Tom Sawyer Essay, Research Paper

email: [email protected] SawyerTom Sawyer was a typical boy, growing up in the rural town of Hannibal, Missouri. Today, he would probably be considered hyperactive, but at that time, boys were expected to have lots of energy and get into mischief. Tom s behavior was certainly more normal than that of his cousin. Although the movie only showed Tom attending school one day, it was easy to see why he would rather be swimming and playing with Huck. Schoolteachers were very strict, they whipped the children for the slightest infraction, and the lessons were not particularly interesting. Just being made to sit still for that long would be a trial for a boy as active as Tom. Tom s relationship with his Aunt Polly was a love/hate situation. We learned that Tom loved his aunt when he and Huck were on the island and he started being concerned that she would be worried about him. It was obvious that Polly loved Tom, first when she talked about his mother to him, and again at Tom s funeral . However, Aunt Polly was a strict disciplinarian. In the entire movie, Tom was never allowed to eat dinner with the family, as he was always being punished for one thing or another. We also see Aunt Polly slap Tom, and she threatens to wash out his mouth with soap. Tom was hard for Polly to deal with because he was so different from her own children.

Tom did not enjoy going to church because he had to dress up and wear shoes. Church also forced him to sit still for long periods of time. Tom thought church was boring. Tom was basically a good person. He showed this by bravely standing up in court and accusing Injun Joe of murder to keep an innocent man from being hanged. All in all, Tom Sawyer was just a young boy who wanted to go his own way and have fun, but secretly enjoyed the security of being part of a family.