Injun Joe: from Racial Fraud to Freud

What I Researched and Why: Carter Revard's disdain for critics and their indifference to the racism of Tom Sawyer's tale is confronted in his article "Why Mark Twain Murdered Injun Joe." Revard writes, "The critics who are alive to every nuance of how Twain, in Huckleberry Finn, kid-gloves the Black and White issues, blatantly ignore his mauling of Red and White questions in Tom Sawyer" (336). Challenged by his statement, I resolved to find out more about Joe and his portrayal, as well as the extrapolated portrayal of all Native Americans. Perusing the internet, I discovered a site that analyzed the classic in regards to this disenfranchised character.

My Findings and Interpretation: The University of Virginia's website, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Indians/twain3.html, acknowledges the hypocrisy between Twain's writing concerning slaves versus Native Americans. According to the site, Twain sees the Indians as feral and barbaric and insinuates that their savagery will be their downfall as civilization overcomes them. More specifically, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Indians/joe.html explores Joe's character development within the novel and how it reflects Mark Twain's personal ideology concerning Native Americans.

After struggling to find legitimate discussions online, I agree with Revard in upbraiding critics for overlooking Joe. The few sites I did find barely acknowledged him, despite the nature of his role in the story and its societal impact. "Twain's Indians" mentions that Twain's vengeful character never elicits the audience's sympathy and his cruel personality can be directly blamed on his bad blood. The web-page does a great job of highlighting scenes and drawing ties to other pieces of the time portraying Indians, including Last of the Mohicans.

One of the popular images in Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, featured on the "Injun Joe" page, seems to illustrate Tom's torment following his role as a witness in the murder trial. Twain writes, "His nights were seasons of horror. Joe infested all his dreams, and always with doom in his eye" (118). When I first encountered this sketch, I immediately recalled an unsettling painting by Fuseli, entitled "Nightmare," which can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Johann_Heinrich_F%C3%BCssli_053.jpg. Although simplified, the content and composition of the pen and ink drawing greatly mimic the 18th century portrait. Joe mirrors a perched incubus, suffocating the supine Tom who is draped identically to the woman. This dream scene invites a whole new Freudian perspective. Tom, like the woman, is pure and good, pale and cherubic, while the monster-like Joe lurks in sinister shadow. In reality Joe is normal in appearance, but the artist makes him as terrifying and savage as Twain makes his personality.

Contributions to Class Discussion: We haven't had the opportunity to really delve into these topics with regards to Tom Sawyer yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing what points will be raised in class on the role of Joe. It would be interesting to consider how children are affected by the story in these respects, and how their opinions of Native Americans are shaped thanks to Joe's character and the illustrations which accompany it. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer may be regarded as a beloved albeit juvenile tale, but it also presents weighty issues and deeper meanings. Analysis of the book's portrayal of race is a crucial endeavor well-suited for political and historical theories; additionally, the nightmare scene invites us to take a more unconventional, psychological approach as well. Instead of being shunned by men and women as Twain feared, the book is the perfect medium for us to apply academic discussions.