The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

*THIS IS NOT THE LINK-UP POST! AMY'S POST TO DISCUSS THIS MONTH'S BOOK CLUB SELECTION WILL POST TOMORROW MORNING.*


I have to confess that I inwardly groaned when Amy said that she'd wanted to read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer during the month of May for the Reading to Know book club. I had read this book before and recall not liking it, mostly because Tom is so very disobedient. I generally am not amused by disobedient behavior. So I wasn't very eager to spend time with Tom again.

In the end though, I am very glad that Amy choose this book because I ended up rather enjoying myself! I still don't like Tom very much, as a character, but I really like Mark Twain's sense of humor. He amuses me. He amuses me very much. Despite my early misgivings, I ended up chuckling through quite a bit of this book and finding The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to be quite diverting!

The basic plot of the book, should you be unfamiliar with it, surrounds the boyish romps and mischief making of Tom Sawyer and his friend, Huckleberry Finn. It is a series of stories of the scrapes that Tom gets into, more or less. The chief subject of interest in this book is a murder, which Tom and Huck witness. That sounds rather gruesome and in some ways it most certainly is. However, Twain deals with the subject in the most lighthearted manner possible, while still holding to the idea that the murder is serious, scary business. Tom and Huck's escapades including dodging the murderer while living their normal life, playing hookey from school and Tom climbing out his bedroom window every night to explore the world while his guardian and aunt, Polly, frets and worries about him endlessly. Tom really is a most selfish boy and is horribly disrespectful towards his aunt. Twain brushes this off by explaining that he's a boy and is thoughtless by nature. I'm still unimpressed with him in general.

What I am impressed with is how Twain seems to peg Sawyer as being a wild hooligan who is very immature. Although Twain does try to dress-up Sawyer's character has having a "heart that is in the right place" and who doesn't mean to worry people so, he also does not make excuses for Tom's behavior. I felt like Twain was walking a fine line between loving his character so much that he didn't feel he deserved to suffer some consequences, and painting Tom in such a ridiculous manner that you couldn't help but see that Twain found the boy to be deserving of whatever ultimately came his way. There were no excuses for bad behavior and that is something I appreciated. (It also allowed me to relax with the story.)

My favorite passage:

Tom lay thinking. Presently it occurred to him that he wished he was sick; then he could stay home from school. Here was a vague possibility. He canvassed his system. No ailment was found, and he invested again. This time he thought he could detect colicky symptoms, and he began to encourage them with considerable hope. But they soon grew feeble and presently died wholly away. He reflected further. Suddenly he discovered something. One of his upper teeth was loose. This was lucky; he was about to begin to groan, as a "starter" he called it, when it occurred to him that if he came into court with that argument his aunt would pull it out, and that would hurt. So he thought he would the tooth in reserve for the present, and seek further. Nothing offered for some little time, and then he remembered hearing the doctor tell about a certain thing that laid up a patient for two or three weeks and threatened to make him lose a finger. So the boy eagerly drew his sore toe from under the sheet and held it up for inspection. But now he did not know the necessary symptoms. However, it seemed well worth while to chance it, so he fell to groaning with considerable spirit. (Chapter 6)

I was home schooled growing up but I still hated doing school. I remember many a time, um, waking up and, um, checking my system for possible ailments which would keep me in bed and firmly away from my school work. Only once was I able to achieve a workable plan. I discovered that if you put your face in your pillow and breathed into it heavily for some time, your face would become flushed and hot. Insta-fever! It worked! (No potential loss of limbs are remotely necessary for this experiment.) It bought me one day on the couch watching movies, drinking lots of liquids and "resting" my "fever" away. Highly effective, but I didn't want to chance doing that more than once. (I confessed to my mother when I was twenty or so and in no risk of punishment for my falsehood.)

Ahh, good memories. ;)

I really did have a good time with Tom so I must apologize to Amy for my initial groanings! Then I must follow that up with a quick Thank You for choosing such a fun and light hearted read. I appreciated it!

This also, by the way, proves the point that it's a good idea to read a book more than once. Your first impression, while important, might be better improved upon a deeper knowledge and understanding of the work.