Tom Sawyer as Everyboy, Not Everyman
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published 04/09/2007
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SummaryMark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, his seminal 1876 novel, has been both lauded and decried by multitudes of readers who almost universally regard Twain in a favorable light. Negative reviews of this work are found most easily among admitted Twain fans—something that seems to stem from the inevitable comparisons to Twain’s other works, most notably The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Despite mixed reviews, Tom Sawyer is an important work, particularly for understanding Twain’s motivations his own life.
Table of Contents
- Many different views of Twain's goals for this book are put forth in the body of scholarly literature discussing it
- William Spengemann's Mark Twain and the Backwoods Angel focuses on Twain's treatment of innocence, and claims that Twain's main goal in the book is to show that 'life without innocence is either hopeless, or, at best, reprehensible?
- More than a chance for Twain to reminisce, though, the Sawyer character is a warning, according to Tom Towers
- Whatever the case, Tom Sawyer represents a fork in life's road'a choice between good and evil, between aggression and non-aggression
- This story is Tom's, as declared in its title, and that makes the story one of a boy becoming a man
- Tom, on the other hand, unwittingly moves Becky and himself closer to peril, and also close to financial reward when he presses on in the cave
- While it is true that Huck Finn is given the ability to speak for himself in the work bearing his name, it is not obvious that this indicates a condemnation of Tom Sawyer
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