Pirate code
The Pirate code is a romanticized, self-imposed set of rules and ideals that Tom Sawyer, Joe Harper, and Huckleberry Finn adopt when they run away to Jackson's Island to become pirates. It is not a formal or written document but an improvised ethos drawn from Tom's favorite adventure literature, governing their conduct, their sense of honor, and their fantasies of outlaw life. The code dictates how they treat captives, what they wear, and how they justify their actions, and it stands in stark contrast to the actual moral struggles they face.
The Code's Rules on Captives and Conduct
Central to the Pirate code is a chivalric distinction between how pirates treat men and women. According to Tom, pirates "take ships and burn them, and get the money and bury it in awful places in their island where there's ghosts and things to watch it, and kill everybody in the ships — make 'em walk a plank." However, Joe Harper adds a crucial exception: "they carry the women to the island; they don't kill the women." Tom confirms this, explaining, "they don't kill the women — they're too noble. And the women's always beautiful, too." This rule, drawn from the boys' adventure stories, imposes a gallant restraint on their imagined violence, mirroring the conventions of the romantic fiction they admire.
The Code's Demands on Appearance and Identity
The Pirate code also includes expectations about the pirates' appearance. When Huckleberry Finn, dressed in his usual rags, worries that he is "not dressed fitten for a pirate," the other boys reassure him that "the fine clothes would come fast enough, after they should have begun their adventures." They explain that "it was customary for wealthy pirates to start with a proper wardrobe," but his poor rags would do to begin with. This concern with costume reflects the code's emphasis on a grand, theatrical identity: a pirate must look the part, and the promise of future finery is part of the romantic allure.
The Code's Conflict with Conscience
Despite the code's romantic surface, it immediately clashes with the boys' actual consciences. After their first night on the island, Tom and Joe find that "conscience" will not let them sleep. They begin to feel "a vague fear that they had been doing wrong to run away; and next they thought of the stolen meat, and then the real torture came." They try to argue with their consciences by reminding themselves that they had "purloined sweetmeats and apples scores of times," but this fails. They realize that "taking sweetmeats was only 'hooking,' while taking bacon and hams and such valuables was plain simple stealing — and there was a command against that in the Bible." To resolve this, they make a new internal rule: "so long as they remained in the business, their piracies should not again be sullied with the crime of stealing." This compromise allows their consciences to grant a truce, and they fall asleep. The Pirate code, then, is not a fixed law but a flexible, self-serving framework that the boys constantly adjust to reconcile their romantic fantasies with their ingrained moral upbringing.
