As time passes, the morality and maturity of society evolve. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a coming of age story written by one of the most influential individual in America’s history: Mark Twain. The novel surrounds the life of Tom Sawyer, a boy of youth who lives in a world of fun and games, always facing the consequences that come with the exertion of trying to get all that he pleases. But Tom Sawyer also becomes involved in matters which leave him to take responsibility and grow as an individual. Throughout the novel, several characteristics can be sought within the youthful and exuberant Tom Sawyer, but only three adjectives describe him the best: mischievous, cunning, and compassionate. As any other young and wild boy, Tom Sawyer …show more content…
An example of his cunnings occurs in the second chapter titled, “Strong Temptations-Strategic Movements-The Innocents Beguiled,” which was when Tom was caught sneaking out of the house and his punishment was to white-wash the fence that surrounds his aunt’s home and so when a boy of Tom’s age- Ben Rogers- came, he tricked him and so many other fellow classmates into painting the fence by saying, ‘“What do you call work?,’ and ‘Like it? Well,, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get to whitewash a fence every day? (Ch.2, Pgs.19-20).”’ Tom did not white-wash the fence and there were boys coming to and fro to do the one occupation Tom did not wish to waste his “valuable” time on, giving up their various and random objects as a barter to Tom for the chance to paint the fence. Aunt Polly did not find out, believing Tom painted the whole fence, so besides all the knick-knacks he got from the boys; he got an apple as a reward from Aunt Polly. Another time where Tom puts his sly moves into action was in Chapter 5, which is when he goes to Sunday school and trades all of the spoils he gained from his whitewash scam and trades them for blue tickets the other schoolboys had. The blue tickets were rewards for students who remembers a verse in the Bible; when they accumulate to a certain amount of blue tickets, the students are awarded with a show of honor in …show more content…
Tom Sawyer is characterized by many unvalued traits, but however, as the reader gets deeper into the book, Tom is found to be a caring individual towards his Aunt Polly, his crush Becky Thatcher, and his dear friend Huckleberry Finn. An example of his responsibility and compassion for others is found when Tom and Huck were in the graveyard one night only to find the drunk Muff Potter and thug Injun Joe with a well-respected Dr. Robinson is found looting from a corpse and Injun Joe then uses Muff Potter’s knife to kill the doctor (Ch.9, Pgs. 68-70). Tom and Huck swear to not tell anyone of their witnessing the crime, but when the trial comes and Tom is called to the stand, Tom did not want to send innocent Muff to face execution, and so he told the truth of that night, gaining respect and given the title of hero (Ch.10, Pg.71-73 & Ch.19). Another example of Tom Sawyer’s caring thoughts is in Chapter 20, where Becky is found in Mr. Dobbins secret drawer looking at his anatomy book and when Tom crept up on Becky, she was startled and accidentally ripped one of the pages. When Mr. Dobbins finds his anatomy book with a ripped page, he starts calling out student’s name to find out who did this “crime.” Right at the moment he called out Becky Thatcher’s name, Tom boldly shouted, “I done it!,” (Ch.20, Pg.132). Tom Sawyer then faces what was supposed to be Becky’s whipping, but his whipping resulted to Becky
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer appears in St Petersburg and at the Phelps’ farm as Huck Finn’s companion. Though Tom serves as Huck’s partner-in-crime of sorts, the two boys contrast in crucial perceptual and behavioral aspects: where Tom possesses a love for romanticism and a strict policy of adherence to societal conventions and codes, Huck possesses a skeptical sort of personality in which he tends to perceive society’s infatuations as frivolous. Tom’s presence represents an overlying trend in behavior for Mark Twain’s era wherein individuals adhere to an idealistic social code that justifies the subjugation of others for the entertainment of the privileged populus. In this regionalist critical novel, Mark Twain uses Tom Sawyer as a vehicle to reveal the dangers of an idealistic society and how idealism leads to society rationalizing its day-to-day standards; thereby, its idealism serves to hide the questionable moral behaviors prevalent in Twain’s era.
