Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are very different while maintaining some similarities. The physical aspects of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are very different. For example, Huck is described as being dressed in "castoff clothes of full-grown men." When he wore a coat, it often hung down to his hells and had rearward buttons that ran down the back. While he wore suspenders, his pants still hung very low and held nothing in the pockets. On the other hand, Tom is always made to wear very dressy clothing while in church and is forced to wear shoes even though he doesn't want to wear them.
The upbringing of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are also very different. Huck is the son of the town drunkard. He is described as being "cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town because he was idle and lawless and vulgar and bad." Due to this, "all their children admired him so, and delighted in his forbidden society, and wished they dared to be like him." Huck was able to come and go as he wanted to. He often slept on doorsteps in good weather, didn't have to go to church, and didn't have to go to school. Tom on the other hand, was forced to go to school and to church. He lived with his Aunt Polly, who made him act very civil. Tom is said to be "like the rest of the respectable boys, in that he envied Huckleberry his gaudy outcast condition and was under strict orders not to play with him." However, because he was told not to play with Huck, he tried to play with him whenever he had a chance.
Tom and Huck are also similar in that they both have little regard for authority. Huck is able to come and go as he pleases, lives with no one, and has no supervision. Also, Tom is found to run away from home to go on adventures. For example, Tom, Huck, and Joe Harper escape to Jackson's Island so that they can act as pirates and hunt for buried treasure. They are gone for a few days which make Aunt Polly and Joe's mother worry very much about them.