MARK TWAIN:  THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES 

  Mark Twain's life illustrates a point he makes in The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer--that there is no single, simple
formula for success.  A school dropout at eleven, he spent
twenty years in a variety of jobs.  He was a typesetter, but, by
his own admission, not a very good one.  He piloted riverboats,
but the Civil War put him out of work.  He tried soldiering--and
deserted.  He spent a disastrous year mining gold and silver. 

  In desperation, he became a newspaper reporter in Nevada.
Running afoul of the law, he fled to San Francisco, found
another newspaper job--and got fired. 

  Twain was thirty now, and about this time he sat in his room,
pointed a gun at his head, and contemplated pulling the trigger.
It was a good thing he held back.  For he soon discovered that
he had a talent for "literature," as he wrote his brother, "of a
low order--i.e., humorous." Over the next two decades, he wrote
several books, which made him rich and world famous.  Among
those books were two of America's most important contributions
to world literature:  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 

  Surely this is the type of startling reversal worthy of Tom
Sawyer--the boy who breaks every rule imaginable, longs for a
romantic death, and ends up a rich and revered member of his
community.  How did Twain manage this feat?  For an answer, you
should take a close look at the man, his art, and the times in
which he lived. 

  Twain was born on November 30, 1835, in the frontier hamlet
of Florida, Missouri.  His parents named the sickly child, their
fifth, Samuel Langhorne Clemens.  (He adopted the pen name Mark
Twain in 1863.) 

  In 1839, John Clemens moved his family from their poor,
two-room shack in Florida to Hannibal, Missouri, on the banks of
the Mississippi River.  Hannibal boasted only 450 citizens when
they arrived, but the town seemed destined to thrive and raise
the Clemens family's fortunes with it.  Hannibal grew, but the
Clemenses did not prosper.  Although John Clemens became one of
the town's most respected citizens, he went bankrupt, lost all
his property in Hannibal, and died of pneumonia in 1847.  Samuel
was eleven at the time of his father's death.  His mother, Jane
Clemens, took him into the room where his father's coffin lay
and made him promise to behave. 

  "I will promise anything," Twain would remember saying, "if
you don't make me go to school!  Anything!" 

  "No Sammy; you need not go to school anymore.  Only promise
to be a better boy," his mother said.  "Promise not to break my
heart." 

  You will hear echoes of Jane Clemens in Tom Sawyer.  Twain
modeled Tom's Aunt Polly after his mother, whom he called his
"first and closest friend." Aunt Polly is not Jane Clemens with
a different name and a frontier dialect, however.  Jane Clemens
was stronger and quicker than Polly.  When defending the
oppressed, Twain would remember, she was "the most eloquent
person I have heard speak." 

  For two years after his father's death, Samuel worked as an
apprentice to a Hannibal printer.  In 1850 his older brother,
Orion, bought a local newspaper.  Samuel went to work for him,
but Orion ran such an unprofitable operation that Samuel often
went without pay. 

  In 1853, at age seventeen, Samuel set off on his own.  For
two years he worked as a typesetter in St.  Louis, New York, and
Philadelphia before returning to the Mississippi Valley and
working once more for Orion, who was now a printer in Keokuk,
Iowa. 

  At this point, Samuel had published several short pieces in
Orion's newspaper and a humorous sketch in a Boston magazine.
Yet he had no desire to make writing his life's work.  He left
Keokuk in November 1856, and in the spring he persuaded a
steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River to teach him his trade.
He spent the next few years steering steamboats up and down the
Mississippi.  In April 1861, the Civil War halted river traffic
between the North and South and put Clemens out of work. 

  Clemens was unhappy to leave the river.  He loved the work
and its high pay.  Besides, as he wrote in 1875, "A pilot, in
those days, was the only unfettered and entirely independent
human being that lived in the earth...." 

  In Chapter 6 of Tom Sawyer, Twain speaks of Huck Finn in
similar terms.  "Huckleberry came and went, at his own free
will...  he did not have to go to school or to church, or call
any being master or obey anybody...." 

  In Iowa, Samuel's brother Orion had backed Abraham Lincoln's
1860 race for the U.S.  presidency.  His reward was an
appointment to a high administrative post in the Nevada
Territory.  He went with Orion and spent a year unsuccessfully
prospecting for gold and silver in Nevada.  Broke, he took a job
writing for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, where
for the first time he began signing his pieces "Mark Twain"--the
river call for a depth of two fathoms. 

  Precisely how he chose that name is a mystery.  Clemens said
he "confiscated" it from a newspaperman who wrote for the New
Orleans Picayune in the 1850s.  However, scholars can find no
record of any writer's using that name before Clemens.  In
Virginia City, Clemens used the river term in a unique way.  He
would tell bartenders to "mark twain"--that is, to add two more
drinks to his bill.  Scholars believe it's likely he invented
the New Orleans journalist story to disguise his pen name's link
to the barroom after he became "respectable" in the East. 

  After fleeing to California and losing his newspaper job
there, Twain wrote sketches for a humor magazine.  He published
a tall tale in a New York magazine in late 1865.  The
story--"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"--was
reprinted in newspapers all over the country, and marked the
true start of Twain's writing career. 

  In January 1867, he went to New York City to write a series
of travel letters for a California newspaper.  He continued
writing dispatches for the newspaper after he joined a group of
wealthy tourists bound for Europe and the Holy Land. 

  The trip took five months and had two important consequences
for Twain.  First, it provided him with material for a book, The
Innocents Abroad, which brought him fame when it was published
in 1869.  Second, the trip led to his meeting Olivia ("Livy")
Langdon, who would become his wife.  Livy's brother had gone on
the trip and introduced Twain to his sister afterwards.  Twain
and Livy were married in February 1870 and went to live in
Buffalo, New York.  Some scholars believe that Twain's
description of Tom and Becky's courtship in Tom Sawyer is a
parody (take-off) of his own bumpy courtship of Livy. 

  The couple moved to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1871.  There
Twain wrote Roughing It, a book about his experiences in Nevada
and California.  Published in 1872, the book added to his
reputation as a humorist. 

  In 1873, he collaborated with a neighbor, Charles Dudley
Warner, on his first novel.  Called The Gilded Age, the novel
satirized the political corruption and the mania for speculation
that characterized the post Civil War era.  The book earned
Twain a great deal of money.  In 1874 he built his family an
extravagant home in Hartford. 

  Before moving into the home, the family spent the summer in
Livy's hometown of Elmira, New York, where Twain began working
in earnest on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  He had actually
begun the book during the winter of 1872-73, in Hartford, but
had put it aside to work on The Gilded Age.  Now, in Elmira from
April to September 1874, he was able to work almost daily on the
project.  Soon the writing became forced and artificial.  "I had
worked myself out, pumped myself dry," he wrote a friend.  So he
put the manuscript aside and wrote a series of articles on his
steamboating days, "Old Times on the Mississippi." It wasn't
until eight months later that he returned to Tom Sawyer. 

  When the book was finally published in December 1876, the
reviews were favorable.  Sales, however, were another matter.  A
Canadian publisher undercut the U.S.  edition by flooding the
country with a cheap pirated version.  Twain's own publisher
sold fewer than 27,000 copies of the novel during the first
year.  Oddly, sales of Tom Sawyer never really took off until
after 1885, when The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn appeared and
reviewers began to link the two books in the public's mind.
Since then, Americans have bought millions of copies of the
novel.  It is a favorite of both children and adults--a
testament to Twain's genius for enriching his tales of childhood
with humor and penetrating insights into human nature. 

  Most readers agree that Tom Sawyer is Twain's second-best
book.  First-place honors must go to Huckleberry Finn, where
Twain explores both language and ideas in greater depth.
However, Tom Sawyer is probably Twain's best-loved novel, and
its extraordinary success with people of all ages seems to prove
it. 

  To understand Tom Sawyer, it may help to put yourself in
Twain's place--that of a worldly man, nearing forty, who is
viewing childhood across the bridge of thirty years.  Between
Twain and his boyhood stand years of personal travel, trial, and
error; a civil war marked with heroism and sacrifice but also
greed and cruelty; an end to slavery; and startling developments
in industry and communications.  From the vantage point of the
post Civil War era, the 1840s must have seemed idyllic
indeed--as carefree and innocent as an endless summer. 

  Primarily, Tom Sawyer is a reminiscence of Twain's boyhood,
which he recalls with a longing for the past.  But it is more
than a remembrance because Twain has let his broad literary
background shape his memories. 

  Literary sources for Tom Sawyer include Charles Dickens' A
Tale of Two Cities, which contains a grave-robbing scene like
the one Tom and Huck witness.  The treasure hunt contains
elements of Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The Gold Bug." Although in
1869 Twain claimed to dislike Thomas Bailey Aldrich's The Story
of a Bad Boy, many readers feel that he borrowed ideas from that
book, as well. 

  Thus, you shouldn't read Tom Sawyer as Twain's autobiography.
In fact, you even have to read Twain's real autobiography with a
grain of salt, for as he warns at the end of one chapter:  "Now
then, that is the tale.  Some of it is true." 

  The Hannibal of Twain's youth was a far rougher and shabbier
place than St.  Petersburg, Twain's fictional version of his
hometown.  A village on the American frontier, Hannibal had a
darker side, which Twain only hints at.  As a boy, he nearly
drowned three times.  He watched villagers
try--unsuccessfully--to hang an anti-slavery man.  He witnessed
a hanging, and he watched a man burn to death in a jail cell.
He also saw two drownings, an attempted rape, as well as two
attempted and four actual murders. 

  Such experiences helped Twain to understand that life is not
a continuous holiday--even for children.  Tom's nightmares are
one indication of that, as are Twain's angry asides about the
villagers' hypocrisies. 

  Twain doesn't dwell on life's darker side in this novel,
however.  He wanted to write a light-hearted, entertaining book.
Yet woven through it are a number of themes that link it to
Twain's later, more philosophical works.  (See "Themes" later in
this guide.) 

  As he grew older, Twain began to examine the less appealing
aspects of human nature more relentlessly.  The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn (1885) is peopled with all types of evil,
stupid, or mean characters.  The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
(1894), for all its humor, concerns man's corruptness. 

  The year Pudd'nhead Wilson was published, business reverses
forced Twain into bankruptcy.  He embarked on a world tour,
lecturing for $1,000 a night.  The success of that tour and of
Following the Equator, the travel book that came out of it,
enabled him to pay his debts. 

  As he moved toward the end of his life, Twain shed his comic
mask and confronted themes of evil and dishonesty with
increasing bitterness.  This bitterness is evident in such works
as "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg," a story, and the
nonfiction tract, What Is Man? 

  Gnawing financial difficulties and family sorrows were partly
responsible for his emphasis on the bleak.  His favorite
daughter, Susy, died in 1896, his wife in 1904.  Another
daughter died in 1909.  Twain died of heart failure on April 21,
1910, in Redding, Connecticut. 

  For his readers, Twain lives on--a symbol, like Tom Sawyer,
of something raw and unyielding in the American character. 

  Tom's ability to triumph, whatever the odds, is no doubt a
major reason that Twain wrote of him so admiringly.  It is
surely one reason you will be drawn to Tom, and why you may
never forget him. 

^^^^^^^^^^
TOM SAWYER:  THE PLOT 

  An orphan named Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly in St.
Petersburg, Missouri, a small town on the banks of the
Mississippi River.  Tom is not a "model boy," and early one
summer around 1845, he proves it.  In a single day, he eats jam
behind his aunt's back, plays hooky from school and lies to his
aunt about it, and fights with a new boy in town. 

  With helpful hints from Sid, Tom's half-brother, Polly sees
through the lie.  She punishes Tom by ordering him to whitewash
her fence on Saturday.  However, Tom finds a way to avoid the
work.  He makes whitewashing seem like so much fun that other
boys give up their prize possessions for the privilege of doing
Tom's work. 

  After playing war games with friends, he notices a new girl
in town--Becky Thatcher--who throws him a flower.  Smitten, Tom
goes home, only to be blamed by Polly for Sid's crime--breaking
the sugar bowl. 

  At Sunday school, Tom trades his whitewashing loot for
tickets that boys earned reciting biblical verses.  On the way
to school the next day, Tom runs into Huckleberry Finn, son of
the town drunk, and the two plan a midnight meeting.  In school,
Tom proposes marriage to Becky, who accepts until she learns
that Tom was "engaged" before, to Amy Lawrence.  Sulking over
his rejection, Tom skips the afternoon session of school and
ends up playing Robin Hood with a friend. 

  After midnight, Tom and Huck walk to the graveyard, where
they witness an attempted grave robbery and a murder.  Muff
Potter and Injun Joe, two drifters, balk at completing the grave
robbery until Dr.  Robinson, who hired them, doubles their pay.
Robinson knocks out Potter, and Injun Joe murders Robinson.
Injun Joe shifts the blame for the murder to Potter, a drunk,
who is led to believe he might be guilty.  Tom and Huck are so
frightened of Injun Joe that they pledge never to reveal the
truth.  After Potter is arrested and jailed, the boys smuggle
food and tobacco to his cell but don't tell him they know he is
innocent. 

  Back at school, Becky crushes Tom with another rejection.
Tom decides to run away to Jackson's Island, downriver from St.
Petersburg.  He persuades Huck and another friend, Joe Harper,
to join him as "pirates." After midnight, the three steal a raft
and head out on their adventure. 

  The next day they realize that the villagers think they've
drowned.  While Huck and Joe sleep, Tom returns to St.
Petersburg and eavesdrops on a conversation in Polly's house.
Tom then returns to the island.  Four days later, the boys
astonish the villagers by walking in on their own funeral. 

  At school once more, Tom plays hard-to-get with Becky.  She
feigns interest in Alfred Temple, who ends up spilling ink on
Tom's spelling book.  The teacher, however, blames Tom and
punishes him.  To protect Becky, Tom takes the blame for her
accidental tearing of the teacher's anatomy book.  This act wins
him Becky's love. 

  Summer passes slowly.  Becky has left town.  Tom joins and
quits a temperance group (dedicated to abstinence from alcohol),
catches the measles, and lies in bed for five weeks.  After much
soul-searching, Tom testifies at Muff Potter's trial and Injun
Joe flees.  With Injun Joe at large, Tom is terrorized by
nightmares. 

  After a while, Tom ventures out with Huck in search of buried
treasure.  The boys hide upstairs in a "haunted" house and watch
Injun Joe and a sidekick uncover a box of gold coins.  Joe takes
the box with him, telling his friend he'll hide it in "Number
Two--under the cross." 

  Tom and Huck hunt for the treasure in a local temperance
tavern and discover Injun Joe drunk in room No.  2.  While Tom
is at a picnic hosted by Becky, Huck follows Injun Joe and his
sidekick up to the widow Douglas' house on Cardiff Hill.  Huck
runs for help after learning that Joe plans to avenge an old
slight by disfiguring the widow.  A Mr.  Jones and his two sons
rush to the widow's aid, but Injun Joe escapes. 

  At the picnic, Becky and Tom become lost in an enormous cave.
After three days in the cave, during which time Tom spots Injun
Joe, Tom manages to become a hero once more by leading Becky to
safety.  Two weeks later, he learns that Becky's father has
sealed the cave with an iron door.  Inside the cave, they find
Joe, dead of starvation. 

  Tom and Huck later return to the cave in search of the box of
gold coins.  They find them and row back to St.  Petersburg,
intending to hide the coins in Mrs.  Douglas' hayloft.  But Mr.
Jones ushers them into the widow's house, where she is holding a
party to thank everyone who helped her against Injun Joe.  Tom
steals center stage by bringing in the treasure, which amounts
to $6000 for each boy. 

  The boys are now relatively rich.  Becky's father has lofty
plans for Tom--a military and legal education.  Huck lives with
the widow, who tries to civilize him.  When Huck runs away, Tom
persuades him to return by promising him a place in Tom Sawyer's
Gang, if Huck becomes "respectable." 

   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  TOM SAWYER   

Tom, the novel's hero, appears in almost every scene.  Poorly
behaved, scrappy, and often thoughtless in his pursuit of the
spotlight, he triumphs in spite of his bad behavior.   

One of Tom's great strengths is his ability to turn
everything--from fence-painting to death--into play.  He is also
a born leader.  Again and again, he persuades his friends to do
his bidding.  Under his command, they become fence painters,
soldiers, and English knights.  Tom's leadership ability stems
in part from his wide reading of romantic literature, which
makes him an "expert" on such childhood pleasures as
treasure-hunting, pirating, and the lore of Sherwood Forest.
Tom also succeeds by trickery.  He makes fence-painting seem
like so much fun that boys pay him for the right to do it.   

Tom is not without qualms, however.  His Presbyterian upbringing
and his superstitious nature often give him bad dreams and
feelings of guilt.   

Tom is basically a good boy, in spite of his continual warfare
with adults.  He apologizes to Polly for embarrassing her.  To
protect Becky, he takes the blame for the page she tore.  He
loves his aunt and tells her so--although tardily.   

Do you feel, as some readers do, that Tom matures as the novel
progresses?  Or do you think he simply joins the society whose
ways he tested throughout the novel?  Perhaps both views are
valid--that is, as Tom matures, he realizes how senseless it is
to remain, like Huck, at odds with "civilized" society.  The
novel gives you abundant evidence to support all three views. 
 

Curiously ageless, for most readers Tom stands as a symbol of
boyhood on the threshold of the adult world.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  BECKY THATCHER   

The novel's heroine, Becky Thatcher, is as complex a figure as
Tom.  Like Tom, her age is not clear--anywhere from nine to
thirteen.  She has blue eves and blond hair.  As the book
begins, she is a new-comer in town, on an extended visit to her
uncle.  As the book ends, it appears--Twain is unclear on this
point--that her family has settled in St.  Petersburg.  Her
father is a judge, well off and highly respected by all
citizens.  Twain modeled Becky after his first sweetheart, Laura
Hawkins.   

