The Adventures of Tom

Sawyer
Mark Twain
• November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910
• Real name Samuel Clemens
• The writer, adventurer and wily social
critic
• Author of The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn (1885)
• Mississippi River
• Riverboat Pilot
• The Innocents Abroad
• Honorary degrees Yale and Harvard
The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer
Characters
• Tom Sawyer: The main character of the story. He’s a regular kid – he gets into trouble like many kids. He always wants to play and hates
school. He is a leader, a manipulator, and he gets kids to do whatever he wants. Tom lives with his Aunt Polly cause his mom is dead. They
live in Missouri.
• Huckleberry Finn: Tom’s best friend, he basically follows Tom around and does whatever he wants.
• Becky Thatcher: Becky is a girl who moves into Tom’s town. Becky is very polite and well mannered in front if adults, but with kids, she can
be naughty. Tom is in love with Becky. Becky’s dad is a respected judge in the town, Judge Thatcher.
• Aunt Polly: Aunt Polly is Tom’s aunt. She is nice and takes care of Tom. Tom always outsmarts her and lies to her.
• Sid: Sid is Tom’s half-brother. He is a goody two-shoes and a tattletale.
• Injun Joe: Injun Joe is a jerk. His whole life revolves around revenge. He dies in the end.
• Muff Potter: Injun Joe’s partner at the graveyard robbery. Muff is a drunkard, but not that bad a guy. He is pretty nice to Tom and Huck.
• Mrs. Douglas: A widow who is very nice to Tom and Huck. In the end she takes in Huck as her own child.
• Dr. Robinson: A young doctor who tries to rob a grave in the beginning. He asks Injun Joe to help him out. He is killed by Injun Joe.
• Joe Harper: A friend of Tom’s who joins Tom and Huck on their pirate adventure.
Main Plot
• Tom lives with his aunt Polly and often gets into trouble. Aunt Polly tells him to whitewash the fence, so he tells his
friends that painting the fence is fun and they beg him to let them help. Tom falls in love with a new girl, Becky, but
she finds out that he liked another girl before and breaks up with him. Tom and Huckleberry visit a graveyard and
witness the murder of Dr. Robinson at the hands of Injun Joe.

• Tom, Huck and their friend Joe run away and the town thinks they are dead. Tom sneaks back home to watch the
commotion and decides to return during his funeral. Back at school, Tom takes the blame for ripping a book that
Becky had damaged and gets back on her good side. Tom testifies against Injun Joe in court but Joe escapes the
courthouse. In the summer, the boys go hunting for treasure.

• They find Injun Joe who is looking to bury treasure somewhere. Huck stays to watch while Tom goes on a school
picnic. He and Becky go into McDougal's Cave and get lost for days. Huck reports Injun Joe's plan to hurt Widow
Douglas and Injun Joe runs to hide in McDougal's Cave. Tom and Becky see him and manage to hide and escape the
cave. They tell the town that Injun Joe is in there and the town blocks up the cave. Tom and Huck discover where Joe
hid the gold in the caves near his corpse. Tom spring forward with their newfound treasure, totalling over twelve
thousand dollars. Novel ends with Huck and Tom discussing their future plans of becoming world-class robbers.
Extract
"Hi- yi ! You're up a stump, ain't you!"
No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then he gave his brush
another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as before. Ben ranged up alongside of
him. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said:
"Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?"
Tom wheeled suddenly and said:
"Why, it's you, Ben! I warn't noticing."
"Say -- I'm going in a-swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd
druther work -- wouldn't you? Course you would!"
Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:
"What do you call work?"
"Why, ain't that work?"
Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:
"Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."
"Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"
The brush continued to move.
"Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to
whitewash a fence every day?"
That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his
brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect -- added a touch here
and there -- criticised the effect again -- Ben watching every move and getting more
and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:
"Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."
Questions
• Are there some expressions you dont understand?
• What happens in the extract?
• What part of the book do you think it is from?
• What is the Bens behaviour towards Tom? Does it change?
• Does Tom like the whitewashing, or he pretends to like it?
• Would you guess what happens aftewards?
Literary devices of the book

• Themes – Friendship, Imagination, Truth and falsehood

• Motifs – Crime, Trading, The Circus, Showing Off

• Symbols – The Cave, The Storm, The Treasure, The Village

Thank you for your attention
Sources
• Biography of Mark Twain [online]. [cit. 2021-10-28]. Dostupné z:
https://www.biography.com/writer/mark-twain
• Main Plot Short [online]. [cit. 2021-10-28]. Dostupné z:
https://www.reference.com/world-view/short-summary-adventures-tom-sawyer-
4e0570db3085b8b5
• Tom Sawyer Extract [online]. [cit. 2021-10-28]. Dostupné z:
https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/tomsawye/tomrevlink13.html
• Literary Devices [online]. [cit. 2021-10-29]. Dostupné z:
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/tomsawyer/motifs/

• TWAIN, Mark. Dobrodružství Toma Sawyera. Praha, 1970. ISBN 13-237-KMČ-71.