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The author, Mark Twain, set the story in his childhood town of Hannibal, Missouri, besides the Mississippi River. He renamed it St Petersburg for the purpose of the book. The story was set during his own childhood years of the 1840 s and tells the adventures of Tom Sawyer, a young boy who lives with his Aunt Polly, half brother Sidney and older cousin Mary. It is mentioned that his mother, Aunt Polly's sister is dead, but no mention is given about his father.
Tom does not get on very well with Sidney as he is a bit of a do-good, but he and Mary get on fine and she encourages him to be good by bribing him. Other characters in the book include his two closest friends Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper. Huck is the itinerant boy in town, a completely free spirit and full of knowledge on all things to do with superstitions. Joe is Toms best friend at school. Becky Thatcher is the new girl in town who becomes Toms first real love. Injun Joe is the villain of the story and Tom comes up against him more than once during the story.
The story is of a young boy, growing up in a small town besides the Mississippi River. It tells of the adventures he has and also the feelings and thoughts of someone his age, including romance, death and superstition. He sees the murder of Dr Robinson by Injun Joe. He meets the new girl in town, Becky Thatcher and deals with the excitement and angst of young love. Tom, Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper decide to run away to become pirates and live for several days on Jacksons Island, before coming back to town during the memorial church service held for them. Tom and Becky become lost in the caves and he becomes a hero in her eyes by keeping her spirits up and eventually finding a way out.
All through the book, Tom is making Aunt Polly's life a misery with his antics, but the love they have for each other always comes out on top. There is the famous episode where Aunt Polly punishes Tom for getting his clothes in a mess, by making him spend Saturday whitewashing the fence. Tom turns the table on the other boys when they start to make fun of him, by convincing them that whitewashing the fence is the best thing in the world to do. He starts to charge them to whitewash the fence themselves, and ends up with lots of interesting items. Mark Twain, it is said, wrote this story from memories of his own childhood.
Whether he was just like Tom, as a boy is not really known. But he achieved more than just a series of adventures of a young boy when he wrote this book. He managed to make this story appeal to both young and old. The younger reader will enjoy the adventures Tom has, especially in todays world where childhood is not as free as it once was. The older reader cannot help recall memories from their own childhood, where it was necessary to find their own entertainment just as Tom did.
I found some parts of the book hard to read at times, where Twain had used local dialect, but on the whole I enjoyed it as I identified with some of Toms activities, such as playing Robin Hood in the woods with Joe.
Free research essays on topics related to: aunt polly, huckleberry finn, mark twain, mississippi river, injun joe
Research essay sample on Aunt Polly Huckleberry Finn