Becky reflects her upbringing.  She is polite, respectful of her
elders, and so well-behaved that she has never been whipped in
school.  Yet in some ways she is no more a "model girl" than Tom
is a "model boy." She can be cruel.  She feigns interest in
Alfred Temple when it enables her to taunt Tom.  She can be
vindictive.  She doesn't stand up for Tom when he's accused of
spilling ink on his spelling book because she wants him
punished.  She can be disobedient.  Behind her mother's back,
she agrees to Tom's plan to visit Mrs.  Douglas' house.  She can
be a pest.  She "teased" her mother to win her consent for the
picnic.  She has a quick temper, as Tom discovers several
times.   

Still, Becky is basically warm and considerate.  Lost in the
cave, she regains hope in order to make Tom stop blaming himself
for their plight.  She appreciates Tom's efforts on her behalf
and says so, to Tom and her father.  Yet she is generally
presented as so strong-willed that some readers are startled by
the speed with which, at the outset, she gives up hope in the
cave.  This passive acceptance of fate seems out of character.
During Twain's time, however, women were considered the weaker
sex, and their characterization in fiction reflected this
view.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  AUNT POLLY   

The sister of Tom's dead mother, Polly is modeled after Twain's
mother, Jane Clemens.  Twain claimed that, besides having Polly
speak in dialect, he couldn't "think up other improvements" for
his mother.  However, Twain's mother was stubborn, proud, and
quick-witted; Polly is none of these.  Some readers believe that
Polly is partly modeled after Mrs.  Partington, a character in
one of Twain's favorite books, Benjamin P.  Shillaber's Life and
Sayings of Mrs.  Partington.  A strict Calvinist, Mrs.
Partington nevertheless cannot bear to discipline her orphaned
nephew, Ike, who outwits her at every turn.  Similarly, Polly
believes it her duty to discipline Tom, yet she is too
soft-hearted to do it regularly.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  HUCKLEBERRY FINN   

Huck is in many ways Tom's opposite.  Part of St.  Petersburg's
outcast community--a group that includes slaves, drunks, and
criminals--Huck represents all that the village's "respectable"
citizens abhor.  He is dirty, lazy, uneducated, and the son of a
town drunk.  He is a follower, not a leader.  Untouched by
formal religion, he is not harassed by his conscience as Tom is.
He puts his own safety first until, near the end of the novel,
he aids Mrs.  Douglas.  The ways of civilization hold no joys
for him, as he learns when he becomes "rich" and Mrs.  Douglas
tries to mold him into a sort of "model boy.   

Twain modeled Huck after a boy named Tom Blankenship, someone he
remembered as "the only really independent person--boy or
man--in the community." But some readers believe Huck's
relationship with Tom is based on Twain's reading of Miguel de
Cervantes' Don Quixote de la Mancha, a seventeenth century
burlesque of popular Medieval romances of chivalry.  Huck, like
Quixote's sidekick, Sancho Panza, is uneducated and
matter-of-fact.  Twain develops his character more fully in The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, whose popularity caused Huck to
overshadow Tom in the public's imagination.  Here, however, Huck
is clearly subordinate to Tom.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  SID   

Twain uses Tom's half-brother, Sid, to make good boys look bad.
Sid stays out of trouble yet never tires of reporting Tom's
infractions to Polly.  He is sneaky and mean-spirited, gaining
attention at the expense of others.   

Twain's younger brother, Henry Clemens, served as the model for
Sid.  However, Twain defended his brother by calling Henry "a
very much better and finer boy than Sid ever was."   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  MARY   

Tom's cousin, Mary, is an even-tempered teenager who is the
fourth member of Aunt Polly's household.  She is kind to Tom,
who likes her.  A patient girl, she rewards Tom for his
successes instead of scolding him for his mistakes.  Mary is
thought to be modeled after Pamela Clemens, Twain's sister, who,
after their father died, taught piano to help support her
family.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  INJUN JOE   

The only evil character in the novel, Injun Joe is one of St.
Petersburg's outcasts.  He is of mixed Indian and white
parentage, like the man of the same name who lived in Hannibal
during Twain's youth, and whose worst crime was getting drunk. 
 

Injun Joe is driven by a desire for revenge.  He murders the
young Dr.  Robinson because Robinson's father had him jailed as
a vagrant some years earlier.  He wants to disfigure Mrs.
Douglas because her late husband, a justice of the peace, had
ordered him whipped on the same charge.  Some readers see the
"murderin' half-breed" as the victim of racial injustice and his
actions as a product of that injustice.   

Some readers feel that Injun Joe is not a totally believable
villain.  They see him as a comic book caricature of a
villain--more amusing than threatening.  Do you agree or
disagree?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  MUFF POTTER   

A good-for-nothing, Potter acts kindly toward the boys, sharing
his fish with them and fixing their kites.  He gets drunk often
enough to believe that he might not have remembered killing Dr.
Robinson at the graveyard.  He seems too mild-mannered to hold a
grudge, and he is not at all angry to learn that Tom waited
weeks before revealing the evidence that saved him from the
gallows.   

Potter's real-life counterpart seems to have been Benson, the
older brother of Tom Blankenship (the model for Huck).  Like
Potter, "Bence" Blankenship was treated as an outcast by
Hannibal's adults.  Many of Hannibal's children, on the other
hand, viewed him as a friend.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  MRS.  DOUGLAS   

The widow of St.  Petersburg's justice of the peace, she is a
hospitable and attractive woman in her early forties.  She likes
children, and they visit her often.  She nurses Huck back from
his illness and agrees to take him under her roof.  When Huck
disappears, she is so distressed that she spends two days
hunting for him.   

Twain modeled the widow after Mrs.  Richard Holliday, a wealthy
woman who lived on Holliday's Hill (Cardiff Hill in the novel).
As a boy, Twain watched her shoot and kill a man who had gone to
her house to assault her.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  JUDGE THATCHER   

Becky's father, a county judge, is highly respected by the
villagers, one of whom is St.  Petersburg's lawyer Thatcher,
Jeff's father.  An authoritative figure, he is given the seat of
honor when he visits the Sunday school.  He leads the search for
Becky and Tom and heads the party that discovers Injun Joe dead
in the cave.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  DR.  ROBINSON   

A young physician, Robinson makes the fatal mistake of asking
Injun Joe--whom he had once refused to feed--to help him rob a
grave.  His counterpart in Twain's youth was Dr.  E.  D.
McDowell, who ran a medical school in St.  Louis and stole
corpses for his students to study.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  MR.  JONES   

The Welshman who lives with his sons on Cardiff Hill, he rushes
to the widow's aid when Huck alerts him.  He promises Huck he
won't tell who alerted him and remains true to his word.  After
Injun Joe is found dead, however, he reveals Huck's part in the
episode.  He is thought to be based on John Davies, a bookseller
in Hannibal.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  MR.  DOBBINS   

The schoolmaster, frustrated in his attempt to become a doctor,
is not a happy man.  He vents his unhappiness on his students,
who avenge themselves on "Examination Night" by having a cat
pull off his wig in front of the audience.  The schoolmaster in
Twain's time was J.  B.  Dawson, whose son, Theodore, was
Hannibal's "model boy."   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  ALFRED TEMPLE   

A newcomer from St.  Louis, Temple is a snob who wears shoes on
weekdays, while all the other boys go barefoot.  He is briefly
Tom's rival for Becky's affections.  Spurned, he turns into a
sneak and pours ink on Tom's spelling book.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  JOE HARPER   

Tom's best friend, Joe accompanies Tom and Huck to Jackson's
Island.  He is the first of the three to admit to
homesickness.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  SETTING   

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer takes place in the "poor little
shabby village of St.  Petersburg," Missouri, on the banks of
the Mississippi River.  West of the town lies Cardiff Hill, a
"Delectable Land" of fantasy and dreams where Tom loves to play
and where the widow Douglas lives, Downriver a few miles, near
the Illinois bank, is Jackson's Island, an uninhabited place to
which Huck, Tom, and Joe Harper escape for several days of
freedom.   

St.  Petersburg is an idealized version of Hannibal, the
Missouri river town where Twain lived as a youngster from 1839
to 1853.  This prettified portrayal of the scene of his youth
has led many readers to call the novel an idyll--a work that
paints a scene of country life as one of tranquil happiness. 
 

Yet St.  Petersburg is not simply the heavenly place its name
suggests.  It is a frontier town, literally on the edge of
civilization, where anything can happen.  The outwardly placid
setting is seeded with insincerity, violence, and downright
evil.   

St.  Petersburg, like the Hannibal of Twain's youth, contains
people of all types, from all classes.  It has the lawyers and
drunks, slaves and slave-owners, hypocrites and honest souls.
If you appreciate these many distinctions--especially those of
social class--you will have a more complete understanding of the
novel.   

In fact, some readers argue that the novel is one of the first
attempts in American literature to portray the social life of a
typical American community.  Like a tour guide, Twain takes you
on a visit to Sunday school, church, an inquest, a funeral, a
school's closing exercises, a trial, a picnic, and a party.  He
also takes you behind the scenes, where you witness a murder, an
attempted assault on a widow, a bar masquerading as a non-liquor
serving "temperance tavern," as well as multiple hypocrisies.
Largely set in motion by adults, most of these forces serve as
obstacles to Tom.  The novel is in one sense a chronicle of
Tom's attempts to overcome them--to survive in spite of the
setting's visible perils and those that lurk beneath its
surface.   

The book takes place simultaneously in a second setting--the
world of childhood.  This world of innocence and experimentation
exists in no specific time frame and no specific physical
setting.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  THEMES   

Many readers have trouble spotting a central idea or important
themes in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  You may agree, noting
that, as Twain stated in his preface, one of his main goals was
to generate nostalgia--playing off adults' longing for the
simpler world of childhood.   

On the other hand, a close reading of the novel may suggest
several themes to you.  Here are some of those themes and
evidence to support them.   

1.  A CHILD'S WORLD IS A DANGEROUS PLACE   

Violence is a fact of life in St.  Petersburg.  Drownings,
murders, and other threats to life are commonplace.  Tom is
haunted by his fear of Injun Joe, whose reputation for violence
is such that no villager dares charge him with grave robbery.
Tom and Becky narrowly escape starving to death in McDougal's
cave.  All four plot strands concern death or near death--Dr.
Robinson's; the runaway boys'; Becky's and Tom's; and Injun
Joe's.   

2.  A CHILD'S WORLD IS PLAGUED WITH MORAL UNCERTAINTY   

Questions of right and wrong are woven through the text.  Is Tom
right to steal a doughnut when his aunt isn't looking?  Should
the boys have stolen provisions for their trip to Jackson's
Island?  What is the right thing for Tom and Huck to do about
the murder they witnessed?  Is it right for Tom to con his
friends out of their prized possessions, and then trade them for
a Bible he does not deserve?   

The characters don't resolve all these (and other) questions,
leading one reader to complain of Twain's "moral evasiveness."
Yet the characters--especially Tom--are painfully aware of them,
as their troubled consciences testify.   

3.  VANITY AND REVENGE MOTIVATE A GOOD DEAL OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR 
 

The novel is full of showoffs--from Aunt Polly, who is mildly
vain, to Tom, who strives to be the center of attention.  In
between these extremes are characters like the fashionable
Sunday school superintendent, whose boot toes are bent "like
sleigh-runners," and the bewigged schoolmaster, Mr.  Dobbins. 
 

As for revenge, this motive stands behind Injun Joe's murder of
Dr.  Robinson and his attempt to disfigure Mrs.  Douglas' face.
Revenge motivates Becky's desire to see Tom punished for
something he didn't do, and it prompts Tom to hurl clods of dirt
at his half-brother, Sid.   

4.  MATERIAL SUCCESS IS THE KEY TO ADMISSION TO RESPECTABLE
ADULT SOCIETY   

Tom buys temporary success in Sunday school, wins a Bible, and
gets to stand near the great Judge Thatcher.  After finding the
treasure, he and Huck--an outcast for most of the novel--become
celebrities and full-fledged members of St.  Petersburg society.
Some readers even believe that Tom becomes that society's
apologist (a person who speaks or writes in defense of a
cause).   

5.  CHILDREN AND ADULTS ARE NATURALLY AT ODDS   

Tension between adults and children is a recurrent theme that
runs through the novel from its first sentences to its last.
Adults aim to "civilize" children--something that children,
being free spirits, often find intolerable and rebel against.
Tom and the adults in his world are in a constant state of
war--one in which he tends to win most of the battles.  Viewed
from an adult perspective, Tom and especially Huck are outlaws
for refusing to accept the code of civilized behavior.  In their
fantasies--as Robin Hood, pirates, and robbers--and in the
wilderness of Jackson's Island, they flourish and are
happiest.   

In the end, however, Tom seems to join the enemy.  He takes it
upon himself to civilize Huck, the last holdout against the
bondage of those values--cleanliness, regularity, scholarship,
religious devotion--that society deems desirable.   

6.  SOCIETY ENCOURAGES AND EVEN REWARDS INSINCERITY   

Twain exposes insincerity many times in the novel.  At the boys'
funeral, the minister, with the complicity of the congregation,
turns the boys' faults into praiseworthy deeds.  On "Examination
Night," young ladies demonstrate that they have learned how to
tack sermons of "glaring insincerity" onto their compositions. 
 

7.  "BAD BOYS" CAN TRIUMPH   

Tom is the type of person that many children's books used to
warn children not to be.  Twain turns the message of those books
on its head here, creating a hero, rather than a villain, who
lies, steals, cheats, and disobeys his elders, yet still ends up
healthy, wealthy, and wise.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  STYLE   

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain uses language that is,
for the most part, simple, direct, and unpretentious.  In most
of his sentences, every word has a job.  "The old lady pulled
her spectacles down and looked over them, about the room," he
writes in Chapter 1; "then she put them up and looked out under
them." A typical Twain sentence, it describes a comic
action--Aunt Polly's glasses were useless--with precision and
not a word more than needed.  No wonder his spare (lean) style
influenced so many writers who followed him, including Ernest
Hemingway, who once said that all American literature begins
with Mark Twain.   

Twain's style in this novel is not consistently spare, however.
In places, his style becomes indirect, wordy, and unnecessarily
"fancy." Sulking in Chapter 3, Tom "wandered far from the
accustomed haunts of boys, and sought desolate places that were
in harmony with his spirit.  A log raft in the river invited
him, and he seated himself on its outer edge and contemplated
the dreary vastness of the stream...."   

This is one of the many passages that Twain might have
simplified but didn't.  He probably wanted to mock Tom's
romantic posturing by using the type of overblown prose that
writers such as James Fenimore Cooper used.  However, no such
reasoning can explain complicating his prose with such words as
"ambuscade" and "adamantine"--both found in one sentence at the
end of Chapter 1.  Compared with the simple words Twain uses
most of the time, these words seem phony, an attempt to sound
"literary."   

Twain himself preaches against "fine language" and "prized
words" in Chapter 21.  In general, he heeds his own advice and
sticks to simple words and sentences.   

Twain's imagery--mostly visual, sometimes auditory and tactile
(pertaining to touch)--is never flashy.  It is most evident when
his attention turns to nature, as on Jackson's Island in Chapter
14.  Tom awakens to a "cool gray dawn" (tactile and visual) and
observes "beaded dew-drops" (visual) on the leaves.  "A white
layer of ashes covered the fire, and a thin blue breath of smoke
rose straight into the air" (visual).  The birds awaken, and
"presently [Tom hears] the hammering of a woodpecker"
(auditory).   

There's nothing forced about such images.  They are as simple
and as natural as Twain's informal language.  Yet there's a
beauty to their simplicity that gives them power.  It might be
useful to jot down the first ten images that make an impression
on you and ask yourself why they are memorable.   

Much of the book's humor comes from the several dialects
(variations of local speech) that Twain's characters speak.
"Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything?" Polly asks herself
in Chapter 1.  "Ain't he played me tricks enough like that for
me to be looking out for him by this time?  But old fools is the
biggest fools there is."   

By recording the way people actually talked on the Missouri
frontier, Twain makes his characters both believable and funny.
He points up the humor in everyday situations.  Such a writer is
called a "comic realist"--someone who portrays life humorously
but faithfully.   

Twain faces the everyday world as a frontier humorist, a writer
(or lecturer) who masks his sophistication behind an unassuming
"aw-shucks" demeanor.  This air of innocence enables Twain to
deliver social criticism in an offhanded, almost unintentional
way.  "A robber is more high-toned than what a pirate is--as a
general thing," Tom tells Huck in Chapter 33.  "In most
countries they're [robbers are] awful high up in the
nobility--dukes and such." With a seemingly innocent remark,
Twain pokes fun at society's upper crust by suggesting that it
is made up of thieves.  This aspect of his humor can be seen as,
ultimately, subversive.   

Twain can evoke terror as well as laughter with his
descriptions.  You will notice that much of the power of Chapter
31, in which Tom and Becky are lost in the cave, comes from
Twain's ability to direct your attention to key details.  "Under
the roof," he writes, "vast knots of bats had packed themselves
together, thousands in a bunch; the lights disturbed the
creatures and they came flocking down by hundreds, squeaking and
darting furiously at the candles." Twain's simple descriptive
style is a flexible tool, and he uses it masterfully to tell his
story and guide your reactions to it.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  POINT OF VIEW   

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is told by a third-person
omniscient (all-knowing) narrator.  Some readers believe that
Twain made a mistake by writing in the third person.  They feel
the use of the third person forced him to use a more formal
vocabulary than he was comfortable with.  As you read Tom
Sawyer, you might want to ask yourself if a retelling by Tom, in
the first person, would have made certain scenes more
effective.   

The narrator is perhaps Tom's most ardent fan.  Some parents
might scold their child for conning his friends into doing his
work and having them pay for the privilege.  Twain doesn't
censure Tom for that or for the thoughtless way he hurts Polly's
feelings in Chapter 8.  Instead, he looks on tolerantly, with a
"boys-will-be-boys" attitude that is infectious.   

