Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy

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Interpretation
more immediate passion. But now Tom is led to unsought and un
necessary danger. There was no reason for him to venture into the un
known without marking the pathway by which might they return. But
Tom is under a compulsion to break with the trodden pathways, to go
onward without retracing his steps. There wiU be either death or salvation,
but no turning back. And so, having lost the way and being driven ever
*
onward, Tom and Becky are lost.
the picnic
Their only food is a piece of cake she has "'saved . . . from
for us to dream on, Tom, the way grown-up people do with wedding
"
cake Tom shows great tenderness for Becky's growing weakness in
the cave and reserves the greater part of the cake for her, never eating
more than a smaU part of his own share. Yet he never returns the pledge
of her troth. To him, the cake is not consecrated; it is only
a means of
survival. When they come to a spring, Tom decides that they must make
a halt; at least the water wiU keep them alive longer, whUe they wait and
hope for rescue. Becky becomes very weak; slowly she sinks into "a
loses aU hope. She teUs Tom to take his
apathy,"
dreary and eventuaUy
kite hne and continue to explore if he chooses; but makes him promise
to return from time to time and to hold her hand when the end comes.
During this terrible vigil, Tom makes a discovery that Injun Joe is
in the chamber of the cave next to their own. Fear of Joe overcomes
fear of the cave at that moment. It apparently never occurs to Tom to
appeal to Joe to rescue them. Yet Joe could have had no grudge against
Becky;
and it might have been in Joe's interest to have saved both of
them. After aU, there was already a petition being circulated for Joe's
pardon. Rescuing the children after all other hope had gone might have
led to the success of the petition. But Tom's future glory brooks no such
medium. How then and why does Tom succeed?
There are two conspicuous facts about the vigU in the darkness. First
is the apparent absence from Tom of any conception of his own death.
Although Tom knows fear particularly of Injun Joe there never seems
to be the decided equation between hopelessness and death that there is
in the case of Becky. Becky feels her growing weakness and accepts death
as its inevitable conclusion. But Tom, although aware of the facts of the
situation, never resigns himself to it. Second is the absence of any sug
gestion of prayer, by either Tom or Becky. We recaU that only once
before did Tom ever pray, when Huck was overcome by fright at the
approach of the "devils"
in the graveyard. But he broke it off before ever
naming the Lord. In his utmost extremity, Tom relies on no other power
than himself, whether higher or lower.
Tom then, wasting no time or energy on useless thoughts or actions,
extends his kite line, first down one corridor, then down another, and then
down still another. Turning back from the third, "he glimpsed a far-off
speck that looked like daylight."
* See note page 224.
Dropping the line, he groped toward the