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Character
Analysis Injun Joe
Next to
Tom Sawyer, Injun Joe is the most important character in the novel. During a
boy's maturation, he must sometimes encounter evil in its most drastic form,
and it is through Tom's reactions to Injun Joe that we most clearly see Tom's
growth from a boy into a young man.
Injun
Joe is a thieving, dishonest, wicked person who achieves most of his evil goals
because he is also clever and resourceful. He kills young doctor Robinson without
qualms and for no discernible reason except for pure evil pleasure. He frames
old Muff Potter, and he is shrewd enough to make the townspeople believe his
story is true. When proof of his part in the murder is about to be revealed, he
reacts quickly and decisively at the trial: He takes immediate action and jumps
out the window and escapes and cannot be found by the search parties. In
addition, his reputation is such than none of the citizens will confront him
with his evil. Although all the citizens of St. Petersburg know that he is
evil, each is too frightened to confront him because they, like Tom and Huck,
know that he will retaliate in a violent manner.
Injun
Joe is a static character, that is, he is the same at the end as he is in the
beginning. He does not change through the course of the events in which he is
involved. He is the essence of evil when we first see him murdering Dr.
Robinson and framing Muff Potter for the crime, and he remains the essence of
evil throughout. Consider, for example, his plan to mutilate the Widow Douglas
in retaliation for something her late husband did years earlier.
Injun Joe is
central to the novel's primary adventure and appears in some of the most
important scenes in the novel: He is first seen murdering Dr. Robinson and
framing the innocent Muff. He flees justice at Muff Potter's trial. He is the
central figure in the search for buried treasure; he shows up, disguised as a
deaf and mute Spaniard, in a haunted house where Tom and Huck are hiding
upstairs. Later, he displays his extreme cruelty as seen in his plans to
revenge himself on the Widow Douglas. When he threatens to kill his partner if
the latter refuses to help him mutilate Widow Douglas, he simply reinforces his
evilness. Tom encounters Injun Joe in the cave, where he is finally trapped
with his ill-gained gold and dies a befitting but horrible death.