Ordinarily, the narrator lets the material speak for itself.
However, a few times he addresses you directly--an occurrence
that many readers find jarring.  In all, the narrator is a
reliable reporter of the events in St.  Petersburg.  Yet, St.
Petersburg is not Hannibal, the town after which it is modeled,
and it would be a mistake to think so.  A distance of thirty
years allowed Twain to view his hometown--and boyhood--through
rose-tinted glasses.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  FORM AND STRUCTURE   

The novel's title is a clue to its structure.  Rather than a
tightly plotted story, it is a series of adventures that Twain
has strung together chronologically in thirty-five chapters.
The novel's episodic form has led some readers to say that The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer has no plot at all.  However, a close
look will show you that four loose plot lines help tie the novel
together and give it unity.   

The first of these four stories involves Tom's courtship of
Becky Thatcher.  This plot line begins in Chapter 3 and runs,
intermittently, all the way to Chapter 35.  The main climax of
this story comes in Chapter 32, with the couple's escape from
McDougal's cave.  A less important climax occurs in Chapter 20,
when Tom wins Becky's heart.   

The second story concerns the framing of Muff Potter for Dr.
Robinson's murder.  This plot line begins in Chapter 9, has its
courtroom climax in Chapter 23, and ends in Chapter 24.   

The third story concerns the Jackson's Island episode the boys'
running away and their return to witness their own funeral.  It
begins in Chapter 13, has its climax at the funeral in Chapter
17, and concludes with Chapter 19.   

The fourth story traces Injun Joe's fate from the time he flees
the courtroom in Chapter 17.  The story continues to Chapter 35,
where Twain explains how Tom and Huck have been affected by the
treasure that Injun Joe found for them.  The climax to this plot
line occurs in Chapter 33, when the villagers discover Injun
Joe's body.   

Five chapters (1, 2, 5, 21, and 22) are wholly devoted to
adventures that are unrelated to any of the four plot lines.
These chapters allow Twain to introduce and develop Tom's
character (chapters 1 and 2), describe a church service or a
school exercise (chapters 5 and 21), and sum up several weeks in
a few pages.  By detailing everyday events in these chapters and
elsewhere, Twain adds realism to his treatment of life in a
Missouri river town before the Civil War.   

Readers have pointed to several parallels among the plot lines.
For one thing, they all involve deaths--real or imagined.  For
another, they all end somewhat predictably--two with
resurrections, one with a narrow escape from the gallows, and
one with a villain's death and the capture of his treasure.
Finally, all four stories have the same hero--Tom Sawyer--an
orphan who raises himself from near rags to near riches on the
strength of his courage and imagination.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  DEDICATION   

Twain adored his wife, Olivia Langdon Clemens, whom he had
married only two years before beginning work on Tom Sawyer.  She
read his books before they were published and often suggested
changes.   

When Twain finished Tom Sawyer, he felt that he had written a
book for adults.  Olivia and Twain's friend, the novelist and
editor William Dean Howells, convinced him otherwise.  "Mrs.
Clemens decides with you that the book should issue as a book
for boys, pure and simple--and so do I," he wrote Howells.  "It
is surely the correct idea."   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  PREFACE   

Like the conclusion that Twain tacks onto the end, the preface
is an integral part of the novel.  Don't skip it.  Its three
short paragraphs suggest Twain's aim of creating a realistic
portrait of small-town life "thirty or forty years ago." Since
the novel was published in 1876, this places the action in the
1840s.   

The 1840s were idyllic times for Hannibal, the model for St.
Petersburg.  The little river town of more than a thousand
people in the mid-1840s was thriving.  The question of allowing
Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state had been fiercely
debated two decades earlier, with Missouri entering the Union as
a slave state in 1821.  The upheaval of the Civil War was still
a long way off.   

Twain says that "most of the adventures recorded in this book
really occurred." This statement is largely true, although Twain
embellished his adventures with material gleaned from his wide
reading, as has been noted in "The Author and His Times"
section.   

Twain also refers to the superstitions "prevalent in the West"
(the Midwest, today) when he was a boy.  These
superstitions--part of the folklore of his times--fascinated
him.  He had begun taking notes on them more than ten years
before he wrote Tom Sawyer.   

Finally, Twain tells you exactly for whom the book was written.
Always on the lookout for ways to enlarge his readership, Twain
describes the book's audience in the broadest terms.  It is a
book for boys and girls, he says.  But, he hopes adults will
read it, too, as a reminder of "what they once were themselves,
and of how they felt and thought and talked...."   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 1   

Approach this chapter as you would another world--one that
existed nearly a century and a half before you were born.  Try
to imagine the people who live there.  You meet two of the
book's major characters:  Tom Sawyer and his Aunt Polly.  You
also meet two minor characters who act as Tom's "foils"--people
who make him look better.  One is Sid, Tom's half-brother.  The
other is a boy with a "citified air" who is a stranger in
town.   

As Twain opens the book, Aunt Polly is calling her nephew, Tom.
The fact that he doesn't answer is a clue to his character:
either he isn't where he is supposed to be, or he's just not
listening.   

NOTE:  TWAIN'S USE OF NOSTALGIA Mark Twain took great pride in
being able to hold the attention of audiences he lectured to.
With this simple opener, he shows he knows how to hook readers
too.  Tom's situation--being the object of an adult's shout--is
one anyone can identify with.  Most people can remember, with a
mixture of pain and warmth, the emotions they felt when called
away from a private task by a familiar parental voice.  Twain no
doubt knew this.  And he probably suspected that Polly's shout
would capture the attention of many adults by its appeal to
nostalgia--their longing for experiences of the past.   

From the start, Aunt Polly is a comic figure, but one that Twain
portrays warmly.  Vain, like other mortals, Polly wears
spectacles "for 'style,' not service." To see, she has to peek
over or below them.   

Tom doesn't seem to be inside.  Polly pokes under the bed with a
broom but raises only a cat.  Nor is Tom outside in the garden,
a tangle of tomato vines and smelly jimson weeds.  Only when he
tries to sneak by her does Polly realize that he has been hiding
in a closet.  From the "truck" (rubbish) on his mouth and hands,
she knows that he has been helping himself to jam.   

Polly decides to flog him, but Tom is too quick for her.  "Look
behind you, aunt!" he says, and as she does so, he leaps over
the fence.  This is only the first of many practical jokes he
will play on her.  Tom's escape makes Polly laugh.  His tricks
amuse her, though she is troubled that she allows herself to be
charmed by him.  Tom is her "own dead sister's boy." She accepts
the fact that he is full of the "Old Scratch" (the devil), but
she feels responsible for his upbringing.  Still, she can't
bring herself to whip him.   

Tom plays hooky from school.  He returns home just in time to do
his chores--helping a slave boy, Jim, saw wood.   

NOTE:  SLAVERY Twain calls Hannibal, his boyhood home, St.
Petersburg--St.  Peter's place, a reference to Heaven.  However,
it isn't Heaven for everyone, and the appearance of Jim is a
clue.  Jim--modeled after Sandy, a slave the Clemenses kept in
Hannibal--is Polly's slave.  As previously mentioned, Missouri
was admitted to the Union as a slave state in 1821.  Twain dealt
with the injustices of slavery in two of his most famous books,
Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson.  However, he almost
completely avoids such weighty issues here, in this pleasurable
romp through childhood.  In any case, you should note the role
of such figures as Jim in the novel.   

At dinner, Polly pumps Tom for clues to his whereabouts during
the afternoon.  Tom has nearly convinced her that he didn't go
swimming when Sid points out that Tom's collar is sewn shut with
black thread, although Polly had sewn it with white thread in
the morning.  (In his Autobiography, Twain says that his mother
used to sew his shirt tight to keep him from skipping school for
a swim.)   

Tom darts out the door, vowing to beat up Sid for giving him
away.  Twain adds a comment, telling you--as if you didn't
already know--that Tom "was not the Model Boy of the village."
Why does Twain tell you something you already know?  First, he's
setting up a joke, whose punch line is, "He knew the Model Boy
very well though--and loathed him." Second, he's giving you a
clue to one of his goals in writing Tom Sawyer.  By making a
"bad boy" a hero, Twain is making fun of books that present boys
and girls with perfect behavior as models for their readers. 
 

Tom comes upon a newcomer--a dressed up boy whose "citified air"
irks him.  It's Friday, and the boy is wearing shoes, something
Tom would do only on Sundays.  What bothers Tom most is that the
boy's clothes make Tom feel "shabbier and shabbier." His first
comment to the newcomer is a challenge:  "I can lick you!"   

The boys fight, and Tom wins.  He chases the boy home and waits
outside his house until his enemy's mother orders him away.  Tom
tries to sneak into his own house after dark by climbing through
a window.  But Polly is waiting for him, determined to punish
him.   

NOTE:  TOM'S AGE Twain never specifies Tom's age.  Sometimes--as
when Polly catches him with jam on his face--he seems no more
than eight.  Other times, as when he curses his bad luck and
wrestles with the overdressed boy, he seems considerably older,
maybe twelve or thirteen.  Later, he seems even older.  Why
doesn't Twain keep Tom's actions consistent with those of a
particular age group?  Some readers see this inconsistency as a
flaw.  Others dismiss the question by suggesting that Twain is
recreating, in the time frame of a few months, all of boyhood--a
stage of development that takes years.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 2   

In this chapter, Twain recounts one of the most famous scenes in
American literature.  Take a few moments after reading the
chapter to decide how he makes whitewashing a fence such a
memorable experience.   

Saturday morning brings Tom's punishment.  Aunt Polly has
ordered him to whitewash ninety square yards of fence.  To make
matters worse, the weather is gorgeous.  Notice how Twain sets
the scene in the opening paragraph.  The summer morning is
"bright and fresh" and "brimming with life." Cardiff Hill, just
north of the village, seems "dreamy" and "inviting."   

NOTE:  A "DELECTABLE LAND" Twain compares Cardiff Hill to the
Delectable Mountains in John Bunyan's religious allegory,
Pilgrim's Progress, published in 1678.  In the mid-19th century
most literate Americans were acquainted with Pilgrim's Progress,
one of the great works of literature, whose symbolic
place--names, characters, and action were designed to teach a
lesson in Christian moral values.  Why do you think Twain
introduces this reference to a moral story as a preface to the
whitewashing scene?   

Tom steps into this blissful scene armed with a bucket of
whitewash and a brush.  His depression deepens when he compares
his first stroke with the "far-reaching continent of
unwhitewashed fence." He sits, moping, on a box built around a
tree to protect it.   

Jim comes by, and Tom promises to do Jim's chore--fetching
water--if Jim helps paint the fence.  But Jim won't consider
risking Polly's wrath until Tom offers him an alabaster
marble--a "white alley." It's a "bully" (slang for excellent)
"taw," a large, fancy marble normally used for shooting.  By
relying on these unusual terms, Twain reminds you that the world
of childhood has its own language.  How does Twain's use of
these words help make his story seem true-to-life?   

When Tom tops his offer by promising Jim a glimpse of his sore
toe, Jim can't resist.  But Polly kills the deal by appearing
out of nowhere, swatting Jim's rear with a slipper, and sending
him on his way and Tom back to work.   

Ben Rogers, one of Tom's friends, "hove in sight" (came into
view)--a sailor's term that indicates Ben is lost in the fantasy
that he is a steamboat.  Notice the loving detail with which
Twain presents Ben's fantasy.  He recreates the tooting of the
fog horn and the ding-dong of the ship's bells, the captain's
orders, even the motions of the pilot at the wheel.   

Tom pretends to be engrossed in his own project.  Ben says he is
going swimming, but Tom refuses to take the bait.  He keeps
working as if he enjoys it.  Pretty soon, Ben asks if he can
"whitewash a little," and Tom consents in exchange for Ben's
apple.  Other boys come by, and Tom manages to sell them the
chance to whitewash the fence too.   

By midafternoon, the fence has three coats of whitewash on it,
and Tom is "literally rolling in wealth." For the right to
whitewash the fence, St.  Petersburg's boys have given him their
most valuable possessions.   

How did he do it?  According to Twain, he discovered "a great
law of human action":  that you can make people want something
by making that something hard to get.  Twain--"the writer of
this book"--steps into his own story here with a definition of
work ("whatever a body is obliged to do") and play ("whatever a
body is not obliged to do").  The comment doesn't seem out of
place because Twain introduces it with irony--saying one thing
(that he is "a great and wise philosopher") and meaning another
(that he is not a philosopher at all).   

What does this chapter teach you about Tom?  It's clear that he
is a clever actor and a leader.  But he is still a child, able
to cherish items that adults would consider worthless:  a piece
of broken glass, a brass doorknob, and a knife handle.   

NOTE:  THE SCENE AS SATIRE Some readers feel that Twain
satirizes (makes fun of) adult society throughout Tom Sawyer.
It's an interesting point of view and one that finds support in
this scene.  Here, some readers feel, Twain uses comedy to
ridicule the acquisitive instincts that seemed to rule American
society after the Civil War, when Twain wrote the novel.  With
double-talk, Tom manipulates his friends into doing his work and
ends up "rolling in wealth." But the wealth is just
things--worthless things, at that.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 3   

This chapter takes the story of Tom's Saturday from late
afternoon to bedtime.  Its episodic structure--seven episodes
strung together--reflects the structure of the entire novel.  A
close look at the way the episodic pattern works in this chapter
will help you understand the way the novel is structured.   

EPISODE 1:  Tom reports "his" fence-painting success to Aunt
Polly, who examines the work to make sure he's telling the
truth.  When she discovers the job done, she turns a compliment
into a lesson:  "You can work when you're a mind to, Tom." She
even delivers his reward--an apple--with a quote from the Bible.
This lesson misses its mark, too.  As she talks about the value
of getting something "without sin through virtuous effort," Tom
steals a doughnut.   

NOTE:  POLLY'S HOUSE Twain's description of Polly's house is a
clue that he is thinking of the house he lived in as a boy in
Hannibal.  The Clemens house still exists and can be visited, as
can the house across the street, which belonged to Elijah
Hawkins.  The Hawkins house is mentioned later in this chapter
as the Thatcher house.   

EPISODE 2:  Outside, Tom settles a score with Sid by clobbering
him with clods of dirt.  Polly rescues Sid, and Tom leaps the
fence, in too much of a hurry to use the gate.   

EPISODE 3:  Tom and his friend Joe Harper lead opposing "armies"
of boys in a mock battle in the village square.  Tom's army wins
a "great victory."   

NOTE:  TOM'S GENERALSHIP Whenever Tom is with other boys, he
takes a leadership role.  Often, as here, the role is a romantic
one.  What does this tell you about Tom's character?  Does he
have a need to manipulate others?  Or does his love of being in
the spotlight as a heroic figure prompt him to devise ways to
gain attention?   

EPISODE 4:  Tom passes Jeff Thatcher's house and spots a "lovely
little blue-eyed creature with yellow hair." She is Becky
Thatcher, although Twain doesn't reveal her name here.  Tom is
so taken by this pretty stranger that he forgets his former
love, Amy Lawrence, and begins showing off in front of Becky.
Playing her part in this courting ritual, Becky tosses a pansy
to Tom as she disappears into the house.  Tom remains in front
of her house until nightfall, still showing off.   

EPISODE 5:  Tom's spirits are so high at supper that his aunt's
scolding doesn't faze him.  Sid accidentally breaks the sugar
bowl, and Tom can't wait to see his good brother punished.
Polly assumes Tom broke the bowl, however, and knocks him
down.   

She is conscience-struck when she realizes she hit the wrong
person.  Yet as a figure of authority, she can't bring herself
to admit she was wrong.  Tom, in a sulk, refuses to allow her to
make up to him.  He fantasizes revenge:  lying on his deathbed,
he refuses to forgive her; drowned, he does not come to life
when Polly begs God to "give her back her boy." These fantasies
foreshadow the adventures that will take place in chapters 15
and 17.   

NOTE:  EMOTIONAL INSIGHTS Take a second look at the paragraph
that describes Tom's sulking.  This wonderful passage shows
Twain once more making good use of nostalgia.  More importantly,
it gives you a chance to appreciate Twain's understanding of
human emotions--Tom's and Polly's--and his willingness to
indulge Tom's feelings of self-pity.  Most children have had the
kind of emotional tug-of-war that Tom has with Polly.  Most also
have fantasies of the "she'll-be-sorry" type.  Twain appeals to
your sense of nostalgia with his perfect description of Tom's
swallowing his tears.  But he goes beyond that.  He shows Tom
actually enjoying his unhappiness.   

EPISODE 6:  Sitting on a raft and wishing he were dead, Tom
remembers Becky's flower.  He goes to her house, lost in
self-pity, and lies beneath her window.  He clasps the pansy to
his chest as if he were a corpse.  Just as he envisions her
dropping "one little tear upon his poor lifeless form," a maid
opens the window and pours a pitcher of water on him.  He runs
home.   

EPISODE 7:  Tom examines his wet clothes by candlelight before
going to bed.  Sid wakes up and sees Tom but thinks better of
saying anything.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 4   

This chapter concerns Sunday school and the preparations for it.
The first chapter in which adults play an extensive role, it
gives you a chance to compare the children and their elders--and
perhaps to discover some resemblances.   

Sunday morning begins with breakfast and family worship.  The
worship consists largely of biblical quotations and "a grim
chapter of the Mosaic Law"--codes of conduct, including the Ten
Commandments, handed down mainly in the Old Testament by
Moses.   

NOTE:  THE NOVEL AS IDYLL Many readers describe Tom Sawyer as an
idyll--a composition in poetry or prose that paints a scene or
episode, especially of country life, as one of tranquil
happiness.  The opening paragraph of this chapter defines such a
scene.  So does the first sentence of the chapter, when it
evokes the "tranquil world" of a "peaceful village" on a Sunday
morning.  But what follows--Tom's escapades in Sunday
school--may seem far from idyllic.  Yet, his pranks are
essentially harmless and playful, as are all activities that are
ordinarily memorialized in idylls.   

