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Tom Sawyer Character Analysis

Decent Essays

In the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, the main character, Tom, experiences many unusual incidents that are not typically seen by a twelve-year-old boy. In the fictitious town of St. Petersburg, Tom lives with his aunt Polly, his half-brother Sid, and his friends Huckleberry “Huck” Finn, Joe Harper, and Becky Thatcher. Throughout the story, Tom witnesses the murder of Dr. Robinson, gets engaged to Becky Thatcher, and walks into his own funeral. Through all of these “adventures,” the author illustrates that a child matures when they accept the consequences of their actions. One of the ways Twain explains that children mature once the child accepts their consequences is through Tom’s sympathy. When Tom, Huck and Joe snuck out to a nearby island, the whole city of St. Petersburg thought that they were dead. One night, Tom decided to come back to see Polly again. While peering through the window, Tom saw Polly, Mrs. Harper, and Sid talking. Polly is in pain because she misses Tom ,and she starts to recall memories of when he would disobey her, but she was too weak to discipline him. Twain explains that the memories were “too much for the old lady, and she broke entirely down” (59). Tom starts to sympathize with Polly and was “snuffling, now, himself - and more in pity of himself than anybody else” (59). Tom realized the pain he was causing Polly through his actions, so he wrote her a note and left it in her coat pocket saying that he loved her and that he was

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