Tom Sawyer Essay, Research Paper

The definition of a classic novel is a book that has been read and enjoyed by successive generations. It has been passed down from generation to generation. Another definition of classic literature is that it has been written by an outstanding and famous author. My book (The adventures of Tom Sawyer ) was a piece of American classic literature because it was written by a very well known and outstanding author (Mark Twain). The adventures of Tom Sawyer was also a classic novel because it was a very well known and old book. This novel has been read by many people since 1867. It also has been republished many times and in twenty-seven different languages.

The protagonist in the story The adventures of Tom Sawyer was Tom Sawyer. Tom was fourteen years old. Tom was a mischievous boy with an active imagination. Tom spends most of the novel getting himself and often his friends, in and out of trouble. Despite his bad behavior, he usually tries to do the right thing. Tom was the protagonist in the story because he witnessed the murder of Dr Robinson, and he told the courtroom that Injun Joe was the murderer. Injun Joe escaped and now was planning to kill Tom Sawyer.

The Antagonist in the novel, The adventures of Tom Sawyer was Injun Joe. Injun Joe was half Native American and half-Caucasian. He was a very violent and villainous man. He was the antagonist because he murdered Dr. Robinson. Injun Joe was also after Tom Sawyer and wanted to kill Tom for accusing him of murder in the courtroom.

Some other main characters were Aunt Polly and Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry Finn was hated by all the parents and looked up to by all of the children in St Petersburg. He was the son of the town drunk .All of the children envied him because of his freedom. He seemed to be able to do what he wanted to without adult rules. Huck never seemed to go to school. The parents thought he was a bad influence. Tom s parents passed away and left his Aunt Polly to be his guardian. She was a simple, kind-hearted woman. She struggled to balance her love for her nephew with her duty to discipline him.

The setting in the novel ,The adventures of Tom Sawyer was in a small town called St. Petersburg which was located in Mississippi on the Mississippi river. The town does not have a very large population; therefore all of the people in St Petersburg knew each other.

Tom Sawyer lived with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother Sid in the town of St. Petersburg on the

Mississippi River. He was a very mischievous boy and got into a lot of trouble. Tom was very sneaky. One day Tom s punishment for fighting was to whitewash a fence. Tom did not want to do this so he convinced some other children that the work was a privilege so they gave him small treasures to do the work for him. Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, the new girl in town, and convinces her to get “engaged.” Their romance collapses when she learns that he had been engaged before. Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a cure for warts. While there they witness the murder of young Doctor Robinson by the part Indian Injun Joe, and run away. They swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they saw. Injun Joe blames Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Muff Potter thought that Injun Joe was right because he could not remember what had happened. Potter is arrested. Meanwhile Tom, Huck and Tom’s friend Joe Harper run away to an island to become pirates. They run away across the Mississippi River with a raft. At their campsite their raft drifts away. After four days Tom decides that he better return and check how the families are without the families knowing. Tom sees his Aunt Polly crying along with the rest of his family. He overhears his Aunt saying that she wished she had treated him better. He also hears them saying that the boys drowned while swimming. He then relizes that they had found the missing raft. The boys returned to St. Petersburg a few days later, and interrupt their own funerals.

Muff Potter s hearing arrives and Tom testifies to what he saw. He felt guilty because he did not want Muff Potter to go to jail for something that he did not do. Injun Joe flees the courtroom through the windows. In the summer Tom and Huck go to search for treasure in the haunted house and spot Injun Joe disguised as a deaf Spaniard with a partner. Tom sees them find a box full of gold and carry it to a hiding place. While Huck shadows Injun Joe, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal’s Cave with Becky, where the two become lost in the cavern.

Meanwhile, Huck saves the Widow Douglas a kindhearted, older women from being attacked by Injun Joe. Then the entire town realized that Tom and Becky were missing. They began to search for them. While trying to find a way out Tom spots Injun Joe in the cave! Eventually just before the townspeople are about to give up on Tom and Becky they find a way out. The townspeople lock the cave so it will never happen again not knowing that Injun Joe was still in the cave. The townspeople find him starved to death later on. Tom and Huck later go visit the cave and find the gold, they give it to Judge Thatcher to invest. Widow Douglas adopts Huck, and when he attempts to escape civilized life, Tom promises him that if he returns to the Widow, he can join Tom’s robber band. Huck agrees, reluctantly.