Before Sunday school, Tom focuses his energies on learning by
heart five verses from the Bible.  In Sunday school, the
children earn a small blue ticket for every two verses they
recite accurately.  Once they have memorized 2000 verses, they
can cash in their tickets for 40-cent Bibles.  Mary earned two
Bibles this way, and a boy "of German parentage" won four or
five.   

To get Tom to learn his verses, selected from Jesus' Sermon on
the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Mary offers him another prize.  This
turns out to be a "Barlow" knife--a single-bladed pocket knife
of the type first produced in the 1700s by Russell Barlow.
Delighted, Tom is about to test its ability to scar the bureau
when he has to get washed and dressed.   

NOTE:  "A MAN AND HIS BROTHER" Twain describes Tom after Mary
has washed him as "a man and a brother, without distinction of
color." This refers to a medallion that the English ceramics
master Josiah Wedgwood designed in 1787.  The medallion showed a
black man in chains, his hands raised to Heaven, asking, "Am I
not a man and a brother?" The motto was quite popular during
Twain's youth.  It appeared in a variety of places, including at
the head of "My Countrymen in Chains," an anti-slavery poem that
John Greenleaf Whittier wrote in 1835.  What do you think Twain
meant to suggest by this reference?  Why do you think he
compared Tom, when clean, with a slave?   

At the church, Tom quickly trades the riches he gained in
Chapter 2 for the tickets that could earn him a Bible.  Inside,
the Sunday school superintendent, Mr.  Walters, introduces a
distinguished visitor, Jeff Thatcher's uncle, Judge Thatcher.
The Judge is accompanied by his wife and their child, Becky,
whom Tom had tried so hard to impress the day before.  Tom
begins showing off the moment he sees her.  Everyone else, from
Mr.  Walters to the little girls, tries to win the Judge's
attention by showing off, too.   

NOTE:  SHOWING OFF Throughout the novel, you'll note adults
showing off as much as children.  Twain makes fun of his
characters' vanity in a gentle, indulgent way.  Mr.  Walters'
fashionable dress is an expression of his vanity just as Aunt
Polly's useless glasses are an expression of hers.  Everyone in
the Sunday school becomes a showoff, aiming their performances
at the Thatchers.  In what way might the Judge--a distinguished
visitor from the town of far-off Constantinople, twelve whole
miles away--be putting on a show, too?  Where is his audience? 
 

As usual, Tom finds a way to steal the spotlight.  He steps
forward and delivers his tickets to Mr.  Walters, who must
present him with a Bible.  Now Tom is "elevated to a place with
the Judge and the other elect."   

Tom's heroism is short-lived.  When the Judge asks him to name
two of Jesus' Twelve Disciples, he can't name one.  Instead, he
comes up with the names of David, king of the ancient Hebrews,
and the giant he slew as a boy.   

Twain lets you imagine the way this embarrassing scene ended.
What might this chapter have lost if he had provided an ending
himself?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 5   

The church service gives the townspeople and their minister, Mr.
Sprague, ample chance to show off.  It also allows Twain to
continue to describe Hannibal's cast of characters and routine
happenings.   

Twain finds a great deal to mock in the procession of
townspeople down the church aisle.  The "unnecessary" mayor, the
young girls dressed in fancy linen ("lawn-clad"), and their
"oiled and simpering admirers." To Tom, the "Model Boy, Willie
Mufferson" stands out as particularly noxious.  The boys hate
Willie, who has been held up by their parents as an example of
proper behavior.   

NOTE:  TWAIN'S ASIDES Twain steps into his narrative a couple of
times in this chapter to comment on the action.  In one
instance, he adds an aside about "ill-bred" church choirs.  In
another, he comments on the "queer custom" of ministers' reeling
off announcements.  Some readers see these asides as awkward
intrusions.  Others view them as a fitting part of Twain's
unique storytelling style, which he developed while touring as a
lecturer.  How do the asides affect you?   

The Reverend Mr.  Sprague is an impressive speaker--to his ears
and those of other adults, at least.  To Tom, he is a bore.
During the prayer, Tom focuses on a fly; during the sermon, he
counts the pages that Sprague reads from.   

NOTE:  "PREDESTINED ELECT" To understand one of this chapter's
best jokes, you have to know something about the beliefs of the
Presbyterian Church.  The "predestined elect" are those chosen
by God before their deaths to enter Heaven and join God in
everlasting joy.  Apparently, Sprague has made this designated
elite group seem so small that they appear insignificant to Tom,
who wonders why such a tiny group should be worth God's notice
at all.   

Tom perks up when the minister describes the millennium--the
thousand years of righteousness and happiness that the Bible
predicts are coming.  According to one prophecy (Isaiah 11:6),
animals that were once foes will become friends, with a little
child to lead them.  This idea appeals to Tom, who would like to
be that child--and the center of the world's attention.   

Almost accidentally, Tom converts the church service into play,
as he does most everything else.  Playing with a beetle he has
brought to church, he drops it on the aisle, out of his reach.
A dog plays with the beetle and gets pinched by it, to the
delight of the congregation.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 6   

Twain introduces Huckleberry Finn in this chapter, giving you a
chance to compare Tom with a freer spirit.  Twain also proceeds
with the story of Tom's courtship of Becky.   

With a week of school awaiting him when he awakens Monday
morning, Tom checks his body for an injury that will allow him
to stay home.  A "mortified" toe won't do, nor will a loose
tooth, which Aunt Polly deftly pulls.   

On the way to school, Tom meets Huckleberry Finn, the town
drunk's son and the opposite of the model boy.  Tom is under
orders not to play with Huck.  This ban makes Huck more
attractive to Tom, who plays with this outcast every chance he
gets.   

NOTE:  THE LURE OF HUCK FINN In a single paragraph, Twain lists
those aspects of Huck Finn's life that make him the envy of
"every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St.  Petersburg."
The list adds up to total freedom--doing what he pleases, when
he pleases, and never having to obey anybody.  How are the lives
of "respectable boys" like Tom different from Huck's?  In what
ways are they "hampered?" Might Huck's way of life hamper him in
ways that a "respectable" boy like Tom can't imagine?   

Huck is carrying a dead cat that he bought from another boy.  He
intends to use the cat at the graveyard that night to cure his
warts.  He promises to take Tom with him.  This promise will
allow Twain to introduce one of the novel's major plot lines in
Chapter 9.   

NOTE:  FOLKLORE The superstitions the boys discuss in this
chapter were current in the Midwest during Twain's youth.  Thus,
they are interesting historically as folklore, which is usually
passed on by word of mouth and rarely written down.  When it is
written down, as here, it enables you to glimpse the way people
once thought.   

Tom's chat with Huck makes him late to school.  To everyone's
astonishment, he admits he talked to Huck.  As punishment, the
schoolmaster canes Tom and orders him to sit on the girls' side
of the room, in the vacant seat next to Becky Thatcher.  This
was exactly the "punishment" that Tom had hoped his honesty
would bring him.   

Once next to Becky, he draws a picture for her, which she
admires.  He offers to teach her how to draw during the noon
recess, and she agrees.  ("Good,--that's a whack," says Tom,
meaning "It's a deal.") The teacher catches Tom showing Becky
the words "I love you," which he has written on the slate.  Tom
finds himself back in his own seat with a "jubilant" heart.  He
is unable to focus on his studies--even his best subject,
spelling.  In a spelling bee, he misses some of the simple words
and gets "turned down"--moved from the head of the line to the
bottom with each misspelling.  In the process, he loses the
pewter medal which, as the class's best speller, he had worn for
months.   

NOTE:  USE OF THE WORD "NIGGER" The first mention of black
people in the novel, in Chapter 2, is a reference by the
narrator to "negro boys and girls." Here, however, Tom and Huck
employ the ugly and disparaging word "nigger." Twain's use of
the word has gotten his books labeled racist and banned from
some libraries.   

Actually, Twain uses the word "nigger" only when trying to give
a realistic report of the speech of the people with whom he grew
up.  When speaking in his own voice--or his narrator's--he
usually uses the term "negro," without the capital N that
editors of his books often added during this century.   

Did he make a mistake by recording the speech current during his
boyhood?  What might the novel have gained--or lost--if Twainhad made Huck and Tom use the word "negro"?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 7   

Twain divides this chapter into two episodes.  In the first, you
meet Tom's best friend, Joe Harper.  The second episode
continues the tale of Tom's courtship of Becky Thatcher.   

Bored with school, Tom begins to play with the tick that Huck
traded him.  He devises a game with Joe Harper, who is as
intrigued with the bug as Tom is.  When the boys argue over the
tick, the schoolmaster gets wind of their diversion and whacks
them.   

During the noon recess, Becky and Tom sneak back into the
school.  Tom proposes marriage to Becky, who likes the idea of
being "engaged" to him.  But Tom makes a slip, and Becky
realizes that he has been "engaged" before, to Amy Lawrence.
Becky refuses to be consoled.  Hurt, Tom leaves the school.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 8   

Tom's mood jumps from gloom to delight in this chapter.  Note
how fantasy and play help him rebound from the sadness caused by
a real-world disappointment.   

Reacting to Becky's rejection, Tom runs through the woods for a
half hour.  He finds his way to a familiar spot and thinks how
liberating death would be--"if he could only die temporarily!"
This wish foreshadows the events in Chapter 17, when he attends
his own funeral.   

He fantasizes becoming a soldier, an Indian chief, and a pirate.
What's the point of these fantasies?  Are they a kind of
revenge--a way of showing "his companions," especially Becky,
how dashing a figure they had as a friend?  Or is it that
projecting himself into romantic situations makes him feel
better about himself?   

NOTE:  BURLESQUE OF ROMANTIC LITERATURE The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer is in many ways a burlesque--a takeoff on a literary work
or type of work.  As already noted, it makes fun of the type of
book that shows how good boys (or model boys) prosper.  In this
chapter's opening paragraph, Tom's brooding appears to many
readers as a burlesque of the nineteenth-century convention, in
Romantic novels, of the melancholy forest scene.  However, Twain
uses Tom's imitation of a Romantic hero in another way.  Tom's
brooding ends with a joke, "if he could only die temporarily!"
Here, instead of mocking a literary convention, Twain mocks Tom
as well.  A good part of the novel's humor comes from this
gentle indulgence on the part of the narrator.   

Tom's decision to run away and become a pirate energizes him.
He tests a superstition about recovering lost marbles and finds
it doesn't work.  Yet he refuses to lose faith in superstitions.
He convinces himself that a witch made his test fail.   

The blast of a toy trumpet announces the start of another
episode.  Joe Harper appears, pretending to be Guy of Guisborne,
and Tom transforms himself into Robin Hood for a series of
adventures played "by the book."   

NOTE:  TOM'S LITERARY SOURCES Tom, like Sam Clemens as a boy,
seems to be an avid reader of swashbuckling romances.  Earlier
in this chapter, while fancying himself a pirate, he shows his
familiarity with Ned Buntline's The Black Avenger of the Spanish
Main, or the Fiend of Blood, a boys' book published in 1847.
The Sherwood Forest adventures that Tom and Joe Harper seem to
know by heart come from Joseph Cundall's Robin Hood and His
Merry Foresters.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 9   

The novel's major plot line--the framing of Muff Potter in Dr.
Robinson's murder--begins in this chapter.  The chapter also
indicates that St.  Petersburg has a dark side.   

As Tom lies in bed awaiting Huck's appearance, he is frightened
by the sound of a beetle (a "death-watch") ticking in the wall.
He believes the superstition that its sound--a watch's
ticking--means that someone is about to die.  The events that
follow won't contradict this belief.   

Huck arrives as promised, carrying his dead cat and sounding
like a live one.  They walk to a graveyard about a mile and a
half outside of town.   

NOTE:  TWAIN'S LANGUAGE Twain once said, "The difference between
the right word and the wrong word is the difference between the
lightning and the lightning bug." Watch how carefully Twain
chooses his words especially adjectives and verbs--as he sets
his spooky scene here.  The fence is "crazy." Grass and weeds
grow "rank" (excessive).  Old graves are "sunken." "Worm-eaten"
boards "staggered" over the graves while a "faint" wind
"moaned." Watch for other examples of Twain's suggestive
imagery.   

The "solemnity and silence" of the graveyard keep the boys quiet
while they hide a few feet from Hoss Williams' fresh grave.  The
sound of people approaching terrifies them.  For a moment Huck
thinks a lantern is "devil-fire"--the burning of gases released
by decaying matter.  Soon they realize that they are in the
presence not of devils but of three men they know:  Muff Potter,
a good-for-nothing; Injun Joe, a "half-breed"; and Dr.
Robinson, a young physician from the town.  Dr.  Robinson has
hired the others to dig up Hoss Williams' body so that he can
experiment on it.  (Because of legal restrictions, there was
always a shortage of cadavers for doctors and medical students
to study, and the practice of grave robbing, or body snatching,
was not uncommon.)   

When Hoss Williams' body has been dug up and tied to a
wheelbarrow, Potter and Injun Joe demand more money.  The men
fight.  Robinson knocks out Potter, and Injun Joe murders
Robinson with Potter's knife.  Tom and Huck, caught up in a real
adventure and not a fantasy, leap up and flee.   

The narrator lingers behind to report the murder's aftermath.
Injun Joe robs Robinson's body and places the murder weapon in
Potter's hand.  When Potter comes to, Joe convinces him that he
(Potter) murdered the doctor; Potter trots off, leaving his
knife behind.   

NOTE:  INJUN JOE'S VENGEFULNESS Twain goes to some length to
provide Injun Joe with a motive for killing Robinson.  Injun Joe
feels he was mistreated five years earlier when the Robinsons
refused him food and had him jailed as a vagrant.  Injun Joe's
vengefulness is a key to his character--one that will explain
his later actions and terrify Tom and Huck into silence.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 10   

This chapter serves as an interlude, allowing Tom and Huck to
catch their breath--literally and figuratively.  It also serves
as a transition back to the civilized world of aunts, school,
and young love.   

The boys flee to an old tannery (where leather is made) on the
outskirts of St.  Petersburg.  They mull over the murder and
what they ought to do about it.  They decide it's safest to keep
quiet.  "That Injun devil wouldn't make any more of drownding us
than a couple of cats," Huck says.  With their blood, they
initial a pledge of silence that Tom writes on a pine shingle
with red chalk.  Huck, who doesn't understand how painful
writing is for Tom, admires Tom's choice of words and the ease
with which he seems (to Huck, at least) to write them.   

The boys' superstitions cause them some fright when a dog howls
outside the tannery.  They believe that the howling of a stray
dog spells death for anyone the dog is facing.  The howling
stops and is replaced with loud snoring.  Relieved and feeling
adventurous once more, they tiptoe to the snorer, who turns out
to be Muff Potter.  As they escape, they see the howling dog
facing Potter and believe he's the one who's doomed.   

Tom doesn't know that Sid is awake when he sneaks into their
bedroom.  In the morning, Polly lets him oversleep.  After
breakfast, she takes him aside and cries over his behavior.  Her
tears, to Tom, are "worse than a thousand whippings."   

He mopes off to school, where the schoolmaster flogs him for
playing hooky the previous afternoon.  The final blow to his
self-esteem comes when he sits down at his desk and finds that
Becky Thatcher has returned the brass andiron knob he had given
her.   

NOTE:  CONTRASTS BETWEEN TOM AND HUCK This chapter gives you a
chance to explore further the differences between Huck and Tom.
Clearly, Tom is the more educated of the two.  He thinks up the
oath, writes it, and teaches Huck to scrawl his initials.  But
Huck has "street smarts." He knows how important it is for his
and Tom's safety to keep his mouth shut.  He also knows that
ensuring silence requires a pledge as solemn as a blood oath.
Tom's suggestion--"you just hold hands and swear"--is, as Huck
points out, inappropriate for "a big thing like this." At this
point in the story, Huck seems the more practical and
down-to-earth of the two.  As you read on, watch to see if he
stays that way.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 11   

This chapter adds weight to the opinion that St.  Petersburg is
not an entirely idyllic place.  Mixed with the nostalgia are
corpses, citizens ready to condemn the innocent before trial,
and haunting nightmares.   

The discovery of Dr.  Robinson's body electrifies the town.  The
schoolmaster gives the students the afternoon off, and the
townspeople flock to the graveyard.   

The murder weapon has been found and identified as Muff
Potter's.  So, when he turns up--seeking his knife--the sheriff
confronts him with the evidence.  Broken, he tells Injun Joe,
who is in the crowd, to explain what happened.  Huck and Tom
stand dumbfounded as they listen to the real murderer pin the
crime on Potter.   

When Injun Joe helps put Robinson's corpse in a wagon, the body
seems to bleed a little.  According to superstition--a corpse
bleeds when its murderer is near.  But since Muff Potter is only
three feet away at the time, no one in the superstitious crowd
except Huck and Tom thinks to suspect Injun Joe.   

Tom has begun crying out in his sleep, so tormented is he by his
secret knowledge.  Sid is eager to crack the mystery, and Tom is
just as eager to hide it.  Tom pretends he has a toothache so
that he can tie his jaw closed at night to keep himself from
talking.   

In time, Tom is haunted less and less by nightmares.  To ease
his conscience, he smuggles "small comforts" to Potter, who has
been jailed in "a little brick den" on the side of the
village.   

The boys aren't the only people in town who are afraid of Injun
Joe.  Some want to tar-and-feather him for his part in the
body-snatching, but no one has the courage to do it.   

