THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER

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Data:	05.02.2007
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THE ADVENTURES OF
TOM SAWYER

Author profile: Mark Twain (his real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, and grew up in nearby Hannibal, a small Mississippi River town. Hannibal would become the model for St. Petersburg, the fictionalized setting of Twain’s two most popular novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The young Clemens grew up in a prosperous family but he was sent out to work at the age of twelve after his father’s death. As a young man, he travelled frequently, working as a printer’s typesetter and as a steamboat pilot. In this later profession he gained familiarity with the river life that would furnish much material for his writing. He also gained his pen name, Mark Twain, which is a measure of depth in steamboat navigation.
Twain enlisted in the Confederate militia in 1861, early in the Civil War, but he soon left to pursue a career in writing and journalism in Nevada and San Francisco. His articles and stories became immensely popular.
He moved east in the late 1860s and married Olivia Langdon, the daughter of a rich family. In those years they settled in Hartford, Connecticut; there, Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which he published in 1876. Twain proceeded to write, among other things, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and two sequels to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894) and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896). He died in 1910, one of America’s most beloved humorists and storytellers.

First edition: The novel appeared in England in June 1876, and six months later in the United States. The first edition for the publishing house “Longman” appeared in 1965.

Narrative modes: The book is structured in twenty-seven short chapters. There are lots of dialogue and descriptive parts that make the story more flowing and less boring.

Narrator: The narrator narrates in the third person, with a special insight into the workings of the boyish heart and mind.

Setting of the story: The actions take place in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. Time is not specified, but probably around 1845.

Description of the main characters:
• Tom Sawyer: Tom, the protagonist of the story, is a young, mischievous, adventurous boy. He has an active imagination, and get into trouble a lot. He was a born leader, and very headstrong. Throughout the book he goes through many adventures that change him.
• Aunt Polly: Tom's aunt, who he lives with. Aunt Polly is very religious and proper.
Although she fight with Tom a lot, she loves him very much and cares for his well-being.
• Sid: Tom's younger brother. He is well behaved and proper, but lives to get Tom in trouble.
• Joe Harper: Joe is Tom's best friend, and has the same taste for trouble and imagination. He runs away to Jackson's Island to be a pirate.
• Becky Thatcher: Becky is a spirited, beautiful girl. Tom fall in love with her the first time he sees her. She and Tom get lost in McDougal's Cave together.
• Huckleberry Finn: Huck is the son of the town drunk and a wild boy. He doesn't go to school, church, or any other social function. He can’t read. He is less imaginative or fanciful than Tom, but more practical. He and Tom see Red Joe kill Dr. Robinson and eventually find his treasure.
• Red Joe: The villain of the book. He is half-Indian and a hateful, evil criminal who steals and murders without a thought. He murders Dr. Robinson and would have hurt Widow Douglas if Huck hadn't gotten help.

Plot: the book tells about the adventures of a boy named Tom Sawyer who lived with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg.
He was a very vivacious and cunning guy and because of his boasts he was always in trouble so he was forced to do the heaviest and boring works as punishment.
Suddenly, Tom fell in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuaded her to get “engaged” to him. Their love story collapsed when she learned that Tom had been engaged before to another girl.
Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanied his friend Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night. There, they assisted to the murder of young Dr. Robinson by a man called Red Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away and decided not to tell anyone what they had seen. Mr Joe blamed his companion, Muff Potter, a drunk, for the crime so he was wrongfully arrested and Tom’s anxiety and guilt began to grow.
A week later, Tom, Huck, and his friend Joe Harper ran away to an island to become pirates and have more freedom allowing to intend to the people of the country to be dead.
Secretly, Tom came back home one night to observe the commotion. After a brief moment of remorse at the suffering of his loved ones, Tom was struck by the idea of appearing at his funeral and surprising everyone. He persuaded Joe and Huck to do the same. Their return was met with great rejoicing, and they became the envy and admiration of all their friends.
Everything was ok except for Tom who, obsessed by the senses of guilt, decided to testify against Red Joe. For this reason Potter was acquitted, but Joe ran away through a window during the trial.
Summer arrived, and Tom and Huck went hunting for buried treasure in a haunted house. After venturing upstairs they heard a noise and saw Red Joe with another man. When they saw Tom and Huck’s tools, they became suspicious that someone was sharing their hiding place and carried the gold off.
Huck began to follow Joe every night, watching for an opportunity to nab the gold and succeeded in foiling the attack towards Mrs Douglas so he became a hero.
Meanwhile, Tom went on a picnic to McDougal’s Cave with Becky and their classmates but, unfortunately, the two guys got lost in the cave, and their absence was not discovered until the following morning.
After thousand difficulties, Tom found an exit and all ended in the best way: Red Joe died in the cave where he had hidden the treasure, the two courageous boys found the box of gold and invested it for their future and the Widow Douglas adopted Huck who had previously saved her life.

Message of the book: I haven’t found a message in this book; it describes only the amusing adventures of a young boy.

Personal opinion: The narration and the dialogues are very interesting and the text is written with an easy and comprehensible language although it’s a level five.
The story is fascinating and amusing at the same time. For these reasons, the reading results fast and without difficulties.
This is a book that I’ve appreciated a lot also for its numerous amazing turns of events.