Hello, my name is Do Duy Phong and today I will be analyzing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

This is a
very famous book that I am sure most of every is familiar with. It was written by Mark Twain and
published in 1876. As the name may suggest, the story focuses on the adventures of Tom Sawyer, a free
little soul who lives with his aunt and stepbrother Sid in a town in Missouri. Throughout the story, he has
various journeys with his friend Huckleberry Finn, got “engage” with the new girl in town, witnessing
murder – you know all normal childhood stuff.

I will be analyzing the two characters of Tom Sawyer – the main character, and Huckleberry Finn – the
boy who Tom admired at the beginning of the story.

As for Tom Sayer, I feel like this for him is a coming of age story, as Tom throughout the course of the
story starts out being a child and being very selfish and self-centered to becoming someone who is
willing to “sacrifice” for other people. Like that time he takes the blame for something bad his friend did
at school and he got the whipping, when Becky ripped got into an accident with the teacher’s book and
Tom took the blaming for her, or when he put the lives of others before him when they were inside that
cave, and of course when he told every the truth in a court case. What we see is that Tom grows up,
mature more, and become a better person. What we also see through out the course of the story is
Tom’s wit. In the famous fence painting scene, where Tom persuaded the neighbor kids to trade him
small trinkets for the privilege of doing his work.

Next is Huckleberry Finn, who is the son of the town drunk. He embodies the freedom that Tom so
desires. Finn sleeps wherever he wants, eats when he pleases, and he is not required to go to school like
Sawyer is. Finn also smoke and swear quite a bit in the story, which goes further to prove that he is a
free soul. This as mentioned is looked up by Tom but as the story progresses, Tom slowly accepted
society and its norm and even tried to convince Finn to do the same. This character’s story in
ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER is kind of like his origin story, where he has his own book which talks
about the more serious subject than what was fitting for this tale. This character was made to be very
likeable, but he has one serious character flaw: in reality, he is a bad example for kids. As in he does not
except society, and he does all the “free” stuff as mentioned before. All of this sets up his own coming of
age story of sorts in his own book.

For the plot of the story, I would say that the story follows the normal structure of story.

The exposition is at the beginning of the story, this would include the characters introduction, the
various small adventures and troubles Tom got himself in, meeting and that whole deal with Becky.

The next part I think would be the Rising action, which starts when Tom and Huckleberry ran off to
become pirates and everyone thought they were dead. This is because the story starts to introduce
some real emotional stakes and Tom started his journey of maturing. Also, in the rising action part is all
the parts regarding Injun Joe and the murder of Dr. Robinson. this is also the story’s midpoint as the tale
now takes a turn in more somewhat darker tone but is generally still the same.
The cave section is the climax of the story, with Tom and Huck finding Joe’s treasure. It is the
culmination of all the story lines in the book,

With Injun ending up dead (of starvation), Becky’s father declaring that he admires Tom’s bravery, and
all that. I consider that to be the resolution.

The rest of the story is the falling action which includes Huckleberry getting adopted.

In my opinion, ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER is a very special book, as it does not contain much literary
meaning. This does not mean that it is bad, quite the contrary. Sometimes books can be really serious
and heavy, while this book is not. It is fun, light, and is really enjoyable while still having some serious
moments and tension. The story captured the time it was supposed to have happened in because the
author Mark Twain based most of the elements from his life. So, like the town is based on a real one,
Tom Sawyer is based some what on himself, and the aunt is based on his mother. I think that this story
has been decided that it is a classic and has aged extremely well. Tom Sawyer is now an iconic name and
most people will know his story if you mention it. I think Mark Twain has written a really good story for
people of all ages, but especially, older children and teens as they will be able to relate the most with
the main character.