NOTE:  PARALLELS WITH TWAIN'S CHILDHOOD When Twain was eighteen,
in 1853, he gave some matches to a drunken tramp who had been
put in Hannibal's jail--an unguarded place very much like the
one Potter is held in here.  That night the tramp accidentally
set fire to his cell and burned to death.  Twain recalled years
later that the tramp "lay upon my conscience a hundred nights
afterwards and filled them with hideous dreams." How might his
feelings about the tramp have helped Twain understand Tom's
guilt over Potter?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 12   

Twain offers you some comic relief in this chapter.  The episode
serves as a bridge between two story lines:  the murder and its
aftermath, and Tom's running away to Jackson's Island in Chapter
13.   

The chapter uses another plot line--Tom's courtship of Becky
Thatcher--as a springboard.  Becky is sick, and her absence from
school takes all the joy out of Tom's life.  It seems that
Becky's sickness is one thing that Tom can't transform into
play.   

Yet Aunt Polly manages to turn Tom's woe into a form of play for
herself.  She loves to experiment with patent (non-prescription)
medicines, and Tom's depression provides a challenge to her
inventiveness.   

NOTE:  MODEL FOR POLLY'S QUACKERY As early as 1866, when Twain
was on a steamer headed for Hawaii, he jotted down memories that
would become part of Tom Sawyer.  Some of those notes described
his mother's attempts to make him swallow a patent medicine
called Pain-Killer (spelled, incorrectly, Painkiller in some
editions).  The medicine was supposed to be used externally to
soothe aching muscles and bruises.  But his mother, an avid
reader of the "quack periodicals" Twain criticizes here, thought
that Pain-Killer might have internal uses, as well.  Twain, in
turn, gave a dose of the medicine to his cat--with the
consequences he elaborates on in this chapter.   

Tom can't hide from Polly's "persecution." But, despite his
gloominess, he finds a defense, once more, in a game from which
he will emerge victorious.  He pretends to want her Pain-Killer
so much that she finally allows him to serve himself, and Tom
pours doses of the vile liquid through a crack in the floor.
While he is doing this, Peter, the cat, begs for a taste.  Tom
gives him one, and Peter leaps around the room in pain.  "Cats
always act so when they're having a good time," he tells
Polly.   

He continues speaking ironically--saying one thing and meaning
another--even after Polly discovers what has happened.  "I done
it out of pity for him--because he hadn't any aunt." Tom now has
Polly where he wants her--feeling remorseful.  "What was cruelty
to a cat might be cruelty to a boy, too," she allows.  Tom has
won his game.   

But the chapter ends in defeat for him.  He sets off to school
early and hangs around the schoolyard gate hoping to see Becky
Thatcher.  She shows up, and Tom is suddenly beside himself with
happiness.  But his showing off only brings a reproach from
Becky, crushing him.   

NOTE:  TOM'S BEHAVIOR Some readers aren't amused by Tom's
strenuous efforts to gain attention.  "Adults might think such
antics are cute," Robert Keith Miller writes in his book, Mark
Twain.  "But they're not the ones being knocked over or having
their hat snatched.  The actual victims of his aggression
probably welcomed the days on which Tom chose to stay away from
school." What do you think Tom's classmates feel about him?
Could Twain's nostalgia for his boyhood lead him to overlook the
fact that Tom might be a nuisance?  Or are such speculations
beside the point?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 13   

A third story line--Tom's running away with Joe Harper and
Huck--begins with this chapter.  This story will be the focus of
the novel for five chapters   

Driven away by the two girls he loves--Polly and Becky--Tom
sulks.  He convinces himself that he has been forced to "lead a
life of crime." The school bell rings as he walks away from it,
and he sobs.  Tom meets Joe Harper, who also plans to run away.
Tom persuades him to become a pirate.  Once more, Tom's
fantasies, gleaned from books, overpower a comrade.   

NOTE:  "TWO SOULS," ETC.  Twain calls Joe and Tom "two souls
with but a single thought." This is a reference to the last two
lines of Ingomar the Barbarian, a play by Von Munch
Bellinghausen that Twain saw in Virginia City, Nevada, in 1863.
The play ends, "Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts
that beat as one." Evidently, Twain believed that his readers
would recognize the quote.   

The boys decide to run away to Jackson's Island--Twain's
fictional name for Glasscock's Island, opposite Hannibal.  They
get Huckleberry Finn to join them.  The three boys steal
provisions and meet at midnight two miles above the village. 
 

They are clearly enacting an adventure--one right out of
storybooks that Tom has read.  Note the gallant names:  Tom,
"the Black Avenger"; Huck Finn "the Red-Handed"; and Joe "the
Terror of the Seas." Ned Buntline's Black Avenger, noted
earlier, is the source of Tom's nickname.  Buntline's 1847 book,
The Last Days of Callao, may be the source of Huck's nickname.
In that book, a pirate ship hoists a white flag emblazoned with
"a blood-red hand."   

They steal a raft and head out into the Mississippi.  Tom,
naturally, is in charge--after all, it's his fantasy.  His
companions man the oars.   

NOTE:  TWAIN'S STYLE Twain's use of words, especially in
descriptive passages about nature, can be quite beautiful.  Take
a moment to savor his description of the boys' nighttime view of
St.  Petersburg, "peacefully sleeping, beyond the vague vast
sweep of star-gemmed water...." You might want to note poetic
passages like this and write about them later in a consideration
of Twain's style.   

The raft drifts downstream five miles and comes to rest on the
north end of Jackson's Island, where they make camp.   

Afterwards, they have a discussion that accentuates the
differences between Huck and the other two boys.  Tom and Joe
are thrilled to think that their classmates would envy them.
Huck doesn't care what others think.  Nor is he happy, as Tom
is, not to have to "go to school, and wash"--things Huck never
does anyway.  Huck is content to be eating well and to be out of
range of St.  Petersburg's respectable citizens, who badger
("bully-rag") him.   

Huck lights a pipe and smokes it--something the other boys have
never done.  He's ashamed of his clothes.  "I ain't dressed
fitten for a pirate," he concludes.  Yet he sleeps easily.  The
other boys, more accustomed to telling right from wrong, feel
guilty and have trouble falling asleep.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 14   

This chapter describes the boys' first full day on Jackson's
Island.  It is a day of roller-coaster mood swings, especially
for Joe and Tom.  Notice how plot twists shape the boys' moods
and how the moods, in turn, shape the story.   

The chapter opens with a long description of the island's animal
life "shaking off sleep and going to work." The boys spend most
of the day swimming, fishing, and exploring the island.  Late in
the afternoon, they begin to feel homesick.   

The booming of cannon on the ferryboat interrupts their
thoughts.  They realize that the boat is trying to locate the
body of someone who has drowned.  (During Twain's youth people
believed that the concussion of the cannon blasts were capable
of bursting a sunken corpse's gall bladder, causing it to float
to the surface.) It's Tom who understands who is thought to have
"drownded--it's us!" Nothing more wonderful had ever happened to
them.  They are the talk of St.  Petersburg.   

After dinner, however, their thoughts become more somber.  Tom
and Joe begin to feel guilty about the grief they've caused
their families.  But when Joe suggests they return home, Tom
makes him feel foolish.  Tom stays awake after the others fall
asleep.  He writes two notes on sycamore bark, pockets one, and
places the other in Joe's hat.  Then he bolts toward the
sandbar.  What's on his mind?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 15   

This chapter explains Tom's secrecy and sets the stage for the
next two chapters.  It also gives you a glimpse of Tom as a
genuinely loving nephew.   

Tom wades, then swims to the Illinois shore, where he hides in a
rowboat tied to the stern of the ferry and is towed back to
Missouri.  In St.  Petersburg, he sneaks into Polly's house and
crawls under her bed in the sitting room.  Sid, Polly, Mary, and
Joe Harper's mother are at the table, bemoaning the lost
children.  Their words give Tom a nobler opinion of himself than
ever before."   

Tom's earlier hope of dying--temporarily--has come true.  He
hears his former tormentors grieve over him and he's
overwhelmed, partly with pride, partly with love for his aunt.
He learns that the boys' funerals will be held Sunday
morning--four days away.   

After Mrs.  Harper leaves, Polly goes to bed.  Her prayer for
Tom is so moving, it makes him cry.  She falls asleep, and Tom
creeps over to the table, where the candle still burns, and
leaves the note he wrote for her.  But a thought makes him
change his mind.  He pockets the note, kisses his sleeping aunt,
and exits.  He rows back to the Illinois shore and, after
sunrise, swims back to Jackson's Island.  After recounting his
adventures, he sleeps until noon while Huck and Joe play.   

NOTE:  TOM'S CRAFTINESS Skillful storytellers build suspense by
withholding enough of their stories to keep readers turning
pages.  Twain does this here, raising questions about Tom's
goals, revealing them by describing his journey home, then
creating another mystery by having Tom pocket the note he has
written to Polly.  Interestingly, Twain's narrative method
parallels Tom's method as a strategist.  Tom keeps his goals a
secret from his family and friends until he can reveal them with
a final dramatic flourish.  In Chapter 12, he plotted a game
designed to stop Polly from persecuting him with Pain-Killer,
and he never revealed his goal until he had Polly cornered.
Similarly, he doesn't let his friends know the purpose of his
trip home.  Can you guess why he is so slow to show his hand? 
 

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 16   

In terms of writing and character development, this is one of
the richest chapters in the novel.  It's all the more remarkable
because it seems no more than a description of two days of play
for the three "pirates." Examine it closely, however, and you'll
see how skillful Twain is at depicting the anguish of three boys
trying ever so hard to become men.   

After breakfast Friday morning, they shed their clothes and
frolic in the water.  Later, they play marbles:  "knucks"
(shooters must keep their knuckles on the ground), "ring-taw"
(shooters knock marbles out of the ring), and "keeps" (players
keep the marbles they win).  Tom, his superstitions intact,
refuses to follow the others into the water for a second swim
because he has lost his lucky charm--an anklet made of
rattlesnake rattles, which he believes can ward off a variety of
sicknesses.   

The three boys all struggle to subdue feelings of homesickness.
Tom tries to divert his friends' attention from their misery but
fails.  Joe finally admits he wants to go home.  Tom is
determined not to let him.   

NOTE:  JOE'S CONFESSION Joe's admission that he wants to go home
sets him apart from Huck and Tom.  Tom calls him a crybaby and
mocks him for wanting to see his mother.  This attempt to
embarrass Joe into staying reminds you that Joe is the only one
of the three who has a mother to return to.   

As Joe begins to wade toward the Illinois shore, Huck says he
wants to leave, too.  Tom is able to stop them only by playing
his trump card.  He reveals "his secret"--which Twain refuses,
at this point, to reveal to you.  Tom's craftiness surfaces
here.  He had planned all along to reveal his scheme, but only
as a "last seduction" to keep the boys on the island.  The ploy
works.   

After lunch, Huck teaches his friends how to smoke.  Tom and Joe
pretend to like smoking.  But the dominant feeling is nausea.
Joe excuses himself by saying he must hunt for his knife, and
Tom offers to help.  An hour later, Huck looks for them and
finds them asleep.  There are indications that both have been
sick.   

That night, Joe wakes his friends as a storm brews.  The boys
sit by the fire, waiting for something to happen.  Beyond the
fire, "everything was swallowed up in the blackness of
darkness"--one of Twain's favorite biblical phrases.  It comes
from the New Testament Book of Jude, where false teachers are
compared with shooting stars that flare up only to be lost
forever "in the blackness of darkness."   

Saturday morning, they sleep a little in the sun and are soon
overcome with homesickness.  Tom manages to lift their spirits
by organizing a game of Indians, and they pass the day chasing
each other around the island.  For Tom and Joe, the day is
almost ruined at the end, when, according to customs they've
read or heard about, they must puff a peace pipe.  To their
delight, they discover that this time they don't get "sick
enough to be seriously uncomfortable."   

After supper, they smoke again.  This new skill makes them
happier than "the scalping and skinning of the Six Nations."
This is a reference to the powerful Iroquois
confederation--originally of five tribes (the Mohawks, Oneidas,
Onondagas, Senecas, and Cayugas), later of six, after the
Tuscaroras joined them around 1722.  These tribes dominated the
western part of what is today New York State.   

NOTE:  UNDERSTANDING TWAIN'S ALLUSIONS Why is it worth your
while to track down these allusions, or passing references, such
as the mention of the Six Nations and the phrase from the Book
of Jude?  For one thing, the effort gives you a deeper
appreciation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as literature and
as a historical document.  It leads you to a deeper
understanding of the text--of Twain's meaning and the way he
expresses it.  In addition, the references are clues to the way
Twain's contemporaries thought, and to what they thought about.
For example, Indians were much on Americans' minds in the 1870s.
(General George Custer made his famous "last stand" against the
Sioux in 1876, the year Tom Sawyer was published.) Also, it was
a rare American family that didn't own a Bible and refer to it
regularly.  Biblical stories and teachings shaped the way
Americans thought, and biblical phrases cropped up in
conversation the way lines from popular songs do now.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 17   

Twain reveals Tom's secret in this short chapter, which provides
the climax of the Jackson's Island adventure.  As you read, note
how subtly Twain uses irony to bring out the underlying humor of
this elaborate practical joke.   

On Saturday, while the boys are playing Indians on Jackson's
Island, the town of St.  Petersburg is shrouded with grief.
Becky, in tears, wishes she had kept the brass andiron knob "to
remember [Tom] by." Elsewhere, children envy those among them
who were the last to see the boys alive.   

On Sunday, the boys' funerals take the place of the regular
church service.  The minister's "text,"--the New Testament
passage that introduces the subject of his sermon--is John
11:25-26.  In this passage, common at funerals, Jesus promises
life after death to people who believe Him to be the
resurrection and the life"--the giver of eternal life.  Would
the boys qualify as believers?  For evidence, you might reread
Tom and Huck's exchange inside the tannery in Chapter 10.   

NOTE:  USE OF IRONY Twain shows himself a master of
irony--saying one thing while suggesting another--in this
chapter.  Note especially how he describes the minister's
"pictures of the graces, the winning ways and the rare promise
of the lost lads." Of course, few people--probably including the
minister--ever saw anything but "faults and flaws" in the boys.
The funeral sermon is a literary convention (a generally
accepted form) that regularly transforms sinners into saints,
and Twain gently mocks that convention here.   

Note that though he may be stretching the truth, the minister is
not speaking ironically.  He wants his listeners to believe he
is sincere.  It's Twain who is being ironic.  He presents
alternative interpretations of the boys' characters and pranks
to suggest that the minister's view of the boys' "sweet,
generous natures" may be inaccurate.  Inaccurate, perhaps, but
convincing.  At the end, even the minister is in tears!   

As if on cue, a miracle occurs.  The boys are resurrected, just
as the Bible passage promised they would be.  Tom, Joe, and Huck
march up the aisle after having heard their funeral sermon from
the empty gallery above the congregation.  Twain reveals Tom's
secret scheme at last.   

Dumbfounded, the minister orders the congregation to sing the
Doxology--a hymn of praise for God.  ("Old Hundred," the tune to
which the Doxology is sung, is so called because Psalm 100 was
once sung to it.) Tom swells with pride, confessing to himself
"that this was the proudest moment of his life."   

Remarkably, no one is angry with the boys.  The townspeople have
had such a good time that they feel it was worth being "sold"
(tricked) and made to look ridiculous.   

NOTE:  THE FUNERAL AS ENTERTAINMENT Tom, as you've seen,
transforms everything he can into play, with himself as the
central figure.  Here, he turns his funeral into
entertainment--not just for himself, but for the entire town.
Like Huck and Joe on Jackson's Island, or the boys who paint
Polly's fence, the townspeople become willing participants in
the fun and end up grateful to Tom for orchestrating it.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 18   

With this chapter, Twain begins to discard the plot line that
described the escapade on Jackson's Island.  He returns Tom to
"the world of the living"--and to Tom's difficult courtship of
Becky Thatcher.   

Twain opens with a paragraph that ties up loose ends about the
boys' return to St.  Petersburg.  Then he moves on to breakfast
before school Monday morning.  Polly can't understand how Tom
let her believe he was dead.   

To make her feel better, he says, "I dreamed about you, anyway.
That's something, ain't it?" At Polly's urging, he tells her
about his "dream," a detailed description of the activities he
witnessed from beneath Polly's bed.  Polly is amazed at this
clairvoyance--the ability to see things that one does not
witness in person--and rewards him with an apple.   

At school, Tom and Joe are heroes.  They embellish their
adventures with imaginary "material" and dazzle their friends
with their new skill--smoking.   

Tom decides to play hard-to-get with Becky.  While she tries to
gain his attention, he carries on an animated conversation with
Amy Lawrence.  Becky vows to get even.  At recess, she sits with
Alfred Temple, the new boy from St.  Louis with whom Tom fought
in Chapter 1.  Tom, incensed, suddenly finds Amy's chirping
"intolerable."   

Tom goes home at noon, beside himself with jealousy.  Once Tom
is gone, Becky loses interest in Alfred Temple and dismisses
him.  Smart enough to realize why, he slips into the deserted
schoolhouse and spills ink on Tom's spelling book.  Although
Becky sees Alfred do this, she is so angry with Tom that she
decides to let him be punished for something he didn't do.   

NOTE:  BECKY'S CHARACTER This chapter gives you a deeper
understanding of Becky.  Like Tom, she is an interesting figure
because she is not a model child.  Although she is certainly
better behaved than Tom, she has certain traits--a quick temper,
a vindictive spirit, and a tendency to show off--that would have
made her unacceptable as a heroine in most children's books of
Twain's day.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 19   

With this brief chapter, Twain gives Tom a chance to redeem
himself with Polly--and with you, if you have begun to wonder,
like Polly, whether Tom's heart is made of stone.   

Tom returns home from school to discover that Aunt Polly is
furious with him.  That morning she went to Sereny Harper's
house to tell her about Tom's "dream." But Mrs.  Harper had a
surprise for her.  She told Polly that Tom had secretly visited
St.  Petersburg.  Polly wonders how Tom could have let her make
a fool of herself in front of Mrs.  Harper.   

