Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer is an awesome character created by Mark Twain, which was created to draw us in exactly like he does every sentence of this novel. Within class we discussed a variety of challenges this novel brings and a particular favorite of mine was the idea of satire against adults acting like children. Using children as a rhetoric device enables Mark Twain to make comments about the behavior of adults and how it correlates so closely with the behavior of children. We discussed how Adults adore this novel because they are nostalgic for their childhood, it is funny, uses satire to discuss society and it uses children to do this. Tom Sawyer is a novel that allows people to tap into ideas of their past.

“He had been months winning her; she had confessed hardly a week ago; he had been the happiest and the proudest boy in the world only seven short days, and here in one instant of time she had gone out of his heart like a casual stranger whose visit is done. He worshiped this new angel with furtive eye, till he saw that she had discovered him; then he pretended he did not know she was present, and began to “show off” in all sorts of absurd boyish ways, in order to win her admiration” (418). On a side note this was so hilarious and definitely one of my favorite passages throughout the parts of the novel we have read. This is the first time we are presented blatantly with a young boy crushing on girls and to see the interactions of playfulness and flirting between them. Within this passage we also see my two favorite words within this novel, “show off”. Within the second part of our reading on one page it said these words six times. The idea of adult behavior compared to children’s is put into an incredibly hilarious light. Adults are supposed to be grown, gentlemen, women, confident, independent, hard working, and a plethora of other adjectives. As Twain loves to point out adults are attempting to teach their children to grow up in the right environment and in the correct way when they act exactly as they do. On page 434 there are a number of examples one after the other pointing out all different types of adults and how they all resort to childish ways, especially when they want to gain attention. “The young lady teachers “showed off”- bending sweetly over pupils that were lately being boxed, lifting pretty warning fingers at bad little boys and patting good ones lovingly” (434). I love how Twain has used the words pretty to again further make fun of this idea of adult women who are supposed to be motherly and loving and mature while they are still trying to impress everyone just as little girls do who want to be called “good little girls”. “The little girls “showed off” in various ways, and the little boys, “showed off” with such diligence that the air was thick with paper wads and the murmur of scufflings. And above it all the great man sat and beamed a majestic judicial smile upon all the house, and warmed himself in the sun of his own grandeur-for he was “showing off,” too” (434).

All of these passages to me describe what Tom Sawyer is all about. He is the example of the worst little boy who works hard for nothing in his life and gets away with everything by compromising his ways. This book is written for adults to return to their past and to present to their children to hope that they have some of the same experiences growing up so they too can some daylook back and miss the past. Nostalgia is something that happens every day for everyone even if they don’t’ know it and this novel taps into this idea. It also allowed Mark Twain to make some incredibly funny jokes about adult life and the perceived notions people have. Just because we grow old doesn’t mean we stop playing and stop acting as a child. No matter what we do as we grow older we still retain an inner child that pops out when we least expect it.