that was what was in the books; that was what all the great heroes did, so of course Huck and Tom had to follow suit.  What was even more frustrating was that even though Huck may have disagreed, he never stood his ground.  He allowed Tom to sway him into doing things how Tom wanted them done.
     Reading conversations like this one really made me dislike Tom:
          "You got any rats around here?" 
          "No, sah, I hain't seed none."
          "Well, we'll get you some rats."
     No matter how many times Jim told Tom that he didn't want anything to do with the rats, snakes, or spiders, Tom just wouldn't listen.  Tom was only concerned with setting up the scene just right so he would have a good story to tell to his friends later.  These chapters were extremely frustrating to me; watching Huck switch his loyalty from Jim, who had been looking out for Huck's best interest all along, to Tom, who could not care less what happens to Huck or Jim in the end, irritated me and made me not only despise Tom, but Huck as well.