Tom is genuinely remorseful.  His joke, the narrator tells you,
now seems "mean and shabby" to him.  He apologizes lamely to
Polly, explaining that he "didn't think." Still, Polly doesn't
believe him when he says he returned home to tell her "not to be
uneasy about us." Tom explains that he pocketed the sycamore
bark note because he couldn't "bear to spoil" the idea of
attending his own funeral.   

Polly's soft side begins to show.  When Tom tells her he kissed
her as she slept, "a sudden tenderness dawned in her eyes." Tom
says he kissed her because he loves her.  Does this sound like
Tom to you?  To Polly, it sounds like he's telling the
truth--but she's not sure.  She sends Tom off to school and
immediately runs to the closet to dig into his jacket pocket for
the sycamore bark note.   

At this point, a wonderful piece of stage business illustrates
Twain's weakness for sight gags.  Polly tries to get up the
nerve to check Tom's pockets, but she is afraid she'll discover
that Tom is lying to her.  She holds his jacket--then puts it
back.   

Twice she reaches into the closet, and twice her hand comes out
without the jacket.  The third time, she convinces herself that,
if he is lying, "it's a good lie--I won't let it grieve me." 
 

To her surprise, the note Tom wrote her is there.  She reads it
through "flowing tears" and admits she could forgive him now "if
he'd committed a million sins."   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 20   

Twain continues to "rehabilitate" Tom in the eyes of those
readers who might think Tom went too far in some of his earlier
pranks.  For the first time, you see Tom make a real sacrifice
and not just dream about doing so.   

As the noon break ends, Polly has sent Tom back to school in
high spirits.  His good mood prompts him to apologize to Becky
for being mean to her that morning.  But Becky is unforgiving.
In the schoolyard, the two exchange insults, and Becky can't
wait to see Tom flogged for the ink Alfred Temple spilled on his
book.   

Soon Becky is in a fix herself.  Before school resumes, she
sneaks a look at the schoolmaster's anatomy book, which he keeps
under lock and key.  Tom surprises her, and she accidentally
rips the page on which a naked figure was printed.   

NOTE:  HINT OF SEX As previously noted, Tom is a curiously
ageless boy, seeming anywhere from eight to fourteen.  You may
think this is a flaw in Tom's characterization, as many readers
do.  But others point out that by making Tom's age
indeterminate, Twain freed himself to write about boyhood
instead of a single boy.   

This broader approach may explain why the subject of sex is so
blurry in Tom's world.  In Chapter 7, Tom explains kissing to
Becky, who acts as if she's never heard of the practice before.
Here, Twain fails to tell you whether the "stark naked" figure
in the anatomy book is male or female.   

As Twain first wrote it, this scene did have the children
confront the mystery of sex.  Twain emphasized the nature of the
picture as much as the rip in the page.  "How could I know it
wasn't a nice book?" Tom originally said.  "I didn't know girls
ever-." And Becky, after worrying about being whipped for
tearing the page, told Tom:  "But that isn't anything--it ain't
half.  You'll tell everybody about the picture, and O, O, O!" In
revision, Twain deleted these words and a passage in which Tom
realizes how the revelation might shame Becky.   

From what you know about late nineteenth-century attitudes about
morality, why do you think Twain made these changes?   

Becky tells Tom how terrified she is of a whipping.  "I never
was whipped in school," she says.  This assertion indicates that
she fears the pain less than the indignity of the punishment.
Becky assumes that Tom is going to tell on her.  She tells him
ominously, "I know something that's going to happen.  You just
wait and you'll see!"   

Sure enough, Tom gets whipped for the mess Alfred Temple made of
his spelling book.  Becky refuses to intervene because she's
sure Tom will tell Dobbins what she did to the anatomy text. 
 

An hour later, Dobbins discovers the tear in his book.  He
begins to ask individual students if they're to blame.  Becky is
"white with terror" and seems about to give herself away when
Tom springs to his feet and shouts, "I done it!" Though Tom had
no selfish motive--he wanted only to protect Becky--he is well
rewarded for his bravery.  He takes his flogging in front of
Becky's adoring eyes.   

Tom goes to bed that night plotting vengeance on Alfred Temple,
whose deed Becky has told him about.  As he drops off to sleep,
he remembers Becky's words:  "Tom, how could you be so noble!" 
 

NOTE:  BECKY'S VENGEFULNESS Becky's less-than-model character
was noted in the discussion of Chapter 18.  In Chapter 20, she
lets Tom take the blame for something she knows he didn't do.
Twain provides her with a motive--she fears Tom will tell on her
and wants to see him hurt, too.  But the contrast between her
behavior and Tom's selfless action raises several questions.
Does Becky's motive excuse her behavior?  Why doesn't Tom seem
angry about the deceit?  Finally, what do you make of the fact
that for once Tom has become a model boy?  Is he maturing?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 21   

Faced with patent insincerity, the indulgent narrator takes off
his gloves here.  Twain has tucked an expository essay into this
chapter to explain his anger and some of his views on writing.
Yet the chapter is still hilariously funny.   

As the school year winds down, Mr.  Dobbins prepares his
students for the ordeal of Examination Night, the closing
exercise.  Dobbins is especially eager for a good performance.
He literally whips his students into shape--at least, those
students too small to fight back.  Remember that the one-room
schoolhouse of Twain's day served students of all ages.  The
oldest student in Twain's school, Andy Fuqua, was twenty-five. 
 

The smaller boys hatch a plot to get revenge on Examination
Night.  Except to say that the sign-painter's boy has been
enlisted in the scheme, Twain keeps you in the dark about the
plot until the very end of the chapter.  Can you suggest why? 
 

The bulk of the chapter describes Examination Night.  Read the
description closely to discover Twain's criticism of a popular
literary style and of what passed for education in his day.   

The entire town seems to have assembled to see the students
perform and compete for prizes.  The first "scholar" to appear
is a little boy, who recites an old favorite--David Everett's
1791 poem, "Lines Written for a School Declaration by a Little
Boy of Seven." (Twain provides only the first two lines.)
Although his delivery is unnatural (his gestures are like those
of a machine "a trifle out of order") and he is "cruelly
scared," the boy survives the experience.   

Tom Sawyer does not survive his.  He struggles through Patrick
Henry's 1775 speech to the Virginia Convention, is seized with
stage fright, and leaves the stage "utterly defeated."   

NOTE:  TOM'S FAILURE Tom loves the limelight and will do almost
anything to be the center of attention.  But those occasions
when he is the focus of attention in academic settings are
excruciatingly painful.  In Chapter 4, when pressed to name
Jesus' first two disciples, he is so far off base that Chapter
Twain draws "the curtain of charity over the rest of the scene."
How do you explain Tom's success at schemes that he designs and
controls and his failure at those designed by others?   

Following Tom's defeat, others recite such "declaratory gems" as
Felicia D.  Hemans' "Casablanca" and Lord Byron's "The
Destruction of Sennacherib." (Twain refers to these poems
respectively by their first lines, "The boy stood on the burning
deck" and "The Assyrian came down.") The night includes a
spelling bee, recitations in Latin, and reading exercises.   

But the evening's highlight comes when the older girls read
their original essays, which Twain reviews with disdain.  As
Twain notes at the end of the chapter, he did not create these
examples of "schoolgirl prose." He lifted them, word-for-word,
from Mary Ann Harris Gay's 1871 book, The Pastor's Story and
Other Pieces:  or, Prose and Poetry.   

NOTE:  TWAIN'S CRITICISMS What irks Twain about these "original
'compositions?'" First, they're not very original.  "The themes
were the same that had been illuminated upon similar occasions
by...  all their ancestors in the female line clear back to the
Crusades." Second, the compositions are full of overworked
melancholy.  Third, they are wordy and artificially pumped up
with "fine language." Fourth, their authors re-use pet words and
phrases until they are "worn entirely out." Fifth, they are
"marred" by preachiness--"the intolerable sermon that wagged its
crippled tail at the end of each and every one of them." In sum,
the essays are unfelt and insincere.   

By implication, Twain's criticism condemns the adult world that
encourages insincerity.  The adult listeners whisper such
compliments as "How eloquent!" and "So true!" during the
readings and applaud enthusiastically.   

Is Twain being too harsh on the authors and their parents?  You
can't answer accurately until you've applied Twain's standards
to the three excerpts he includes in this chapter.  You might
also ask yourself how Twain might grade some of the essays you
or your classmates have written.  How free is Twain's own
writing of the flaws he describes?   

The chapter ends with a bigger joke--the scheme of revenge that
the smaller boys have devised.  Dobbins is trying to draw a map
of the U.S.  on the blackboard when a hatch door leading to the
attic opens above him.  The boys lower a blindfolded cat on a
string.  The cat snatches Dobbins' wig, baring his bald,
gold-painted head--the work of the sign-painter's boy, at whose
house Dobbins lives.   

NOTE:  TWAIN'S COMIC METHOD Take a moment to analyze this joke.
Suppose Dobbins' head hadn't been painted and the boys had
pulled off the wig with a fishhook instead of a cat.  The gag
would still be funny.  But the extra elements--the cat, the
cat's blindfold, and the gold paint--make the joke hilarious.
What does the elaborateness of the joke add to it?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 22   

This chapter, along with the last one, acts as a bridge between
plot lines.  Two chapters back, Twain took a break from the
story of Tom's courtship of Becky.  Now Tom marks time during
the first weeks of summer until Twain, in Chapter 23, picks up
the threads of the murder story with Muff Potter's trial.
Twain, however, doesn't waste your time here.  He presents an
entertaining review of small-town life before movies, TV, and
radio provided the distractions they do today.   

Tom is attracted to the temperance movement not by any urge to
stamp out drinking and smoking but by the chance to wear a showy
uniform.  Just as Huck Finn became an irresistible companion
when parents forbade their children to play with him, Tom is now
tormented by an urge to drink and swear--two things he promised
not to do when he joined the Cadets of Temperance.   

NOTE:  CADETS OF TEMPERANCE This organization actually existed
in the late 1840s and early 1850s.  It was part of the youth
wing of the national temperance movement that campaigned
vigorously against alcohol and smoking.  Twain joined the cadets
when he was about fifteen.  He pledged not to smoke in exchange
for the privilege of wearing a red merino (wool and cotton) sash
during public holidays and parades.  "The organization was weak
and impermanent," Twain concluded in his Autobiography, "because
there were not enough holidays to support it." He remained a
cadet "until I had gathered the glory of two displays--May Day
and the Fourth of July." Then he resigned and resumed
smoking--something he had been doing since he was nine.   

Tom stays in the organization because a prominent public figure,
Judge Frazer, is on his deathbed, and Tom foresees a chance to
march in his funeral.  But the judge takes a turn for the
better.  Tom, in disgust, resigns from the lodge, and that very
night the judge dies.  Now Tom must watch the funeral parade
with envy.  No longer bound by his pledge, he loses the urge to
drink and swear.   

Looking for amusement, he begins a diary but can't think of
anything to write in it.  A minstrel show--a variety show of
music, dancing, and comedy performed by white people made up as
blacks--comes to town and is a sensation.  Led by Tom and Joe
Harper, the children devise their own minstrel act and are
"happy for two days."   

NOTE:  MINSTREL SHOWS Before movies and TV, small towns like St.
Petersburg had to import their entertainment or manufacture
their own.  Lecturers--Twain himself would become one of the
best--were popular.  So were circuses and troupes of actors who
criss-crossed the nation performing one or two plays.  Minstrel
shows first appeared in 1843 in Virginia and were nationally
popularized by such troupes as Edwin P.  Christy's, which was
founded in Buffalo, New York, in 1846.  In their use of dialect,
dance movements, and humor, the minstrel shows caricatured black
people and, in so doing, planted damaging stereotypes in white
people's minds.   

The summer plods on, with each high point followed by a low one.
Missouri's most famous politician, U.S.  Senator Thomas Hart
Benton (1782-1858), proves a disappointment to Tom when he makes
an appearance at the July 4th parade.  A phrenologist and a
mesmerizer (hypnotist) break the monotony.  (Phrenologists
claimed to be able to "read" peoples' character traits by
feeling the contours of their scalps.) Becky's absence (she has
returned to her parents' home in Constantinople for vacation),
the "dreadful secret of murder," and finally the measles keep
Tom at a low ebb.   

After he recovers from the measles, Tom discovers that an
evangelist has passed through town and that everybody has "got
religion." Even Huck is quoting the Bible.  Tom concludes that
as the only irreligious person in town he is doomed to eternal
damnation.  A driving rainstorm confirms his fears.  He is sure
that God is trying to punish him for his sins, and he is
grateful to find himself alive when the storm ends.  Yet he
doesn't change his ways and become more religious.  In Tom's
view, that proves to be a mistake, because he suffers a relapse
and has to spend the next three weeks in bed.   

NOTE:  TOM'S "PRESBYTERIAN CONSCIENCE" Twain often spoke of his
"Presbyterian conscience"--a sense of guilt stemming from the
belief that, one way or another, all sins had to be answered
for.  The corollary held that any setback--sickness, bankruptcy,
storm damage, even violent death--was a punishment for sin.  As
a boy, Twain, like Tom, was haunted by guilt.  "Mine was a
trained Presbyterian conscience," he wrote in his Autobiography,
"and [it] knew but the one duty--to hunt and harry its slave
upon all pretexts and on all occasions, particularly when there
was no sense nor reason in it." How might this "Presbyterian
conscience" explain some of Tom's fears and nightmares and the
"chronic misery" of keeping his secret about the murder?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 23   

The plot line that concerns Dr.  Robinson's murder ends with
Muff Potter's trial and Tom's testimony, which provides the
climax of the story (and, some readers feel, of the novel
itself).  As the murder story is resolved, a fourth story
begins, involving the fate of Injun Joe.   

Muff Potter's trial for murder brings the sleepy town to life.
Tom and Huck wrestle with their consciences.  But they won't
come forth and tell what they know about the murder for fear
Injun Joe will kill them.   

During the first two days of the trial, the boys hang around
outside the courthouse and learn that things are going poorly
for Potter.  Tom stays out late the night of the second day,
although Twain doesn't explain why.  Tom's "tremendous state of
excitement" keeps him awake for several hours.  Can you imagine
where he has been?   

The courthouse is packed on the third day of the trial.  Tom
takes the stand as a surprise witness.   

He glances at Injun Joe and is at first speechless.  Yet he
finds his voice and explains that he and someone else (Potter's
lawyer counsels him not to reveal Huck's name yet) saw Muff
Potter knocked out and Dr.  Robinson murdered by Injun Joe.   

At these words, Injun Joe leaps through the window and
disappears.  Thus ends the story of Dr.  Robinson's murder.  But
its resolution creates another mystery and a fourth plot line.
What will happen to Injun Joe?  Will he try to kill Tom and
Huck, as the boys feared?   

NOTE:  TOM'S MATURATION Does Tom's bravery surprise you?  It
shouldn't, because Twain has carefully prepared you for it with
a parallel episode, where Tom took the blame for Becky after she
tore Mr.  Dobbins' anatomy book.  He seems to have reached a
stage in his moral development where he is not merely able to
tell the difference between right and wrong but also to act what
he believes is right.   

How does he differ from Huck in this regard?  Why didn't Huck
step forward with Tom, or instead of Tom?  Some readers feel
that, as a child of the streets, Huck lives by a code that puts
his own survival first.  Others explain the difference between
the two boys by pointing to Tom's "Presbyterian conscience"--his
fear of God's wrath.  Watch for further evidence of Tom's
maturity in the remaining chapters.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 24   

The next ten chapters largely concern Injun Joe's fate.  This
chapter describes the aftermath of Tom's testimony and builds
suspense by reminding you several times that the murderer is
still at large.   

Tom is a genuine hero.  His celebrity, though delicious to him,
does little to calm his fears.  His nights are "seasons of
horror," terrorized by dreams of Injun Joe.   

Huck is terrified that Injun Joe might hear that he witnessed
the murder, too.  Potter's lawyer has promised to tell no one.
But Huck has lost faith in such promises, now that Tom has
broken the blood oath between them.   

Tom fears that he will never be safe until he has seen Injun
Joe's corpse.  Remember this statement.  It foreshadows the
resolution of this plot line by setting--in Tom's eyes--the only
acceptable terms for a successful outcome.   

A big-city detective from St.  Louis arrives to investigate the
case.  He finds a clue (Twain spelled it "clew")--hardly a
substitute for Injun Joe's corpse.   

NOTE:  OUTSIDERS The citizens of St.  Petersburg are in awe of
outsiders such as the detective from St.  Louis and Judge
Thatcher, whose "very eyes had looked upon the county court
house," twelve miles away in Constantinople.  By citing the
townspeople's exalted view of outsiders, Twain demonstrates that
St.  Petersburg is small and isolated enough to give its
residents an inferiority complex.  However, the narrator's
ironic tone lets you know he is even more sophisticated than the
outsiders.  He calls the detective "one of those omniscient and
awe-inspiring marvels" in a tone that indicates that the man is
anything but awesome.  One of the novel's minor villains--in
Tom's eyes, at least--is Alfred Temple, another outsider from
St.  Louis.  What Temple has in common with the two adults is
that he seems like an adult, dressing like a dandy and wearing
shoes.  Only one outsider, Becky Thatcher, comes off well.  Can
you suggest why?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 25   

Twain sets the stage for further adventures with this chapter,
in which Tom and Huck hunt for buried treasure.  The chapter
gives you a wonderful chance to note the many differences
between the boys.   

Tom can't find anyone to hunt treasure with until he bumps into
Huck.  Huck goes along, because Tom's proposal promises to be
entertaining and free.  Huck, you're told, has a "superabundance
of that sort of time which is not money." Tom is once again the
leader of an adventure he designed.  Huck regards him as an
expert on treasure-hunting, and Tom is happy to live up to
Huck's expectations.  He explains where treasure is likely to be
hidden, who hides it, and why.  Huck, whose mind is very
practical, can't understand why anyone would hide money.  "I'd
spend it and have a good time." So would Tom, but he knows from
books that "robbers don't do it that way."   

