Sylvia Weiser Wendel, M.F.A., wrote:
[....]
> everything to do with this:  Tom Sawyer "talks respectable" and is treated
> accordingly, while Huck talks like his Pap -- 'nuff said!  The subtle message
> kids receive is:  Huck is good, but don't be like him -- be like Tom.  He'll
> make more money.

The Mark Twain Journal used to have, and maybe still does have, a
funny postcard that made this point by situating "Tom Sawyer's Gang"
in a corporate board room with a chart of its profits.

But Tom sometimes gets the rap as well.  Last October, when a
9th-grader from Hollister, California, stole money from his parents
and ran away from home via a flight to Hawaii (a modern-day raft
trip to Jackson's Island?), his mother explained, "Tom Sawyer is his
hero so he thought he would venture off like [Tom Sawyer] did."  A
news story about this is online at

http://sddt.com/files/librarywire/96wireheadlines/10_96/DN96_10_14/DN96_10_14_ct.html

Jim Zwick
[log in to unmask]
http://web.syr.edu/~fjzwick/