The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

A Review

When writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876 ) Mark Twain used a number of techniques to describe the story , setting and characters such as alliteration , wordplay and onomatopoeia . Structure and symbolism is used in the novel to put together every aspect of Tom Sawyer 's life

The novel is set in Missouri , Mississippi in the year 1849 . He drew upon his personal childhood experiences and people to create the characters and events in the novel . As a realistic model

for the fictional setting of the poor little village called St Petersburg he used his hometown of Hannibal . Mark Twain based much of his novel on personal experience and observation and , although a fictional tale , he illustrates it with a personal manner in the way he tells the story of a boy growing up in Southern America

Mark Twain 's main character is Tom Sawyer , a 12 year-old boy who is always playing hooky , getting into trouble and tormenting people giving little consideration to the consequences . An orphan , he is brought up by Aunt Polly , his mother 's sister , and he constantly dreams of freedom amd a life without adults and duties . The book is set in a time when teachers and adults were strict disciplinarians and children had of today 's devices with which to occupy themselves . Life was simple yet harsh in the responsibilities expected of children . With his ambition of escaping this , Tom creates adventures to amuse himself and runs away to an island leading Joe and Huck with him . Friendship is given a lot of central attention in the story and is shown in the way Tom often unexpectedly reveals his emotions for his friends . For example

2 although Tom admires Huck for seeming so free he is saddened by the fact that no-one is there to welcome Huck home when they return from their island adventure

However , as the story moves along , Tom realizes that he is growing up and begins to mature in his behaviour . Tom 's progress from childhood to adulthood is told in a structured and moving form . Many issues are addressed in the novel and Twain uses the mentioned techniques to convey these with as much color and varied emotion as possible . For example Mark Twain describes Mississippi at that time as a very troublesome and shabby place and it conveys to the reader that the author has no particular regard or respect for the town . He conveys this by using the extreme slang for the townspeople ' speech and in his s of the burdens they had to carry

By using the viewpoint of children , Twain manages to convey his opinions on freedom , which is equated with stepping outside of the norms of society and also the emotional conflicts presented by adults . From the very beginning of the book the contrasting emotions between Tom and Aunt Polly , such as discipline and indulgence , shows that adults are constantly battling the conflict...