In chapter six Tom meets the new girl whose name is Becky Thatcher. They “get engaged” then Becky finds out that he was “engaged” to Amy Lawrence. Becky did not take it very well so she left him (Twain, 70-71). After he had his heartbroken, Tom ran away and did not return to the afternoon class. He waited for school to be out, then Huckleberry Finn, Joe Harper, and he went to a nearby island to be pirates. When they showed up missing the town put up a search group to look for their bodies in the river. After a few days had passed Tom went to Aunt Polly’s during the night and found out that there was going to be a funeral for Tom, Huck, and Joe. When Tom got back to the island he told the others that they were missed and that there would be a funeral for them. Now that they know that there is going to be a funeral, which was the whole reason they ran away, they were planning a surprise entrance to their funeral. That Saturday Tom, Huck, and Joe made their entrance to their funeral, after they heard all of the nice things people said about them they pop up out of hiding and surprised everyone. In chapters nine and ten Tom and Huck go exploring in the grave at night and they witness Injun Joe’s murder of Dr. Robinson. They swear to each other that they would never say a thing about
Although loved by many, Tom Sawyer is the most selfish character in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This could be the opinion of many people if it wasn’t for adult characters such as the Duke, the Dauphin, and Pap Finn; Tom Sawyer is a young boy, therefore, his antics are seen as comical and there is less resentment towards his character. The character of Tom Sawyer is extremely egocentric and selfish because he displays blatant disregard for the practical way to make plans in life-or-death situations, doesn’t understand the gravity of murder and robbery, and he will do anything, no matter how crazy or impractical, to make himself seem like a hero.
Throughout multiple exciting adventures and dangerous explorations in the novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, we see Tom Sawyer mature. He matures through the love of Aunt Polly, Becky, Huck and other characters in the novel. In his search for treasure, Tom learns about personal accountability. Even in everyday life, we watch him develop from a boy into an adult. From a selfish young, mischievous lad, Tom becomes a sincere, kind and responsible young man.
Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, is an exciting and adventurous novel filled with many unique characters. Some are sympathetic and others are not. Tom Sawyer is one the unsympathetic characters because he is dishonest, mischievous, and is always fighting.
Tom throughout the story displays many characteristics including the previously discussed, but the most noticeable and important is his adventurous nature. Toms sense of adventure is what drives the story forward more times to count. The audience gets the first taste of Tom's adventurous nature is when Tom accompanies Huck to the graveyard where they encounter the villain of the novel, Injun Joe, killing a man. This demonstrates that Tom's adventures also are the cause for most of the novels conflicts, even if he doesn’t see it. Another adventure, or misadventure, is the trip to the island that Huck, Tom, and Joe take to be “pretend” pirates. This is where Tom, demonstrates his wide imagination (and, as previously
In this essay it will go about the novel of Mark Twain The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The novel has been published in 1876. The first quarter of the XIX century has become the preparatory era for the half-philosophical and half-journalistic literature of sometimes humorous, sometimes instructive and moralistic writings. National characteristics of Americans with their practicality, utilitarian morality and native cheerful humor which is highly different from the sarcastic and surly British humor are vividly reflected. The whole oeuvre of the author may be characterized by the Enlightment of the XVIII century. Unfortunately, its recognition the novel received only after the death of the author and, though, it was not as popular as the other works of Mark Twain (for instance, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), it became the classic of American literature.
In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a variety of people influence Huck’s ideology. From the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson’s religious rhetoric to Pap’s brutal, uncivilized manner, many contrasting ideas shape Huck’s belief system. However, among these people, Tom Sawyer holds the greatest impact over Huck’s actions and mentality because of Huck’s immense admiration for him. Huck’s initial encounters with Tom Sawyer establish Tom as a major component of the ideology Huck maintains throughout his journey. Despite Huck’s skepticism and confusion about Tom’s imaginative schemes, Huck regards Tom’s judgements as the truth and follows all of Tom’s plans.
