The Adventures of Tom Sawyer all started with a an adventurous and ignorant young boy. He sneaks out the house one night with one of his friends, leaving them hiding in a graveyard and witnessing the murder of Dr. Robinson. Things go downhill from there, leaving Muff Potter to be falsely convicted of the Murder due to the lying words of Injun Joe, Robinson’s real murderer. Once Tom returns from a risky pirate trip, Tom begins to search for hidden treasure, which ultimately leads to a rundown with vengeful Injun Joe. Mark Twain, author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, has cultivated Tom into someone who takes one too many risks without weighing the consequences or rewards against the risk itself. But what motivates Tom to do such illogical things. Tom’s motivation for his risks are on the account of friends and family. …show more content…
He knows sneaking out is dangerous and he knows Huckleberry Finn is not most trustworthy. This is shown when Tom says, “Huckleberry was cordially hated by the mothers of the town, because he was idle and lawless and vulgar and bad.”(pg.39) The people in the town disliked Huckleberry and Tom knew that. Even the school teachers furiously punish him once they found out that he had done such small thing as have a conversation with him. Tom knew about the risk, but he took the chance anyway for such a small reward as removing warts or his hands and making friends with the well-known Huckleberry Finn. His risk does not pay off, as he ended up witnessing Dr. Robinson’s murder, and ending up in a tight spot with Injun Joe. But it is clear that friendship is a high priority on Tom’s
Tom Sawyer was an adventurous little boy who was always looking for attention. Throughout the chapters that we read I could understand that Tom had an enormous imagination and that he would do basically anything to receive some attention in return. Tom acted the way that he did so that he could receive some of the attention that he was missing with being an orphan.
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
Mark Twain uses Tom to show that not all leaders should be followed without question because if a leader is not questioned than their misshapen beliefs can corrupt the good intentions of the people below them. When Huck originally planned to free Jim he had constructed a simple plan to free Jim from captivity. When Tom became part of the plan he argues that the plan “it’s too blame’ simple; there ain’t nothing TO it. What’s the good of a plan that ain’t no more trouble than that?”. This shows that Tom is fully invested in the story of the mighty rescue of a slave but he was not invested in the true nature of going against society and free a man who they deemed belonged in captivity. Tom is a man who lives to be part of romanticized stories
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.
In the book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the main character, Tom, plays the part of a mischievous boy. Through the whole novel, Tom continues to take risks over and over again. While most of these are minor, such as tricking other boys into doing his chores, he also takes some major risks near the end of the novel. If he acts too foolishly while taking those risks, he could lose his life. Three of the more major risks are when he and Huck decide to stay hidden during the murder of Dr. Robinson, when Tom decides that he will testify for Muff Potter, and when Tom and Becky decide to explore a cave, only to meet their biggest fear of all, Injun Joe.
2) The story of Tom Sawyer takes place in the 1800s, a time where racial discrimination was recurring within many of the communities in the United States. Various characters within the book such as Tom and Huck have dialogue that uses the aforementioned prejudice towards Native and African Americans like after the murder of Muff Potter, "Tom we got to keep mum. You know that. That Injun devil wouldn't make any more of drownding us than a couple of cats." or "She's a goner, just as dead sure as Muff Potter's a goner. That's what the niggers say, and they know all about these kind of things, Huck." Whenever someone is to mention these phrases during conversation, no one had argued in the opposition because in this period Missouri was a slave
Mark Twain’s book is a novel that follows the juvenile life of a small boy. You will see how much fun the main character, Tom, and his friends have by skipping school, fishing, swimming, and using with their imaginations to have a good time. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic novel for many reasons. The plot gives us an idea about how people lived in the era the book takes place in. Readers enjoy the book because they can relate to Tom and enjoy his fun experiences. Tom is always into having a good time with his friends. It is a classic because it is enjoyable to readers of all ages, no matter what century, place, or gender you belong to.
He was basically forced into an oath and he feels that if he breaks it then all of the things said in the oath will happen to him if he breaks it. Huck Finn wants nothing with this and he is worried that if they tell that bad things will happen, so Tom and Huck swore to an oath to never tell a soul for as long as they shall live. “Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer swears they will keep mum about this and they wish they may drop down dead in their tracks if they ever tell and rot”
Twain presents Tom Sawyer as a very illogical, dramatic, by-the-book character. Tom believes the stories and tales in book to be equal to the word of God himself. For Tom, everything has to happen exactly as it did in the books he has read or else it is incorrect: “Why, blame it all, we’ve got to do it. Don’t I tell you it’s in the books? Do you want to go to doing different from what’s in the books, and get things all muddled up?” (Twain 19). This rigid belief of Tom’s leads him to act in very illogical ways and gets him into trouble. When Huckleberry and Tom are trying to help Jim escape, Tom makes them do many unnecessary things like make a rope ladder and and inscribe a coat of arms purely because that’s what happened in the books he
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.
Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer satirizes the quixotism of individuals, expressive of the American people’s pragmatic mentality toward life during the wake of the Realism movement of the nineteenth century. Following the Civil War, which ended in 1865, the Realism movement prompted artists to depict an accurate portrayal of society, which at the time, was in a state of havoc. In fact, it was a reaction to the Romantic movement that preceded it, which emphasized the importance of imagination. Similar to many works of Romantic literature, Twain employs pastoral imagery with the intention of portraying a glorified version of country life. Twain’s intentional narrative voice in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer enhances the novel by exposing and mocking the fraudulent nature of individuals that prevents them from seeing the true nature of their situations, derived from the unrealistic expectations influenced by Romantic ideals. As a matter of fact, the term “quixotism” derives from Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s Don Quixote in which the titular figure dreams up an ideal world where he plays the hero, conjuring up a different reality from the rest of civilization. Twain’s characterizations reflect these views by depicting flaws such as the extreme focus on one’s influence to the rest of society, reminiscent of the Romantic maxims of the importance of oneself and individuality. In addition, Twain’s satirical and blunt tone further enhances the novel by expressing the
In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom leads and follows in many different situations.Tom might act as a soldier following orders or Robin Hood leading his gang of thieves to steal money. Many people may think of him as a follower because he doesn't always have his own ideas or plans.In the graveyard, he follows Huckleberry Finn to test Huck’s odd theory of using a cat to cure warts. Tom is more characterized as a leader because he always know a way to plan things for his other friends. Despite what other people think, Tom is most likely a leader for many reasons.
Tom Sawyer called the hogs “ingots,” and he called the turnips and stuff “julery” and we would go to the cave and powwow over what we had done, and how many people we had killed and marked. But I couldn’t see no profit in it. Most of the boys couldn’t either. Now I ain’ gonna talk trash about my friend Tom Sawyer, but I was glad those boys asked to leave the gang. Little Tommy Barnes was the first to go.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is a story of a young, mischievous boy who did not like punishment, school, or church. Tom Sawyer had learned a lot and had matured a lot by the end of the book. As a reader reads this book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer he will see that Tom Sawyer gets into a lot of trouble. Through this paper I hope to teach you that Tom Sawyer grew out of his mischievous ways eventually.
In Tom Sawyer Abroad, Tom Sawyer and Nat Parsons (who was postmaster of the village) always told about the adventures they had been on. They were always trying to tell the best stories, so that the people of the town would listen and become interested in them. But Nat Parsons went to Washington and when he came back he told about the exciting things that happened. Soon Nat got all the people’s attention, and Tom became jealous and wanted to do more adventurous things than Nat so that he could tell stories about it.