The Significance of The Conscience of Tom in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer Analytical Paragraph

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, it is the job of Tom’s conscience to nag him about anything he does that is wrong, and not to give up until he is convinced, and does something about it. Early on in the novel, Tom and his friends, Huck and Joe, have stolen food and run away to Jackson’s Island. However, they cannot go to sleep: “But an intruder came, now, that would not ‘down.’ It was conscience. They began to feel a vague fear that they had been doing wrong to run away; and next came the thought of the stolen meat, and then the real torture came” (105). Here, Tom is not allowed to go to sleep by his conscience. Instead, he is made to feel like he has done wrongs, and he is “tortured” by it. Later on in the novel, Tom, (the only one besides Huck who knows that Muff Potter is not really a killer) is at Muff Potter, the supposed murderer’s, trial, when he gets called up: “Every eye fastened itself with wondering interest upon Tom as he rose and took his place upon the stand. The boy looked wild enough, for he was badly scared… After a few moments, however, the boy got a little of his strength back, and managed to put enough of it into his voice to make part of the house hear” (170). Here, even though Tom is downright terrified, he is convinced by his conscience that telling the truth is the right thing, and the only thing, to do. His conscience will not let him rest until he tells. Because Tom is convinced, he “got a little of his strength back” in order to do the good deed. Even if Tom does not want to admit it, his conscience plays a very important role in his life, and decides many things for him that he definitely would not have otherwise done.