The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer

                               The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain takes place during the 1880's.   This period is called the rise of big business.   During this period it's when the U.S. looks like it's the leading country in the world.   It looks pretty good from the outside, which is economically, but it is not thought of the poverty that people are going through.   This could be reflected in this book by the how characters like Tom try to prosper and how they turn something from not been well into something that everyone desires.   It also goes along with different themes including of looking at the positive point of view of things, hustling to get what you want, the life as a kid and many more.

                           Tom Sawyer showed to be a leader and not a follower in this book. Aunt Polly punishes Tom and he can't go out and play.   Instead he has the task of whitewashing.   Ben is passing by and sees him and starts to make fun of him because he has to work.   Tom is a good actor himself that he pretends that he loves whitewashing.   He is admiring it too much that Ben wants to try it. Ben even starts to offer him his possessions in order to whitewash.   He ends up giving him his whole apple, and later on all the kids end up wanting to try it to.   This all takes place one Saturday morning which is said by Twain, "The locust trees were in bloom, and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air."   One theme of the book is turning something negative into something positive.   For example, he became wealthier because he made it seem like whitewashing was fun that everyone gave him stuff to help him out.   Tom is who came out winning because he was earning stuff and he was getting his job done by others. The tone in this section is positive.   He talks in a way that everything sounds positive.   That is what convinces the kids to do his work. "What do you call work? -Why ain't that work?   Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answering carelessly: -"Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know is it suits Tom Sawyer."(pg.13) This quote expresses how Tom talks and makes something sound more interesting that what it is.

                             Life going to Sunday school is something that Tom is going through as he grows and becomes a more sophisticated person.   He doesn't like going to Sunday school but that's something that's in his routine.   He would also have to practice bible verses and they would get prized for memorizing verses.   "Each blue ticket was pay for two verses of the recitation. Ten blue tickets equaled a red one, and could be exchanged for it; ten red tickets equaled a yellow one; for ten yellow tickets the Superintendent gave a very plainly bound Bible (worth forty cents in those easy times." (pg.28) This excerpt shows what they would receive for doing good.   Tom would try to memorize verses but he just couldn't.   His cousin Mary was even helping him out.   She offered to also reward him when he memorized them. Mary promised him a Barlow knife if he would accomplish his goal of learning that verse and he did.   Even though he memorized some he didn't memorize all of them.   There are many ways to accomplish something that you really want is the theme of this adventure at Sunday school.   This theme is showed by how Tom ends up getting all the tickets he needed.   Tom had riches that he had acquired from others whitewashing for him, and was able to trade his riches for the tickets.   Judge Thatcher was impressed but he couldn't believe it himself.   To test Tom, he asked him for the name of two apostles, which Tom didn't know and he ended up saying David and Goliath. This also shows the theme of how he's acquiring his goals but how there's always something that could turn your way up-side down.   He accomplished his goal of getting his Bible but he ends up making a fool of himself because he couldn't even answer an easy question.   The Sunday school church is where these adventures of Tom and the Bible verses take place at.

                             Tom is growing up. He's growing up physically but also emotionally.   Another theme of this book is how we grow emotionally and how mistakes we do in the past can come to affect us in the future.   At first of this, Tom doesn't want to go to school and his excuse is his tooth.   Aunt Polly solves that by just yanking it out.   Tom is on to school and comes to were Huckleberry Finn is.   Tom wishes that he could have the freedom that Huck has.   Huck doesn't have to go to school, Sunday school, obey rules, or ask for permission to do anything.   He could do as he pleases whenever he feels like it. Tom wishes that but he also doesn't want to be the person that is always put aside by everyone else.   Huck is put aside because his father is a drunk and parents all think that if their children spend time with Huck they will end up being like his father, drunk.   This brings out the theme of how we sometimes wish we were like someone else and how we always want to have the easy ways out.   The theme of how when we grow and emotions grow too comes along when Tom gets to school.   Tom was now late and as a punishment he was going to be sent to sit down with the girls.   He looked to the girls' side and he saw that he would have to sit next to Becky Thatcher because there was an empty seat next to hers.   Tom was happy because he had started to have a crush for her.   When the teacher asked him why was he late he told him that he had stopped to talk to Huck.   He makes up anything in order to get to what his goal was.   That shows how when you're young you try what you can do to get where you want to be.

                             Tom has decided to go along with Huck to the graveyard to burry the dead cat.   They are going to do that because they believe that if he buries the cat, it will take all the warps with him and they will disappear.   One theme in this part of the book is how the innocence that they still has in them as they're children.   This is showed by how they end up playing to pretend to be pirates and also that they hear noises.   When they are at the cemetery they also end up witnessing the murder of Dr. Robinson.   In here they can't tell the people who actually killed him because they are afraid to get killed themselves.   Their conscience is what comes into play in this part.   It shows how when it's an important event and time you got to risk everything to try to do the right thing.

                              Mark Twain was influenced to write this novel by the time that he was living.   The characters can also be put together in his life.   For example, Tom relates to him because he didn't live with his parents, he lived with his aunt.   Twain didn't live with his father because he died when he was a young kid.   Their life is also similar.   They had some of the similar ideas and thoughts.   Twain lived during the rise of big business, and everyone had to work and it was the last days of slavery.   Tom didn't work but he already had in his mind what he wanted to do.   He wanted to become a clown because to him it seemed like the perfect job because they made lots of money and it looked pretty fun.   They both had the dreams of growing up kind of from rags to riches because they were both poor and weren't like the wealthiest persons around.   This whole novel takes place having to do with the ideas of Mark Twain and growing up in the decade were big businesses were rising up big.                 

Sources-

The Adventures of tom Sawyer, Mark Twain, Booksamillion

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Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain, Arts

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