Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer is the kind of boy people “love to hate;” sometimes he acts mature beyond his years and Aunt Polly’s anger usually turns to laughter whenever he outwits her. He is mischievous, compassionate, and has a vivid imagination.
Mark Twain was born December 30, 1835, and was named Sam Clements. He did not believe in Christianity, nonetheless, he believes goodness and has never truly denounced the teaching of his mother’s Presbyterian faith. At the age of eleven he pleaded with his mother to allow him to leave school to take a job; after working several small jobs he finally found a job in a print shop. He stayed in this job until he was eighteen by then he had worked himself up from apprentice to a journeyman printer, working in Saint Louis, New York, and Philadelphia. He left printing to become pilot of a river boat on the Mississippi River. Many of his working experiences are expressed in his writings.
Whenever I think of Tom Sawyer, I think of “Dennis the Menes.” The story begins with
Tom hiding in the closet from his aunt Polly, being able to think quickly, he often escapes his punishment. He screamed for Aunt Polly to look behind her when she caught him in the closet with her jam on his and. It is obvious that this is not Tom’s first trick; after he ran away Aunt Polly says: “Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't he played me tricks enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this time” (2). Tom is lazy and always finds a way to get out of his chores. “It's mighty hard to make him work Saturdays, when all the boys is having holiday, but he hates work more than he hates anything else. ( 3). Aunt Polly is punishing him by making him whitewash the fence; and of course finds a way not to do it by making his friends pay for the privilege of helping him whitewash the fence. At the end of the day Tom is the winner twice over, he did not whitewash the fence and he got paid for not whitewashing the fence. Tom does nothing unless he is going to profit from it; and he often swaps or tricks his out of their belongings. Deep down Tom does not really want the items but it makes him feel good to trades or tricks his friends out of their belongings. As he did at Sunday school he traded tickets until he has enough to get a Bible that he did not want. He hates learning his Bible verses and he does not enjoy reading the Bible (38-40).
Most people would be surprise to know that beneath Tom’s mischievous ways, he has a heart of compassion. When his new girlfriend, Becky gets in trouble with their teacher, knowing that she would be whipped, when his teacher begins to ask about his torn book, only two people know the truth and Tom takes one look at Becky and his heart melt, even though she is not speaking to him; he does what most boys would not do; he takes her punishment. That day Tom becomes Becky’s hero. “When Becky told her father, in strict confidence, how Tom had taken her whipping at school, the Judge was visibly moved” (286). When Porter is arrested for a crime he did not commit, Tom longed to tell the truth but he must honor his promise with Huck; and he is afraid that he would be killed too if he told what he had witnessed; (even though he did tell it later) he would take him any goodies he could find and give them to him through his cell window. Above all the broken hearts Tom had experienced he never felt as much pain as when he broke Aunt Polly heart; she cries and tells him that she is going to leave him alone and he can do whatever he wants with his life because she is no longer going to talk to him about his wild ways. “This was worse than a thousand whippings, and Tom's heart was sorer now than his body” (97).
Tom is an adventurer and he has fantasies just like other boys his age. He likes to play pirate and he would sometimes skip school to do so; he also likes to ply Indians but his greatest adventure is the one he never planned. He and Huck went into the cemetery to watch the devil come for the dead cat but instead they witnessed a murder. Tom has no fear going to the woods alone to carry out his fantasies but when he encounters a real adventure he is fearful and deals with it like the boy he is. “The two boys flew on and on, toward the village, speechless with horror. They glanced backward over their shoulders from time to time, apprehensively, as if they feared they might be followed” (88). Tom and his friends are fearless when the adventure is their creation. Despite the trauma in the cemetery Tom does what most boys think of doing when they feel neglected at home they wish; he decides to run away with his friends. They fantasize of the life they would live without rules. It is uncanny how a boy who can think as fast as a bullet to get out of trouble thinks that he can survive living away from civilization not weighting the repercussions. Aunt Polly has always had a soft spot in her heart for Tom and she forgives him for the pain he cause her by running away.
As the story comes to an end Twain matures Tom; both he and Becky strayed away from the group and when they become lost Tom takes full responsibility. He takes control of the situation; he does not light the candle unnecessarily, he searches and finds a spring and leaves Becky by the spring as he continues to search. At least Becky would have water until he finds the way out or they are found. “Judge Thatcher had conceived a great opinion of Tom. He said that no commonplace boy would ever have got his daughter out of the cave.the Judge said with a fine outburst that it was a noble, a generous, a magnanimous lie--a lie that was worthy to hold up its head and march down through history” (286).
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is masterpiece of writing. Its setting the time the book was written. Twain uses Tom Sawyer to illustrate how the typical boy behaves during the late eighteen century and early nineteenth century American. They were fascinated without outlawed stories and their imagination would run wild as they become the characters of their fantasy.
.
Work Cited
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. P.F. Collier & Sons.: New York. 1920. Print.
