Upon the discovery on Injun Joe’s body, the reader gets another glimpse into Tom’s compassion. In spite of the horrors that Injun Joe had caused him, Tom’s personality allows him to sympathize with Injun Joe’s plight because Tom had been in the same situation: “Tom was touched, for he knew by his own experience how this wretch had suffered.” It is Tom’s human compassion even for this dreadful specimen of humanity that endears him to the reader.
The death of Injun Joe in Chapter XXXIII brings one significant part of the novel to an end. Injun Joe played an important part in Tom’s growth, as well as Huck’s. First, Tom and Huck witnessed the murder committed by Injun Joe. Until that point, for Tom at least, all adventures had been excitingly imaginative. The events in the graveyard mark his first real adventure. At the trial of Muff Potter, Tom matures enough to bring the truth to light and convict Injun Joe of murder, thus freeing the innocent Muff Potter. When Injun Joe reveals his plans to mutilate the Widow Douglas, Huck, who until that point has been primarily motivated by fear for his own life, puts that fear aside to save the Widow Douglas. As a result of Injun Joe’s crimes, both boys have matured tremendously—Tom in his testimony and Huck in following Injun Joe to Cardiff Hill and thus saving the life of the Widow Douglas. In essence, Tom matures as a young man; Huck gains a place in the society, as signified by the Welshman’s befriending him and the Widow taking him in.
Chapter XXXIV also prepares the way for a new life for Huck Finn. It is almost as though Twain had already conceived and thought out a novel dealing with the adventures of Huck Finn, a novel he would actually spend much of the next eight years writing.