A boring lifestyle is never appealing to an imaginative child. In Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Tom is a young child who dreams of an exciting and adventurous life outside his small town. Although while his dreams become more and more ambitious so does his reality. The sudden change in events soon begin to change Tom’s life. As Tom’s small town attracts a criminal everything Tom wishes for begins to come true only in a corrupt way that he never imagined. With all new to keep up with Tom is forced to mature and develop as a character along with those around by leaving behind his childish games and accepting reality. Twain uses character development in Tom and Huck Finn to create unique and special characters.
The dissection of the immorality of society is further explored in Tom Sawyer’s scheme to free Jim from the Phelpses’ captivity. Tom, seemingly eager to help Jim escape, creates a plan that seems to exist more for his own amusement than for Jim’s emancipation, a plan that eventually ends in Jim’s recapture and Tom’s injury. Thus, Tom’s plan to free Jim takes on a dark irony as Huck says that Tom is “not mean, but kind”; this is subverted when we discover that Tom has used Jim as a plaything in his game of escape (Evans). Tom and Huck, both boys of about the same age and with similar backgrounds, are a good example of the difference that “sivilized” society makes on the development of the individual. As Tom and Huck plan Jim’s escape, the two represent very different places in their development as individuals; Huck having discovered a new morality through his journey down the Mississippi, and Tom having remained more or less the same as his introduction at the beginning of the novel. While Huck has demonstrated his ability to more fully realize individuals, notably Jim, Tom has been conditioned by society to see slaves as subhuman, and thus has no problem with using Jim as a plaything in his game of adventure. This trivialization of human life, presented by the “civilized” and “kind” Tom, demonstrates the immorality and toxicity of Southern society. Twain also comments on the hypocrisy
In the prime first half of the book, the author explicates that Tom Sawyer is extremely childish and immature at numerous times throughout the inception of the novel. The readers can lucidly see this even in the first chapter, in which Tom encounters an elaborate, new boy in town and “In an instant, both boys were rolling and tumbling in the dirt, gripped together like cats. . . ” (Twain, 81). Tom also fascinates himself with unconventional things such as: “a large black beetle-pinchbug”, “dead cat”, “doorknobs”, and “a tick”. Furthermore, Tom also tends to do foolish and obviate things in attempts to achieve something and then realizes that these endeavors fail. A definite factor in the development of Tom’s mischievous nature is that his parents
The theme that I think the story has presented was the growth of the character Tom. In the first part of this book Tom participated in many pranks and adventures not caring about the consequences that could happen after each prank or adventure. After witnessing a murder with his friend he shows a little bit of growth from the prankster he is. He had done the right thing to testify against Injun Joe. Doing the right thing helped him grow as a person and the reward of becoming more of an adult.” Auntie, I wish I hadn’t done it—but I didn’t think.” Chapter 19, pg.118 When Tom realized he had hurt aunt Polly by not telling her he was still alive. He tells her that he cares about her a lot. Tom had matured enough to take the blame for something he had not done to keep Becky out of trouble. Throughout the story he grew as a
Chapter four was the next time I had noticed Tom acting a certain way for attention. In this chapter Tom was at Sunday school. Tom was trading items to get tickets that you are awarded for reciting bible verses correctly. Once Tom had enough tickets he had tried to trade the tickets in for a bible that he would be rewarded in front of the whole
Tom Sawyer is a book about a boy who has some crazy adventures. Tom also gets into almost of trouble through his adventures. Throughout the book tom changes and becomes a better person. This is how he changes and becomes a better person.
In The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, Tom lives with his Aunt Polly and constantly gets into trouble. He witnesses a murder, goes to an island and pretends he’s a pirate, gets lost in a cave, finds buried treasure, and goes on other amazing adventures. Throughout the novel, Tom Sawyer matures and become more of a man.