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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
“Then he (Injun Joe) put the fatal knife in Potter's open right hand, and sat down on the dismantled coffin. Three -- four -- five minutes passed, and then Potter began to stir and moan. His hand closed upon the knife; he raised it, glanced at it, and let it fall, with a shudder. Then he sat up, pushing the body from him, and gazed at it, and then around him, confusedly. His eyes met Joe's.” (9.53). In this Quotation from the novel– The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain compared two characters– the protagonist– Tom Sawyer and the antagonist– Injun Joe. In order to show the similarities in these two characters within the acts they commit, while demonstrating the negative effects on each individual characters through the act of guilt on Tom Sawyer.
The theme of guilt found within the novel is shown through these two characters, due to the fact that their actions are comparatively similar– yet different in intensions. The effect on each character is shown differently, because Tom Sawyer feels the guilt that he was present when that act of guilt was happening, though Injun Joe is the killer and feels no guilt. The purpose of this quote appears when the meeting eyes of these two characters is ironic that both perform similar deeds but with different motives. The imagery here shows the Antagonist part of Injun Joe. The meeting of the eyes in the graveyard foreshadows that later in the novel they will meet again in the court and later in the cave,

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