“Maturity is not measured by age. It’s an attitude built by experience.” The author of this quote is unknown, but their statement applies to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, was born on November 30, 1835. When Clemens signed a sketch as “Mark Twain”, it became his pen name and he that is what he is famously known as today. Twain worked for newspapers and began writing humorous books and was very gifted, which led to the writing of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The story is about a boy, Tom Sawyer, who is the town prankster who is extremely immature according to the people of his town, St. Petersburg. However, throughout the story, Tom undergoes certain events that allow him to think and be more mature. At the beginning of book his acts of immaturity show at school, church, and at home in various actions; but, experiences major events that have him to grow and become responsible, dependable, and honest. These events include Tom’s adventures with Joe and Huck going to Jackson’s Island, Tom’s testament at Injun Joe’s trial, and the way he acts with Becky when he first meets her, compared to when they were stuck in the cave together.
Tom and his friends, Joe Harper and Huck Finn, enter a stage in their lives where they want to become pirates, so take a raft to Jackson’s Island and make a campsite out there to find treasure. This already starts off showing his act of immaturity because he traveled to an island without the
This young boy’s name is Huckleberry Finn, and he is brave and yearning for adventure. He begins the story with a newly acquired fortune, but goes back to living in rags and in a barrel. Huckleberry is convinced by his best friend, Tom Sawyer, to go back to living with “The Widow” so that he can join Tom’s newly created band of robbers. The Widow Douglas is a woman who takes Huckleberry as her son and does her best to “sivilize” him: teaching him how to behave and forcing him to go to school. Huckleberry slips off and joins “The Tom Sawyer Gang” and pretends to rob people for about a month before he resigns. All this time, Huckleberry is getting used to living with the widow, even admitting that he likes it a little bit. Then, one day, his father shows up, demanding his fortune and eventually taking him to his log cabin, hidden in the woods. There Huck hunts and fishes, but is not permitted to leave. Eventually, “pap got too handy with his hick’ry” so Huck escapes down the river when his father is drunk. Huck hides on Jackson’s Island and meets Jim, The Widow’s slave. Huck learns that Jim had run away from The Widow and so they decide to help each other out. But when Huck learns of a plan to search the island, they leave down the river. Several days later, they almost run into some robbers on a wrecked steamboat and manage to escape with their loot. When Huck and Jim land on the bank
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
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.
The theme of growth and maturity is portrayed heavily throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain which centers on Huck Finn, a rambunctious boy whose adventures with a runaway slave build him into a mature young man. The novel is a bildungsroman because it depicts the development and maturing of a young protagonist. In the first part of the story, Huck is seen as very immature. He struggles between doing what he wants and what society would have him do. On the raft, Huck realizes what his own beliefs are because of the people he meets in his journey. Huck?s biggest transformation is through his relationship with Jim. Although Huck isn?t a wonderful person, by the end of the book he
In “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, the main character Huck grows with his morals and maturity throughout the book. Huck Finn was a thirteen year old boy with a deadbeat drunk dad. Huck lived with his adoptive mother Widow Douglas, his care taker Miss. Watson, and her slave Jim. Huck shows a growth of maturity when he fakes his death to escape his father, when he helps Jim escape, and when he stands up to the king and duke. Throughout their adventure Huck Finn exemplifies a major growth of maturity and a deeper understanding of his morals.
Leading the reader to the realisation that maturity is one theme the author wants to express, is the presentation of maturity in various shapes and forms. The way Scout describes Jem as “[someone who] had acquired a set of values” (Lee 153) implies the evolution which Jem was subjected to. As it is deductible by Jem’s reaction to the news of Mrs Dubose’s death, how “[he] buried his face in Atticus’s shirt” (Lee 148) and cried, the event impacted Jem enormously, which consequently is the reason of his sudden growth. Additionally, it is possible to see Jem maturing by him breaking “the remaining code of [Scout, Dill and Jem’s] childhood” (Lee 187) and telling Atticus about Dill running from his house. Also how he separates himself from Dill and
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
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 person, Huck can not stand to see anyone go through pain. Later, in the
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
Why does a boy who is only twelve and who lives in the the middle of the country have to make so many life-changing choices so early in his own life? The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; by Mark Twain tells the stories of a young boy in the town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. His name is Tom Sawyer, and Tom is an adventurous boy who sometimes gets himself into trouble when he goes on an adventure. One of these adventures is the time Tom went pirating with his friends. Another time is when he and his friend, Huckleberry Finn, witness a murder, which gets framed on an innocent individual named Muff Potter, and Tom later tells the truth in court about it. In the end, the true murderer, Injun Joe, dies in a cave and Huckleberry gets adopted by a kind woman named Widow Douglas. In the novel, Tom Sawyer makes a lot of decisions and those decisions are sometimes risky. Tom’s risks affect the novel by concerning his family members and his friends.
After encounters with bandits and slave catchers, they save two con-artists that claim to be European royalty. With them at their side, they scam every city they come across, when trying to steal an inheritance that gets thwarted by Huck feeling guilt. In retaliation, the two sell Jim to a farmer, and Huck fixes on getting him out. In the luckiest of all coincidences, he was sold to Tom Sawyer’s aunt and uncle. Both mistake him for Tom, who supposed to be visiting around then, again very lucky, and Huck rolls with it. When Tom does arrive, Huck let’s him in on the plan and Tom agrees to play along as younger brother Sid.
Throughout the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” its author Mark Twain demonstrates both Huck and Toms contrasting personalities. The two friends at the start of the novel spend endless time playing and having fun with each other but that soon changes as the story progresses when we start to see Tom not in person but always in Huck’s mind. Tom is gone for much of the novel while Huck develops into his own person. Huck and Tom at the start are like any boys that age they both have a desire and sense of adventure. Throughout chapters 26 to 36 we start begin to see how far each is willing to go! Huck is an individual who sets himself up spiritually with both morals and standards. This determines how far he will take himself on a journey.
Tom and Huck are happy and rich and they promise to always stay together. The main character of the book is Tom Sawyer. Tom is an imaginative young man. Whenever Tom plays he pretends to be a pirate or Robin Hood and his friends would be his merry men.
Thinking back as a teenager, one of the last things you would want to do is listen to an adult giving you advice on how to behave and become an adult. This was exactly what Mark Twain was asked to do in 1882. He was challenged to write a speech to a class of young girls with instructive advice that would be suitable towards youth. The challenge he faced was how to effectively delivery his message to teenagers without sounding like a preaching adult on what not to do. Twain knew he had to deliver his speech in a unique fashion, to be able to captivate his youthful audience. He uses a non-traditional method that was written with a comedic approach aimed toward the teenage audience, similar to a graduation speech. In his essay Twain addresses