The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, written by Mark Twain, is an interesting novel depicting Tom Sawyer, the playful and cunning orphan boy going through a series of wondrous adventures in his childhood life. Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. Because of the mischievous nature of boys, Tom and his Aunt are not in a good relationship. Whenever Tom gets into dirty squalls, his Aunt would beat him and once punished him by making him whitewash the fence. However, Tom’s cleverness enables him to persuade the other boys to exchange treasures with him in order to help him do his chores. At school, Tom falls in love with a girl named Becky Thatcher, the daughter of Judge Thatcher. The two children get engaged with each other until Tom displays loyalty by flirting with Amy Lawrence. One day, Tom accompanies his friend Huck to a graveyard and witnesses the frightening murder of Dr. Robinson by Injun Joe. The two children, together with Joe Harper decide to embark on an escaping adventure on an island afterward, where they enjoy being pirates and unlimited freedom. After their return from the island, they are beloved by their families and guardians, who worry about them. In summertime, Tom and Huck spot for treasure and make their great discovery of a box of gold hidden by Injun Joe. Tom’s romantic relationship with Betty continues as they travel in a cave, but soon get lost. Finally, Tom finds a way outside the cave and the whole town celebrates for the two children.
From the beginning till the end of the story, Tom Sawyer went through a moral and social maturation where he transformed his naughty naive self to a boy possessing competence and integrity. Initially, Tom was usually the leader of the boy gang, always attempting to play childhood pranks and make-believe games. Although Tom applied his exceptional cleverness and leadership skills, he led Joe Harper, Huck, and Becky in dangerous conditions, like the one they faced in the cave. Through experiencing multiple predicaments, Tom realized that it’s crucial to hold concern and caringness to others more than himself. The adventure in the cave with Becky, Becky’s punishments, and Injun Joe’s final trial all contributed to Tom’s moral development, since these events all taught him the ability to discern between goodness and evilness. Facing the hardships in society, Tom’s adult and peer relationship had gone through an immense change. In the story, Tom embarked on two major adventures: traveling to Jackson’s Island with Joe Harper and Huck and losing his way with Becky in McDougal’s Cave. During the insular period, where the three boys “isolated” themselves for freedom, escaping from society, Huck seemed to be a wiser and older boy compared to Tom. But as they returned to the village afterwards, Tom’s maturity surpassed Huck’s. While Huck had a desire to flee his social constraints, Tom insisted to warn Huck to stay with the Widow and try to become civilized.
Positioning Tom between the borders of childhood to adulthood reflected the deceptive values of the prevailing society. Tom is an emblematic representative of a carefree, innocent, and bright boy. On the other hand, his Aunt stood against his will with parental authority and a bit of indulgence whenever she found Tom missing. In the novel, Tom and the boys all attempted to subvert authority and escape from conventional society. Actions displayed like skipping school, church, sneaking out at night, and playing pranks on teachers were hidden rebellions against the old stereotypical society that they lived in. Superstitions were valued by Tom the most; he believed everything that he had read in books, like pirates' behaviors and the Robin Hood tales. This proved that Tom’s obsession with superstition was likewise an addiction to conventional society and adulthood, which the author was trying to criticize. In his society, adults forced children to attend church weekly for traditional religious purposes, causing certain social misbehaviors, beatings, murders, and rebellions. We can infer that adhering to society too strictly would also lead to dangers.
A yearning for social freedom and public exclusion is one evident theme demonstrated in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The setting of the story, St. Petersburg, an insular community in which outsiders are easily identified. Neighbors seem to recognize each other very well, and occasionally, they group together to isolate the outsiders. Tom’s friend, Huck Finn, is a notable local outsider who lives individually because his father is a drunkard. Children were told by their parents not to display any interaction with Huck because he receives no education and does inappropriate things like smoking. Murderer Injun Joe and drunkard Muff Potter act as “half-breed” outsiders in the town. These two people quite received some of the town’s toleration. While Huck’s known for his uncivilized habits, many boys actually dreamed to resemble him since he’s allowed to smoke and do whatever things he wanted outside of school. Tom was constantly over-controlled by his Aunt, no matter with “love” or merely punishments. After Tom and Huck found the treasure belonged to Injun Joe, each of them was awarded a dollar per week. The Widow Douglass completely took control of Huck, forcing him to act civilized; even though Huck got some financial support, he had lost his usual freedom. We can learn from the story that The price of social inclusion is a loss of complete freedom.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a vividly illustrated novel about the childhood life of Tom Sawyer, undergoing themes of moral and social maturation, good natures of childhood versus low judgements of adults, the border of inclusion, and social freedom. The reason behind this novel being so popular is because the author contrasts the intelligence and humor of Tom with the plain-minded poor judging adults, which make children feel a sense of superiority. Throughout the novel, Tom displays his playful, cunning, and competent disposition in front of his peers, girlfriend, teachers, guardians… Aunt Polly and Tom’s teachers always want Tom to behave as an obedient citizen, but Tom maintains being very opinionated and sometimes treasonous. He yearns for liberty, which he celebrates at the end of the story. The story of Tom Sawyer suggests to readers that children shouldn’t hurry to grow up and become adults, instead, they should enjoy the best time of their lives, which is childhood!
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