The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Reflection

Samuel Longhorn Clemen’s (aka Mark Twain) novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is one of those books that is more segmented in nature. I experienced it as a sort of collection of short stories tied together under the narrative of Tom Sawyer’s maturation from a fun-loving and mischievous youth to a more shrewd and selfless one. Tom’s mischievous nature is augmented by his resourceful imagination as displayed near the beginning when he is being punished by having to whitewash a fence. Instead of sulkily doing the job as I am guessing a majority of kids would, Tom proceeds to convince the impressionable neighborhood youngsters that whitewashing a fence is actually a privilege and successfully demands payment for his manipulative efforts!

Maybe the book’s slightly episodic nature was why I found it mildly difficult to become immersed in its vibrant world. If looked at objectively though, the adventures Tom has are quite funny or at least interesting. Take for instance the time when Tom and his friends run off to an island under the false guise of death (to the parents in town). The Adventures of Tom Sawyer displays the mind of a child in action quite well.

The book displays the innocent nature well, but in the later part of the book eventually delves into the liminal point in which Tom is beginning to lose his innocence. He begins to gain more of a second person perspective as displayed when he accepts the blame originally attributed to Becky Thatcher for a book she had torn.

Overall I am glad to have received insight into such a lively world.