The universal theme in The adventures of Tom sawyer was always do the right thing.

- Tom tells the courtroom that Injun Joe was the killer even though he swore a blood oath not to tell.

- Tom tells the town that he and Huck found gold, instead of being selfish and keeping it to themselves.

- Tom tells Huck and Joe that they will leave the island and come back home.

Therefore the universal theme applies to this novel because if Tom did not do the right thing in these cases, very bad things could happen, and later in his life he would feel guilty about what he had done.

The conflict in this novel was Person versus Person. The people involved are the Protagonist Tom Sawyer, and the Antagonist Injun Joe. After Tom tells the courtroom that he saw Injun Joe commit the crime Injun Joe flees the courtroom and then is after Tom because he accused him of being the murderer of Doctor Robinson.

(C) This novel was about the “adventures” of a boy growing up on the Mississippi River. It follows the pattern of countless other books about young people, taking an ordinary, but clever and mischievous, protagonist and enabling him to have extraordinary adventures. “Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred,” Twain assures us in his introductory note, which links Tom’s boyhood in St. Petersburg to his own boyhood in Hannibal, Missouri. It was difficult, however, to imagine that all the events witnessing a murder, running away to be a pirate and attending one’s own funeral, finding buried treasure, and getting lost in a cave could have happened to just one boy (he certainly had his hands full). Tom’s adventures coexist within the framework of a growing up story, in which Tom moves from youth to maturity. This childhood world coexists with the adult community of St. Petersburg. Twain uses his talent to parody the various authority figures that dominate the town. The adult world is Tom’s destination, and at the critical moments in the book–at Muff Potter’s trial, saving Becky from punishment, and finding his way out of the cave–Tom succeeds at moving away from his childhood fears by acting as an adult. By the end of the novel Tom had matured into a respectable boy, and was no longer disobedient. In the beginning of the novel Tom envies Huck and his freedom, by the end of the novel Tom urges Huck to go to Sunday school, and to have good table manners.

I think that the novel The adventures of Tom Sawyer was a very interesting and superb novel for children. I think this because the novel tells a story about a sneaky yet smart boy who is constantly getting into trouble as he steps out of childhood and matures into an adult. Some examples of him getting into trouble were, when Tom tried to skip school by faking illness, and when Tom who enjoys bossing people around and picking fights got into a violent fist fight with the new boy in town Alfred Temple, and beats him only to leave poor Alfred crying. An example of Tom maturing was when Tom told the court that Injun Joe was the real killer and not Muff Potter. This was the right thing to do and very mature because if he did not tell the court the truth Muff Potter could go to jail even though he did not commit the crime, and Injun Joe would not be punished for the horrible thing that he committed. I really enjoyed the novel it had everything in it. It had humor, adventure, horror, and even a bit of romance. This novel was very funny; some of the funny Parts were when Tom and Alfred got into the fistfight. It was funny because of the silly things that they argued about, like who was stronger than who was. It was funny because all the boys were doing was talking, until Tom got mad, then they fought and it was ugly. I felt this novel related to life today when the boys were camping, all Tom wanted to do was learn how to smoke. Even today this seems to be the age of experimenting with new things. I felt I could relate to this book because Tom was my age. It was interesting to read a novel that seems to withstand time. I feel that was what truly made this novel a classic.

(D) I compared the adventures of Tom Sawyer to a general fictional story not categorized as a classic. There are a lot of differences between the two types. One of the differences is in the language. In a Classic novel the language would be in old English, and in a fictional story not categorized as a classic the language would be fairly modern. Another difference is in the setting. In a Classic story the setting would be on farmlands or plains, unlike the fictional stories which would be taken place in a modern city. Another difference between the two would be the story lines. In a classic the story line would be about problems that occurred in that day and age. In the other the story line would be related to the problems of the modern age. The last difference between a Classic story and a fictional story not categorized as a classic is the Characters. The characters in a Classic story would be very old fashioned. In the other the Characters would be more modern like you and me.