Wednesday, February 5, 2014

What are some ways that Tom Sawyer grows up in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain?

There is one clear moment of change, and that is at the end of the novel, when Tom urges Huck to stay with the widow Douglass and submit to proper clothes, Sunday school, and other conventions of society. At the beginning of the story, Tom envies Huck for his freedom from these very same things:



"Huckleberry came and went, at his own free will. He slept on doorsteps in fine weather and in empty hogsheads in wet; he did not have to go to school or to church, or call any being master or obey anybody; he could go fishing or swimming when and where he chose, and stay as long as it suited him; nobody forbade him to fight; he could sit up as late as he pleased; he was always the first boy that went barefoot in the spring and the last to resume leather in the fall" (Chapter 6).



Tom is envious of Huck's freedom from the rules and expectations of society that Tom is always getting in trouble for breaking. At the end of the novel however, when he encourages Huck to stay with widow Douglass, he has clearly changed into someone who helps to enforce society's rules and expectations. Still, when Tom says,



"But Huck, we can’t let you into the gang if you ain’t respectable, you know" (Chapter 35)



It's clear that despite that change, some of Tom's mischievous manipulations remain. Still, Tom has grown up and, for him, being an adult means leaving behind childish freedom and conforming to society, at least somewhat.

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