NOTE:  "STILL-HOUSE BRANCH" Tom says there may be treasure in
the old haunted house "up the Still-House branch." This refers
to an actual stream (branch) in Hannibal where one of the town's
three distilleries was located.   

While digging beneath a dead tree limb, the boys discuss how
they'll spend their treasure.  Tom surprises Huck by saying
he'll use some of his money to get married.  Huck remembers his
parents' fights.  "The girl I'm going to marry won't fight," Tom
says.  Is he deceiving himself?  How much time have he and Becky
spent together without fighting?   

The boys haven't dropped their superstitions, as their
discussion of witches and ghosts illustrates.  Folk wisdom,
perhaps gleaned from a book, tells Tom that they can best locate
the site of buried treasure at midnight.  So the boys return at
night--an indication that Tom's fear of Injun Joe has abated.
They measure the shadow of a dead limb and start digging.  When
they find no treasure, they decide they must have measured the
shadow at the wrong time.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 26   

The story of Injun Joe speeds up in this chapter.  It also picks
up some complications enough to add to the suspense and keep you
turning pages.   

The next day, the boys meet at the dead tree to collect their
tools.  They are about to traipse off to a nearby haunted house
when Huck remembers that it's Friday--an unlucky day.  Huck
remembers that the night before he dreamed about rats--a sign,
to the superstitious, that the dreamer has secret enemies.   

Tom and Huck quickly change their plans.  They play Robin Hood
all afternoon and return for their tools on Saturday.  They
smoke and do a little more digging--something that will cause
problems later--then head for the haunted house.  They are
upstairs exploring when two men enter.  The boys watch them
through the holes in the floor.  They recognize one as a deaf
and dumb Spaniard who has recently visited the town.  But the
Spaniard is really Injun Joe, something the boys realize as soon
as he speaks.   

The two men have planned a "dangerous job," and Injun Joe wants
his partner to go "up the river" until the time is right to pull
it off.  After a lengthy nap, Injun Joe digs a hole in a corner
to bury their "swag" (stolen money) in.  While digging, his
knife strikes a chest full of gold coins.  The stranger guesses
that the chest was left by a gang led by John A.  Murrell
(misspelled by Twain as Murrel), an outlaw whose bloody exploits
were well known to children growing up along the Mississippi
during the 1840s.   

With all that money, the stranger suggests that they won't have
to do the "job" they'd planned.  Injun Joe disagrees.  His goal
is not just robbery but revenge.   

NOTE:  INJUN JOE'S MOTIVE Revenge is a common motive in this
novel.  Tom pays Sid back for tattling and vows to avenge
Becky's snub.  Becky lets Tom get whipped for something he
didn't do in order to avenge a deed she expects him to commit.
The smaller students take vengeance on Mr.  Dobbins by baring
his gilded head.  And Injun Joe, who murdered Dr.  Robinson to
avenge an old slight, now plans another vengeful act--one that
will be described in Chapter 29.   

To Tom and Huck's distress, Injun Joe decides not to leave the
treasure in the house.  Fresh dirt on the boys' tools has made
him suspicious.  He'll take the booty to his "den":  "Number
Two--under the cross.  The other place [Number One]," he says,
"is bad--too common." These clues are not explained further, but
you can be sure you'll discover their meaning later on.   

NOTE:  "BY THE GREAT SACHEM" Injun Joe swears "by the great
Sachem" that he won't rebury the treasure in the house.  A
sachem was the chief of some American Indian tribes and tribal
confederations.  In effect, Joe is saying something like, "Good
Lord no!" Why might it seem appropriate for Injun Joe to use the
word Sachem instead of Lord or God?  How might its use suggest
that Joe doesn't share the religious values of the people of St.
Petersburg?   

Injun Joe begins to climb the stairs to see if the pick's owner
is on the second floor.  But the rotten staircase crumbles
beneath his weight.  Before dark, he and his crony leave the
house and head "toward the river" with the treasure.   

The boys curse the fact that they brought their dirty tools into
the house and made Injun Joe suspicious enough to remove the
treasure.  They resolve to keep watch out for him and follow him
to "Number Two," wherever that might be.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 27   

This brief chapter allows the boys to assess their situation and
plot a future course.  It also establishes, perhaps more clearly
than ever, the differences between Tom, the visionary leader,
and Huck, the more down-to-earth follower.   

Tom dreams of possessing the treasure but awakens knowing it has
eluded his grasp.  Thinking how unreal Saturday's adventure
seems, he concludes that it might all have been a dream.  He
rushes out to compare notes with Huck, who assures him that
their adventure was painfully real.   

Huck is cursing their luck that they failed to get the money.
Furthermore, he sees no hope of ever obtaining it, since he
believes that a person has "only one chance for such a pile--and
that one's lost."   

Tom, being more imaginative, is still hopeful.  He persuades
Huck that they must find Injun Joe and "track the money." Both
boys are afraid of confronting Joe, but the lure of money
enables them to overcome their fears.  Tom guesses that Number
Two refers to a room in one of the village's two taverns.  In a
half hour, he has discovered that room No.  2 in the less
expensive tavern is a mystery.  The tavern-keeper's son told him
it was kept locked all the time and that people use it only at
night.   

NOTE:  TOM'S VIEW OF HUCK Notice that Tom investigates the
taverns alone because he doesn't "care to have Huck's company in
public places." Why do you think he feels this way about Huck?
Is Tom a snob?  Might he fear getting in trouble by associating
with Huck?  How might Tom's discomfort with Huck in public show
that the residents of St.  Petersburg are divided along class
lines, and that Tom is very much aware of the class to which he
belongs?   

The boys agree that the mysterious tavern room is the Number Two
they're looking for.  The room has an outside entrance whose
door Tom hopes he can find a key to.  He tells Huck to "get hold
of all the door-keys you can find, and I'll nip all of
Auntie's." The first dark night, they'll try the keys on the
door.   

Meanwhile, Tom wants Huck to watch for Injun Joe and follow him
if he appears.  Huck's not eager to take on this dangerous
assignment.  But he agrees to do so after Tom reminds him that
Joe might pass up a chance to avenge himself and go straight for
the money.   

Tom turns the meeting into a pep rally at the end.  "Don't ever
weaken, Huck, and I won't," he says.  Is this mere bravado on
Tom's part?  Or is it an attempt to manipulate Huck--to get him
to do something that Tom would rather not do, Just as he got his
friends to paint his aunt's fence in Chapter 2?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 28   

Tom penetrates room No.  2 and uncovers some secrets not only
about Injun Joe but about the hypocrisy of some of St.
Petersburg citizens, as well.  The chapter gives you another
opportunity to study Twain's method of storytelling.   

NOTE:  "THAT NIGHT" Twain seems to have lost track of time here.
Because the episode at the haunted house took place on a
Saturday, Chapter 28 must have occurred on a Sunday.  Thus,
"that night" should mean Sunday night.  However, it probably
means Monday night.  Had he realized the action in Chapter 27
took place on a Sunday, he almost certainly would have mentioned
church and perhaps a Bible reading at home after breakfast.   

Twain sometimes broke off work on a novel for months or even
years before returning to it.  Losing track of time is not a
major flaw here, unless it confuses you.  Nor is it terribly
harmful that the summer he describes seems to last at least a
month longer than most summers.  Still, Twain's carelessness
about time is a reminder that when he wrote The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer he was a novice in the art of novel-writing.   

The boys keep watch outside the tavern for three nights.  On a
moonless Thursday night, with thunder rumbling in the distance,
Huck stands guard outside the tavern.  Tom heads toward the door
of No.  2 with his lantern, which he has "blindfolded" with a
towel.   

Twain doesn't let you follow Tom.  Instead, he tries to make you
feel Huck's "season of waiting anxiety." How does this approach
add to the chapter's suspense?   

Suddenly Tom rushes by with his lantern bared and tells Huck to
run for his life.  The two reach a deserted slaughterhouse just
as a storm bursts.  There, Tom tells what happened.  The door to
No.  2 was unlocked.  Tom pushed it open and spotted Injun Joe,
who was lying dead drunk on the floor.  Tom realizes, however,
that the room is haunted with spirits other than ghosts.   

NOTE:  TEMPERANCE TAVERNS Twain takes a second dig at the
temperance movement here.  During the 1840s, Hannibal had three
whiskey distilleries and at least six bars, or "groggeries" as
they were called.  A temperance tavern was a place where men
could assemble without drinking whiskey or beer.  Twain is
suggesting that even these high-minded places weren't above
selling spirits on the sly.   

The boys decide it's too risky to return to No.  2 and hunt for
the box.  Tom figures that the best course is to wait for Injun
Joe to leave some night.  Huck proves himself less brave than
Tom.  He offers to do the watching if Tom will do the snatching
of the treasure, and Tom agrees.  Huck will wake him up if he
sees Joe leave.   

NOTE:  "GOOD AS WHEAT" The phrase Huck uses to emphasize his
agreement is a comment on their plan.  To indicate that the plan
is "great," he calls it "good as wheat." The phrase dates back
to colonial times, when wheat, a valuable staple food source,
was used as a medium of exchange.  Something "good as wheat,"
like something "good as gold," was of solid value.   

As the boys leave the slaughterhouse, Huck says he's going to
sleep in Ben Rogers' hayloft.  This is okay with the Rogers'
slave, Uncle Jake, who often shares his food with Huck.  Huck
and Jake get along because Huck doesn't look down on him.   

How might Huck's attitude toward Jake reflect his own situation
as an outcast?  Why do you think Huck is embarrassed about
eating with a slave?  What does Huck's embarrassment tell you
about his understanding of acceptable behavior between whites
and blacks in a slave state?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 29   

The story of Tom's courtship of Becky overlaps that of Injun
Joe's fate in this chapter.  And Huck proves himself not only
brave but also capable of risking his own neck to help others. 
 

Becky's family has returned to town, and Becky is once more
Tom's main interest.  Friday, they play games of tag ("hi-spy"
and "gully-keeper") with schoolmates, and Becky convinces her
mother to let her host a picnic the next day.   

The picnic trip begins late Saturday morning.  The Thatchers
have hired an old steamboat to take the children and their
chaperones three miles down the river to eat lunch and frolic.
Sid can't go because he is sick, and Mary stays home to care for
him.  Because the boat is expected to return late, Becky's
mother suggests she stay at Susy Harper's house near the ferry
landing.   

Tom has another plan.  He wants to go to the Widow Douglas'
house for ice cream after the picnic.  He persuades Becky to
agree to the plan and tries to forget the fact that Huck might
need him.   

NOTE:  KEY DETAILS Observe throughout this chapter how seemingly
insignificant details end up being important to the story.
Episodic as Twain's narrative is, it is intricately
interrelated.  Sid and Mary's absence and Becky's intention to
stay at the Harpers' are essential details, as you will see.
Introducing the Widow Douglas--by name and reputation--prepares
you for action that takes place in the second part of the
chapter.   

The ferryboat lets the children off three miles downstream.
They explore McDougal's cave, an enormous, labyrinthine system
of chambers too vast for anyone to know completely.  Tom has
explored it many times before and knows it as well as anyone. 
 

NOTE:  MCDOUGAL'S CAVE Twain didn't invent this cave.  It
actually exists south of Hannibal and was called McDowell's cave
when Twain was a child.  McDowell was a surgeon from St.  Louis
who once stored weapons there in a plot to invade Mexico.  For a
number of years he experimented there with the body of a
fourteen-year-old said to be his daughter.  He stored the body
in a copper cylinder filled with alcohol in order to see if the
body would turn to stone in the limestone cave.   

The children split up into groups and reassemble outside the
cave at nightfall.  The ferry, which has been waiting an hour
for its passengers, finally pushes off and moves upstream for
home.   

Huck is at his post outside the tavern when he sees the ferry go
by.  Uninvited to the picnic, he wonders for a moment what the
boat is.  Near midnight, two men leave room No.  2 and brush
past him.  One is carrying a box that Huck assumes to be the
treasure.  Despite his fears, he follows the men up Cardiff Hill
in hopes of spotting them burying the treasure.   

Near the Widow Douglas' house, the men stop.  Huck is terrified.
He shakes as if taken by "a dozen agues" (fevers).   

Injun Joe is upset to find the widow's lights on, because she
may have company.  Is it Tom and Becky?  You won't find out
until the next chapter.   

Huck realizes that Joe intends to seek revenge on the widow.
Although she has been kind to Huck, he doesn't dare call out a
warning to her for fear he'll get killed.   

Whether she has company or not, Joe intends to get his revenge.
The widow's late husband was the judge who jailed him on the
vagrancy charges that Dr.  Robinson's father brought.  Worse, in
Joe's eyes, was that the judge had ordered him horse-whipped in
public like a slave.   

NOTE:  A DEFENSE OF INJUN JOE Some readers explain Joe's evil as
a reaction to racial injustice.  They point out that this
"half-breed," as Twain identifies him, suffered rejection and
public humiliation by the whites of St.  Petersburg.  This harsh
treatment, they argue, made Joe determined to seek revenge from
his tormentors.  You may reject this interpretation.  However,
Tom Sawyer does reveal Twain's interest in race as a social
problem--a major theme in his later novels.  Note, for example,
the contrast between Joe's treatment by the elder Dr.  Robinson
and Huck's treatment by Uncle Jake.  The white man chased the
"half-breed" away from his kitchen while the black man shared
his food with the poor white boy.  What do you think Twain is
saying by making this contrast?   

Injun Joe doesn't want to kill the widow.  He wants to mutilate
her face--"slit her nostrils [and] notch her ears."   

Huck holds his breath and slips away.  What a wonderfully
detailed description Twain gives of Huck's departure.  You might
want to read it aloud to appreciate how efficiently Twain meshes
action and emotion here.   

Halfway, down the hill, Huck bangs on the Welshman's door.  He
awakens the old man and his two sons.  Notice how careful he is
to protect himself.  He makes them promise not to reveal the
source of their information.  In minutes, the three men are up
the hill with their guns.  Huck hangs back.  When the guns go
off, he turns and flees down the hill.   

NOTE:  HUCK'S MATURATION Is Huck's emerging ability to think
beyond his own safety a sign of his growing maturity?  Some
readers think so.  Whether you agree or disagree, you will find
support for your view in later chapters.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 30   

Twain continues to intertwine the courtship story with Injun
Joe's.  He moves both stories forward with twists designed to
keep St.  Petersburg--and you--on edge.   

Huck slinks up to the Welshman's door at dawn, hoping to find
out what happened at the Widow Douglas's.  The Welshman tells
him he is "welcome"--the first time Huck can remember anyone
saying that to him.  Inside, Huck learns that the Welshman's
sneeze alerted Injun Joe and the stranger, who escaped despite a
chase.  A sheriff's posse has waited until daylight to search
the woods for the villains.   

The Welshman pumps Huck for information about the men.  Huck
tries hard to oblige without revealing any secrets about the
treasure.  But his tale has holes in it that make the Welshman
suspect that Huck is holding back.  Huck startles the Welshman
by reporting words spoken by the supposedly mute Spaniard.
Caught, Huck admits:  "'Tain't a Spaniard--it's Injun Joe!"   

NOTE:  "WHITE MEN DON'T" The Welshman accepts Huck's revelation
immediately because it fits his stereotypical view of Indians as
savages.  "White men don't take that sort of revenge," he says.
Though Twain doesn't tell you how to interpret that remark, some
readers think this is being ironic.  They argue that his own
experience, living during a period of lynchings and civil war,
taught him that whites are as capable of mutilating tortures as
members of any other race.  Why might Twain want to show that a
generally decent man like the Welshman harbored warped views of
Indians?  On the other hand, might Twain, as a member of his
society, be capable of sharing the Welshman's views?   

Twain shifts the scene to church, where Aunt Polly and Mrs.
Thatcher are horrified to learn that their children might be
lost in the cave.  Might they have learned this earlier if Twain
hadn't made Sid and Mary stay home, and if he hadn't had Becky's
mother ask Becky to stay with the Harpers?   

Within five minutes, alarm bells are ringing, and the men of the
village are swarming toward the cave.  The Cardiff Hill episode
is suddenly forgotten.  The villagers search the cave for three
days and nights and discover only two traces of Becky and Tom:
their names written on a wall with candle smoke, and one of
Becky's ribbons.  Meanwhile, Huck takes sick and is nursed by
the Widow Douglas.   

NOTE:  HUCK'S ILLNESS Does Huck's illness come on too suddenly
for you?  It does for many readers, who are reminded that Twain
used this device once before, in Chapter 22, when he kept Tom
ill for five weeks before the trial began.  This time, Twain
seems to have a similar problem.  He has to keep Huck occupied
while you turn your attention to the hunts for Becky and Tom and
Injun Joe.  What might Twain have had Huck do instead of falling
sick?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 31   

Though this chapter contains not a grain of humor, many readers
think it the most masterfully written in the novel.  Twain
infuses this misadventure with a nightmarish quality that makes
the children's terror yours.   

Tom and Becky wander off from their friends and explore the cave
alone.  Tom ducks behind a limestone "waterfall" and discovers a
"natural stairway" into an unexplored section of the cave.
Eager to discover new territory, he calls Becky, and they
descend into the cave's "secret depths."   

Inside an enormous room, the light of their candles excites
hundreds of bats, who swoop down at the children.  Tom hurries
Becky into a corridor just as a bat extinguishes her candle with
its wing.   

NOTE:  BUILDING SUSPENSE As you read, keep track of the elements
that raise your fears for the children's safety.  Surely the
maze-like caves, where it's easy to get lost, help create the
atmosphere of suspense.  Next, Twain notes the "vast knots of
bats," adding a touch of menace to the adventure merely by
mentioning them.  Twain then has the bats chase the children and
swat out Becky's candle.  Suddenly, you are aware of another
danger:  the vulnerability of the children's source of light.
To discover how he controls your emotions, put an X in the
margin each time Twain intensifies the suspense by making you
aware of a new danger.  How might this episode be different if
Twain had listed the cave's many dangers in a single paragraph
early in the chapter?   

