Tom Sawyer

“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is an exciting and insightful novel by Mark Twain which follows the adventures of an adventurous and slightly devious boy in Missouri, USA. The author demonstrates through a series of adventures how the main character Tom Sawyer matures and ultimately comes to understand to put concern for others over concern for himself. The author also illustrates through characterisation of Tom Sawyer the fundamental ideas that people’s actions are not so clear cut morally and how personalities are complex and not so straightforward.

Mark Twain conveys many important issues and ideas in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. The author helps to make Tom Sawyer an interesting character by making him a multifaceted person through introducing contradictions in his personality, instead of just making a “flat”, and uninteresting character. Near the middle of the novel, Tom Sawyer tricks his family and the whole of the town, making everyone believe that he is dead. Twain portrays Tom as being very likeable, and the reader is led to think via the narrative that he is very clever and cunning, but we also acknowledge that what he is doing is very hurtful to both the people around him. We are conflicted in our opinion of the main character, and Mark Twain uses this to great effect to demonstrate the complexity of people’s personalities. A similar event happens when Tom takes blame for the teacher’s ripped book and saves Becky from punishment. We immediately think that Tom is very bold and heroic, but we immediately look at this incident again in a different light:

“The surprise, the gratitude, the adoration that shone upon him out of poor Becky's eyes seemed pay enough for a hundred floggings. Inspired by the splendor of his ow...

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...old, brave, and mature Tom who still enjoys pretending to be a pirate or a robber, but is also looking forward to becoming an adult and taking on the extra responsibilities that come with adulthood.

“It being strictly a history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go on much further without becoming the history of a man.”

With these words the author Mark Twain brings the novel to a close, as we recognise with a hint of sadness that Tom will soon grow up, leave behind the games and naivety of childhood and become an adult. Twain conveys the important themes of growing up - moving towards maturity through making the right choices in life and learning to be a more sensitive human being through the lively character of Tom Sawyer. In the end, we leave “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” glad that Tom has made the right choices and is well on the way to adulthood.