The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
2008.10.02
- Mark
Twain is one of my favorite authors and though this book is
sometimes considered a "children's book" it is a
favorite of mine.
Twain is a clever writer who brings to life the personalities of
people living in a small village next to the Mississippi River
during the 1850s.
This book is special because as a young boy I read it
literally dozens of times. It was one of the few books in our family
bookcase
that was appealing, so when my stock of library books ran out I’d
revert to reading Tom Sawyer. Over and over and over...
it's been 40 years since then, but after reading it again I can
honestly say I really like this book – Mark Twain at his best!
Sample passages:
(Tom and Huck Finn are discussing the benefits of growing up to be
robbers instead of pirates)
“Well, it just does, Tom. And who’ll we rob?”
“Oh, most anybody. Waylay people – that’s mostly the way.”
“And kill them?”
“No, not always. Hide them in the cave till they raise a ransom.”
“What’s a ransom?”
“Money. You make them raise all they can, off’n their friends; and
after you’ve kept them a year, if it ain’t raised then you kill
them. That’s the general way. Only you don’t kill the women. You
shut up the women, but you don’t kill them. They’re always beautiful
and rich, and awfully scared. You take their watches and things, but
you always take your hat off and talk polite. They ain’t anybody as
polite as robbers – you’ll see that in any book. Well, the women get
to loving you, and after they’ve been in the cave a week or two
weeks they stop crying and after that you couldn’t get them to
leave. If you drove them out they’d turn right around and come back.
It’s so in all the books.”
“Why, it’s real bully, Tom. I b’lieve it’s better’n to be a pirate.”
“Yes, it’s better in some ways, because it’s close to home and
circuses and all that.”
(A description of how life had changed for Huck Finn after the Widow
Douglas took him in to raise him up right)
Huck Finn’s wealth and the fact that he was now under the Widow
Douglas’s protection introduced him into society – no, dragged him
into it, hurled him into it – and his sufferings were almost more
than he could bear. The widow’s servants kept him clean and neat,
combed and brushed, and they bedded him nightly in unsympathetic
sheets that had not one little spot or stain which he could press
his heart and know for a friend.
In classic Twain fashion he ends the book with Tom convincing Huck that if he wants to join the Tom Sawyer Gang of robbers he's going to have to go back to the Widow Douglas and learn his manners properly because...
"A robber is more high toned than what a pirate is - as a general thing."
Huck takes up the bait with gusto and has the last line of the book:
"I'll stick to the widder till I rot, Tom; and if I git to be a reg'lar ripper of a robber, and everybody talking 'bout it, I reckon she'll be proud she snaked me in out of the wet."