While avoiding the bats, the children become totally lost.  Tom
pretends to be confident, but his assurances sound hollow and
frighten Becky.  Tom's shout returns to him as "a ripple of
mocking laughter."   

NOTE:  TOM'S MATURITY Despite moments of despair, Tom manages to
keep a cool head throughout this episode and to demonstrate
continued emotional growth.  He takes the blame for their
predicament, then feigns confidence so as not to frighten Becky.
He is level-headed enough to seek out a spring and stop there.
Watch for more signs of Tom's maturity throughout the chapter. 
 

The children share a piece of cake that Becky saved from the
picnic.  Becky, who yields to her fears more readily than Tom,
checks an impulse to call the cake their last meal.  They watch
their last candle flicker out.   

They fall asleep, and when they awaken, Tom figures it must be
Tuesday--three days after they entered the cave.  Unraveling a
kite string as he walks, Tom leads Becky down a corridor and is
so startled to see Injun Joe that he shouts.  Tom tells Becky,
who didn't see Injun Joe, that he shouted only "for luck."   

A long while later, back at the spring, Becky gives Tom
permission to go exploring alone.  She is sure they are doomed
and makes him promise to hold her hand when the time comes to
die.  He kisses her and, with a show of confidence he really
doesn't feel, he crawls away on his hands and knees, unraveling
the kite line as he goes.   

NOTE:  A MOCK MARRIAGE?  Becky and Tom will never be closer than
they are here.  Their closeness leads some readers to think that
in the final part of this chapter, Twain intends to suggest that
the children are newlyweds.  Becky sets the idea in motion when
she speaks of "our wedding cake." The children eat and sleep,
then promise to die together--a reminder of the final words of
traditional wedding vows:  "till death do us part." Finally, Tom
shows a protectiveness toward Becky that, at least in
literature, is often associated with husbands.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 32   

This chapter provides the climax to the story of Becky and Tom's
courtship.  Also, Twain begins to resolve many of the novel's
remaining questions here.   

Late Tuesday afternoon, the scene shifts from the cave to the
town.  The children are still lost, and the villagers are
heartsick.  Becky's mother is delirious with grief.   

At night, the villagers are aroused from their beds by a "wild
peal" of bells--a signal that Becky and Tom have been found.
It's the climax of this plot line.  The children are paraded
through town in an open carriage pulled not by horses but by St.
Petersburg citizens.  On the "greatest night the little town had
ever seen," no one returns to bed.  After the parade, a
procession of townspeople passes through Becky's house to
congratulate and hug the children.   

Lying on the couch, Tom fills in the villagers--and you--on the
details of their rescue.  He followed three corridors the length
of his kite line, finally glimpsing a speck of daylight at the
end of the third corridor.  The exit led to a bluff (cliff
overlooking the Mississippi River.  He returned for Becky, who
was hard to budge because she had prepared herself mentally for
death.  Outside, after crying "for gladness," they hailed a
rowboat and learned from the two men in it that they were five
miles south of the cave entrance.   

The men rowed them to a house, fed them, and made them rest.
After dark, they returned to St.  Petersburg.   

NOTE:  FICTION vs.  REALITY Twain may have combined three true
stories here.  In his youth, he and a girl became lost in
Hannibal's cave, A search party found them just before their
last candle went out.  Hannibal's Injun Joe got lost in the
cave, too.  He managed to survive by eating bats.  A town drunk
named "General" Gaines was lost in the cave for a week.  He
"finally pushed his handkerchief out of a hole in a hilltop near
Saverton, several miles down the river from the cave's mouth,"
Twain writes in his Autobiography, "and somebody saw it and dug
him out."   

Some townspeople bring Judge Thatcher the good news in the cave,
where he and a handful of diehard searchers have been seeking
the children.  The children are exhausted from their ordeal.
Tom stays in bed until Friday; Becky doesn't leave hers until
Sunday.   

Tom tries to visit Huck on Friday, but his friend is too sick to
see him until Monday.  Widow Douglas won't let Tom talk about
his adventure for fear that it might excite Huck.  Tom hears
about the Cardiff Hill adventure at home and learns that Injun
Joe's sidekick, the "ragged man," was found drowned in the
river, where he apparently fell while trying to escape.   

Two weeks after his escape from the cave, Tom learns that Judge
Thatcher has had the cave sealed with an iron door.  Tom is
shocked.  "Injun Joe's in the cave!" he blurts out.   

NOTE:  TOM'S REACTION What does Tom's reaction to the news of
the iron door reveal about his character?  Although he is
frightened to death of the murderer, he seems genuinely upset.
The second paragraph of Chapter 33 should give you an insight
into Tom's reaction.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 33   

This chapter has two parts:  the discovery and disposition of
Injun Joe's body and the recovery of the treasure by Huck and
Tom.  In each part, Twain addresses the story's remaining
questions.   

Rescuers head for the cave in twelve rowboats, followed by
spectators aboard the ferry.  What do you make of the fact that
Tom rides alongside Judge Thatcher in a rowboat?  Has saving
Becky's life brought him to the top of St.  Petersburg
society?   

The discovery of Injun Joe lying dead inside the cave door is
the climax of the plot line that tracks his fate.  Tom has mixed
feelings about the "sorrowful sight." He pities Joe because he
imagines how much the trapped man suffered.  However, Joe's
corpse affords him an immense sense of relief, much as he felt
it would back in Chapter 24.  You may remember that the idea
that Joe might be captured alive frightened Tom, who thought he
would feel safe only after viewing Joe's corpse.   

Joe had survived by eating bats and candle wax and drinking
water that dripped into a cup scooped into the stump of a
stalagmite (a deposit of calcium carbonate on the floor of a
cave).  The drip--amounting to a spoonful every day--prompts
Twain to meditate on the possibility that natural laws, not
chance, govern all events.  "Has everything a purpose and a
mission?" he asks.  "Did this drop fall patiently during five
thousand years to be ready for this flitting human insect's
need?"   

NOTE:  DETERMINISM What does this speculation have to do with
the progress of the story or with the interests of Twain's
primarily juvenile audience?  Very little, it would seem,
although it has everything to do with Twain's budding interest
in determinist philosophy.  In later years, Twain would become
fascinated with the doctrine of determinism, which holds that
all events have causes and that free will is an illusion.  How
might the superstitions that Twain sprinkles through Tom Sawyer
also indicate his interest in determinism?   

Injun Joe's funeral is well attended, both by people who would
have preferred him hanged and by those who had been eager to
petition the governor for his pardon.  Twain reserves special
disdain for those who wanted the murderer pardoned.  "If he had
been Satan himself," Twain says, "plenty of weaklings would have
signed a petition to save him.   

NOTE:  TWAIN'S REACTION TO INSINCERITY This satirical swipe
lacks the gentleness of much of Twain's humor.  Does it strike
you, as it does some readers, as overly harsh?  Compare its tone
with those of Chapter 24, when he satirizes the detective from
St.  Louis, or Chapter 12, when he mocks Aunt Polly's
experiments with Pain-Killer.  How is Twain's humor gentler in
these cases than here?   

The day after the funeral, Tom takes Huck aside and tells him
he's sure that the treasure is in the cave.  Huck's not sure he
has the strength to hunt for it, so Tom offers to row him down
and back.  This time, Tom is prepared for the cave's perils.
The boys assemble bags, pipes, extra kite strings, and "lucifer
matches"--wood matches with phosphorous tips that were
"new-fangled" in the 1840s.   

The boys "borrow" a rowboat and float down to the hole through
which Becky and Tom escaped the cave.  The hole is so well
hidden, Tom has decided to use it as a hideout when he becomes a
robber.  Once more, he becomes Huck's teacher, explaining the
attractions of the robber's life.   

Deep inside the cave, the boys come to the corner where Tom had
seen Injun Joe.  He points out a cross marked on a big rock with
candle smoke.  The boys explore around the rock and locate the
box of gold coins.   

Tom and Huck carry the money out of the cave in bags, and Tom
rows them back to St.  Petersburg.  There they decide to hide
the money in the Widow Douglas' woodshed.  They "borrow" a
child's wagon to haul their treasure up Cardiff Hill where they
meet Mr.  Jones, the Welshman.  Mr.  Jones tells them that
people are waiting for them at the Widow Douglas'.  He doesn't
say why as he helps them pull the wagon, which he thinks holds
scrap metal.   

At Mrs.  Douglas', he pushes the boys into the drawing room.
All of the village's important people are there:  the minister,
the editor, the Thatchers, and Aunt Polly, among others.  The
boys are filthy.  Mrs.  Douglas takes them into a bedroom and
gives them new clothes to put on.   

What's the purpose of the gathering?  Twain doesn't tell you, in
order to entice you to turn the page.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 34   

Huck is welcomed into the fold of St.  Petersburg
society--something he's not quite ready for.  Twain draws a
further contrast between the two boys, showing once more how
Huck and Tom differ.   

Tom and Huck are dressing as the chapter opens.  Huck can think
only of escape--of "sloping" (slipping away) by letting
themselves down to the ground with a rope.  Tom, who wants to
stay, won't hear of it.   

Sid enters the room and explains that the party is to thank the
Welshman and his sons for protecting the widow.  Sid also knows
that the Welshman plans to surprise the gathering by revealing
Huck's part in protecting the widow.  Yet Sid has spoiled the
plan by giving away the secret beforehand.  Angry that Sid would
sink so low, Tom kicks him out of the room and dares him to
tattle.   

At supper downstairs, Mr.  Jones makes his announcement about
Huck, and the guests pretend to be surprised.  Huck shrinks from
the attention, which makes him want to crawl under a rock.  Why
do you think he responds to praise so differently than Tom?   

Tom sees his chance to jump into the spotlight when the widow
says she'll house and educate Huck and someday give him money to
start a business.  "Huck don't need it," Tom says.  "Huck's
rich!" The guests think he's making a joke.  Tom rushes outside
and returns with the sacks of coins, which he spills on the
table.  When it's counted, it amounts to more than $12,000--a
sum larger than anyone his ever seen at one time.   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CHAPTER 35   

The book's final chapter gives you a glimpse of Tom and Huck's
life after they've achieved "success." As you read, watch how
their characters remain consistent to the end.   

Tom and Huck's newfound wealth has changed not just their lives
but the lives of everyone in the village.  Even "grave,
unromantic men" are ransacking abandoned houses, board by board,
in hopes of finding stashed treasure.   

The boys have become celebrities, "courted, admired, stared at"
everywhere.  They are quoted and written about, and their pasts
are "discovered to bear marks of conspicuous originality."   

NOTE:  CREATING A MYTH Twain calls the boys' $12,000 a
"windfall," something that came their way by luck.  But the
townspeople refuse to accept that explanation.  Instead, they
create a myth about Tom and Huck, emphasizing episodes in their
pasts to explain how the boys obtained the treasure as a result
of their cleverness.  Suddenly, almost against their wills, Tom
and Huck have become model boys.  Why does Twain make fun of
this effort to misunderstand the boys' success?  How is his
description of Tom and Huck's treatment part of his parody of
the "good-boy" books he so detested?   

Tom and Huck have hefty incomes now:  about $360 a year each,
more than the minister can hope to earn.  It's an enormous sum
at a time when, as Twain tells you, a boy cost his parents only
about $65 a year to house, clothe, feed, and educate.  No wonder
they have become celebrities!   

Judge Thatcher, who once heard Tom flub a question on Jesus'
disciples, now thinks Tom an extraordinary boy.  He hopes to see
Tom attend West Point and law school.   

Huck, however, can't stand his new life.  He disappears from
Mrs.  Douglas' house after suffering through three weeks of
cleanliness, good manners, and other "bars and shackles of
civilization." Tom finds him, ragged once more, in an empty
hogshead down by the slaughterhouse.  "Everything's so awful
reglar," Huck says about the widow's household, "a body can't
stand it." To rid himself of all the headaches involved with
wealth, he offers his money to Tom.   

Tom refuses the money and tricks Huck into giving his new life
another chance.  "Being rich ain't going to keep me back from
turning robber," he says.  For Huck to be part of the gang,
however, he must be respectable.  Being a robber isn't like
being a pirate, Tom explains.  "A robber is more high-toned."
Convinced, Huck agrees to try the widow's house for another
month.   

NOTE:  PERILS OF WEALTH Twain makes some interesting points
about wealth and wealthy people.  "Being rich ain't what it's
cracked up to be," Huck says.  It's "a-wishing you was dead all
the time." Twain satirizes the wealthy, too, by suggesting that
they are less than honest.  "In most countries," Tom says,
"[robbers are] awful high up in the nobility--dukes and such."
Remember that Twain coauthored an attack on corruption in high
places in The Gilded Age.   

As the novel ends, the boys are lost in a fantasy about their
gang of robbers.  Complete with initiation ceremonies and secret
pledges signed in blood, the gang sounds like a club.  But the
boys don't notice this.  Huck even believes the widow will be
proud of him if he succeeds at robbery.   

Can a boy with these beliefs ever be civilized?  To find out,
you'll have to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where
Twain retells the final chapter of Tom Sawyer on the first
page.   

NOTE:  SELLING OUT-OR REMAINING TRUE?  In this chapter, Tom
becomes a spokesman for the society whose rules he tested
throughout the novel.  Is this turn of events out of character?
Is it a sign of his maturity?  Does it make Tom a traitor to the
"cause" of boyhood--one Huck still represents with his refusal
to live within civilization's bounds?   

The way you answer these questions will depend on your
perception of Tom's character.  Many readers hold that he is a
part of St.  Petersburg's mainstream from the start, unlike
outcasts such as Huck, Injun Joe, and Uncle Jake.  Far from
rebelling against this society, these readers argue, Tom tries
hard to win its respect and to dominate it by engaging others in
his fantasies.  What evidence does the novel contain, if any,
that might enable you to contradict this argument?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  CONCLUSION   

Twain ends The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with two paragraphs that
make a joke out of stopping the story.  He claims that he ended
the novel to keep it from becoming the story of a man.
Moreover, he indicates that ending novels about juveniles is an
uncertain procedure for which there are few guidelines.
Novelists who write about adults have an easier time, he
suggests, because their stories invariably end with marriages. 
 

The second paragraph continues to promote the idea, mentioned in
the Preface, that the novel is largely factual.  "Most of the
characters that perform in this book still live," Twain says.
He states that he might tell the story of their adult lives
later.   

Twain uses the word "perform" to describe what the book's
characters do.  How might this word be a key to understanding
the characters and their perceptions of themselves as actors on
public display?   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  TOM'S IMMATURITY   

...If Tom is "hampered" as well as harassed, it is because he is
incapable of learning from experience.  He may be successful at
the end of his adventures--in terms of fortune and social
status.  But he is not a whit the wiser.  Although some critics
hold that The Adventures of Tom Sawyer chronicles Tom's progress
from childhood to maturity, the evidence suggests otherwise.
One might expect his experience at Muff Potter's trial to have
been at least a little sobering, but afterward Tom still likes
to play at being a robber.  He is later given much credit for
leading Becky out of the cave, but it should be remembered that
he is responsible for getting them lost in the first place.
After making it back to safety, he reveals that his juvenile
egotism remains intact.  When he tells others about this
adventure, he puts in "many striking additions to adorn it
withal."   

-Robert Keith Miller,   

Mark Twain, 1983   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  COMEDY OF EVIL   

What is apparent in the blissful atmosphere of frontier boyhood
in Tom Sawyer is that the sense of evil is comic too.  The
'diabolism' of the hero...  is itself a form of playful parody;
and life is basically innocent and loving.  If Tom Sawyer is, on
one level, a parody of an adult society of power and
manipulation, of property and place, of trading and
acquisition--the parody itself is divine, is innocent, is
wistful and comic.  (That is the real secret of the book's
lasting appeal.) Beneath all the humor is the deeper rhythm of
Sam Clemens' affinity with animal life and a natural sense of
pleasure.   

-Maxwell Geismar,   

Mark Twain, an American Prophet, 1970   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  THE WORLD AS PLAY   

Tom's play defines the world as play, and his reality lies in
his commitment to play, not in the involuntary tendencies which
are often attributed to him.  Actually Tom is in revolt against
nothing.  To be sure, he feels the pinch of school and the
discipline of Aunt Polly, but he has no sustained desire to
escape and no program of rebellion.  What he does have is a
perennial dream of himself as the hero and a commitment to the
dream which makes it come true not once, but as many times as he
can reorganize the village around his dream.  The truth the
dream invariably comes to is play--a play which converts all
serious projects in the town to pleasure and at the same time
subverts all the adult rituals by revealing that actually they
are nothing but dull play to begin with.   

-James M.  Cox,   

Mark Twain:  The Fate of Humor, 1966   

^^^^^^^^^^

TOM SAWYER:  ST.  PETERSBURG'S SOCIAL HISTORY   

The items of Twain's social history of St.  Petersburg make an
impressive tally:  a Sunday School exercise, a church service,
the village school, an informal inquest, a funeral, "Examination
Day," a murder trial, a manhunt, and a reception.  Senator
Benton's Fourth of July speech disappoints Tom, as does the
revival, but the circus does not.  The inclusiveness of the
catalogue may go unnoted simply because each event is presented
as part of Tom's daily life.  Always the dramatic focus, his
personality unfolds as these manifold social forces act upon
him.  Tom Sawyer is, for all his imagination, essentially a
passive character.  True to the observed nature of childhood,
Twain has made his hero, in spite of occasional smashing
victories over adults, subservient in the main to the adult
schedule of events.   

-Albert E.  Stone, Jr., The Innocent Eye:   

Childhood in Mark Twain's Imagination, 1961   

                               THE END