Book #109: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Book #109: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

August 18, 2014

Another “first” for this list: this is a book that I’ve read previously.

Well, actually, I think that may not necessary be true. Let me explain. So when I was in the 5^th grade (I’m pretty sure it was 5^th grade), I read this book for school. Now, since I’m reading it as a possible text to use for my high school students, and I have some trepidation with how some of them may be able to handle it, I don’t think it’s real likely that a class of 5^th graders would be assigned this book. Either I read it with an advanced reading group (I would have been in the top reading track, of course), or maybe the class studied a condensed version. Either way, certainly nothing wrong with my rereading it, especially after such a long time.

I’ve read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn more recently, and have even used it with students. It’s such a great book, and it dismayed me that my teaching of it didn’t go well at that. That may be due to my inexperience at the time; I have a much better idea of what I can do to make Tom Sawyer work for my students. It may be that I only use it with one language arts section, and that would be okay. I feel like my more advanced students would definitely appreciate it.

Tom Sawyer is a delightful and timeless book. It doesn’t tackle as many social issues as Huck Finn, and it certainly isn’t as controversial; only a handful of times is the “n-word” used, compared to hundreds of times in the latter, for one thing. There are some poignant points made about the inhumanity of slavery and racism, such as the note about how a dog owned by a white man would be called by the family’s last name (like for my dog, she’d be Rory Brown), but a slave would be called in the possessive (the Widow Douglas’s Jim, for instance). Mr. Clemens also points out issues with the education of children, and pokes fun at overly preachy writing. While he has a message to get across, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are far from preachers; the reader is supposed to know better than they do, and their ignorance is at times touching (like not knowing what an “orgy” is, though Tom Sawyer speaks of them with such authority), and at times heartbreaking (like Huck acknowledging that a local slave is very kind to him, so he “condescends” to sit and eat with him, though he doesn’t really want to).

Even with some of the serious issues addressed, the book is mostly light-hearted. Tom Sawyer is a fun character. He’s your average little shit, a mischievous child who really doesn’t mean any harm. He’s more whimsical and destructive in Huck Finn, though in his own story he comes off as being more accident-prone than anything else, I guess. He is rather thoughtless, as his Aunt Polly repeatedly points out. Some scenes, like when he’s trying to fake sick from school or languishing in the boring classroom, are so relatable.

When I teach this book, I don’t think I’ll have my students plow through it. I may assign one (maybe two, if there’s a short one) chapter per night, two on weekends. It would take a little while to get through, but there’s a lot that could be discussed: fun topics and serious ones, too. Obviously Mark Twain wanted to send a message in his writing, without being boring or preachy. He does this more in Huck Finn: it’s still a really fun book (in spite of what any of my former students may have to say about it), but has a more serious message to it, especially with the character Jim. Tom Sawyer, satirical itself, doesn’t have such a strong message. I think that’s why Huck Finn is the better of the two, though I enjoy both for pretty much the same reasons.