The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is one of American writer Mark Twain’s most popular works. The story was first published in 1876.
Twain originally believed that he was creating The Adventures of Tom Sawyer for adults. Friends of the writer, who heard the first chapters, immediately began to convince him that the book is for children. Now such talk in general seems pointless, because Twain’s story is enjoyed equally by adults and young readers. It never gets old, because there is nothing false, false, unnatural, but there is great humor and charming main characters. In the preface to the story, Twain noted that most of the adventures described in the book are taken from life, with one or two he experienced himself. Huckleberry Finn is “written from life.” The same is true of Tom Sawyer. True, in this character was embodied features not one boy, but three, with whom Mark Twain was familiar.
The main characters of the story
The main character of the story is a boy named Thomas Sawyer. He lives in a small American town called St. Petersburg, located in Missouri. After Tom’s mother died, he was taken in by her sister Polly. Tom Sawyer is a mischievous, yet brave and bright child. His best traits are his willingness to sacrifice himself for his friends and his sense of justice. Yes, he steals sugar from Aunt Polly, tricks the boys into painting a fence for him, skips school, and gets a beautiful Bible as a gift in a not entirely honest way. But Tom fearlessly endures a whipping in place of Becky, whom he is in love with, and defends the innocent Meff Potter in court.
At first glance, Tom appears to be an ordinary boy. In fact, he is very different from the other boys of St. Petersburg. Tom is a leader by nature. The beginning of the story says that when the kids played war, divided into two armies, Tom acted as commander of one of them. He did not fight himself, giving orders through his aides. Moreover – the army under Sawyer’s leadership won the battle. But most importantly, no one but Tom is able to turn the dullest moments into true celebrations. Remember at least the scene in church, when all the parishioners were bored with the preaching of the priest. Tom Sawyer managed to cheer them up by letting the biting beetle out of the box. The insect’s battle with a poodle that had run into the church brought, as Tom himself put it, “a little variety” to the church service.
Huckleberry Finn is the son of a drunkard and friend of Tom Sawyer. Huck is dressed “in the old man’s shoulder socks,” recognizes “no compulsory rules,” sleeps on someone else’s porch steps or in empty barrels, smokes a pipe, and knows how to swear ingeniously. All the mothers in St. Petersburg hate him and forbid their children to communicate with him. But the kids don’t envy him and want to imitate him. Despite the fact that Huck actually grew up on the street, he managed not to fall to the bottom, not to become bitter, to remain a good man. The boy lacks education. But Huckleberry has a practical wit. In addition, the child is naturally resourceful.
Becky Thatcher is the judge’s daughter with whom Tom Sawyer is in love. At the beginning of the book, she is described as “a lovely blue-eyed creature with golden hair braided into two long plaits, wearing a white summer dress and embroidered pantaloons. The character of Becky is not as well written as the characters of Tom and Huck, but something can be said about her: she is not distinguished by courage, foresight, the ability to behave properly in extreme situations. Becky’s behavior in the cave is telling. While Tom is trying to find a way out of the situation, Becky is mostly crying and talking about near death. She immediately eats her share of the pie. It doesn’t even occur to her that she should save at least some for the future, because there is no telling when she will get to eat next time. It turns out that Becky was totally unprepared for the extreme situation. If she had gotten lost in the caves alone, she probably wouldn’t have been able to get out. However, it was not Becky’s fault, but rather her upbringing.
