Marx argues that the “disintegration of the major characters” (14), especially Huck Finn, contributes to the ending’s failure. Unlike the boy who blends “his instinctive suspicion of human motives with his capacity for pity” (11) earlier in the novel, the Huck Finn at the Phelps’ ranch is a mere “comic character” (11), one who “regresses to the subordinate role in which he had first appeared in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” (12) according to Marx. But contrary to Marx’s essay, the novel’s ending illustrates that Huck is no mere side character, but this former country-bumpkin, is morally superior to the “respectable and well brung up” (Twain 247) Tom Sawyer. Unlike Tom, who wants to free Jim for fun, Huck participates in Tom’s “extravagant fantasies” (15), because he vows to do anything to free Jim, even endanger his soul -“I’ll go to hell,” (Twain 228) he tells himself earlier. Huck’s lack of judgment is not failing to see through Tom’s schemes, but by telling Tom his plan in the first place. But such a lapse is understandable – Huck thinks Tom will be a willing ally and does not realize Tom is keeping the secret of Jim’s freedom. Readers see that Huck has doubts immediately about the plan and is certainly not in “awe-struck submission” (Marx 15) to Tom’s machinations. “There ain’t no necessity for it,” (253) “Confound it, it’s foolish, Tom,” and “Jim don’t know nobody in China” (257) are among Huck’s objections to the escape plans which Marx calls “too fanciful, too extravagant and . . . tedious” (10). Such objections reveal that Huck does not fall “under [Tom’s] sway once more” (12). Unlike Tom, Huck realizes that the whole plan has been a mistake when the farmers show up:

I did wish Aunt Sally would come, and get done with me . . . and let me get away and tell Tom how we’d overdone this thing, and what a thundering hornet’s nest we’d got ourselves into, so we could stop fooling around, straight off, and clear out with Jim before these rips got out of patience and come for us (286).

These are not the feelings of a comic character. Huck fears for himself and the others, concerned that someone might get hurt. He knows that “human beings can be awfully cruel to one another” (245) and does not want to witness a repeat of the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords. Here is Huck’s “instinctive humanity” (9) and the “mature emotions” (11) that Marx swears do not exist in the ending. Tom Sawyer does not share these emotions. He writes threatening letters to the Phelps – his adopted relatives – while reducing “Jim’s capture for the occasion of a game” (12). When Huck sees the plan was a mistake, readers can see that his “knowledge of human nature and of himself” (11) is still intact, even in the face of Tom Sawyer’s antics. By the time the novel ends, Huck is tired of the games. When he leaves for his next adventure, he does not invite Tom to come with him.

Like Huck, Marx believes that Jim’s character is reduced at the end of the novel to a mere shadow of himse