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Book Review: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1870)

[ 8 / 10 ] Mark Twain's timeless novel about boyhood exudes so much passion and charm that it's almost impossible not to enjoy it. From Tom Sawyer's humorously renegade spirit, to the boundless imagination of him and his friends, to their youthful naivete, it is no wonder that this book is often considered one of the prime examples of, if not the quintessential, American novel. Men in particular will identify with the novel, seeing their own boisterous adventures of days gone by reflected in its pages; but there is enough adventure and romantic idealism here to make a fan out of every reader...

Tom Sawyer is every parental guardian's nightmare. Cunningly clever and eternally mischievous, he finds the draws of nature and the simple life to be irresistible. Like all boys, his life is consumed with all-important matters like impressing the new girl in town or gathering marbles, and his greatest stress comes from baths, church and chores. After his mother died he was sent to live with his aunt in rural Missouri. From the opening pages of the book we get a glimpse of Tom's sense of trickery, and we're immediately drawn to his youthful exuberance. You might not want him to be your son, but you can't help but get a chuckle out of his innate ability to get out of a jam. He might as well be Ferris Bueller's great-great-great-grandfather.

In the early portions of the book, we get a glimpse of what his (and, undoubtedly, every boy's) life was like in late-19th-century rural America. Life was hard; everyone was poor, struggle was a part of life, and children found happiness in the smallest possible things. In fact, the day-to-day hardship is rarely mentioned outright in the novel, despite the fact that you can sense it on just about every page; the people in this small Missouri town had long ago learned to cope and trudge on. The backdrop of the story is a thinly-veiled representation of Mark Twain's own childhood home; the names are changed, but the details are the same. Certainly there is plenty of Twain in the character of Tom Sawyer.

Despite the brevity of the novel, there is ample time for Tom's adventures to span from the mundane to the unbelievable. Tom and his "gang" are the primary focus of the book, and with good reason; they have the most spunk and vitality of anyone in town. Like many young boys, they are superstitious and full of passionate romanticism. They continually search for buried treasure and place great stock in trifles of possessions. They dream longingly of becoming pirates or thieves. But the real adventure begins when Tom convinces his friends to actually act on their impulses and run away to become pirates. Eventually, in the course of their adventures, they stumble upon some shady characters attempting to steal a large sum of money, and the boys, ever zealous to become real adventurers, plot to get the money for themselves.

The story is at times far-fetched, only coming to resolution through several unlikely coincidences, but this novel was never about its believability or accuracy. Nor is it a "coming-of-age" story where the boys discover their true selves and learn something profound about the real world. It's about boyhood and adventure and passion. It's about chasing dreams, acting out fantasies, taking chances, learning about love and life - in short, the goals of the American youth around the turn of the century.

At the end of the story, Tom and his gang are their same old selves (though, admittedly, their position in life is markedly different). However, we as the readers are probably somewhat different. Even if just for awhile, we get a chance to step in Tom's shoes and be a kid again. For me, not that far removed from my boyhood youth, Tom Sawyer elicited fond memories of my own childhood. Not that I had any of the same experiences as Tom, but I remember what it was like to believe stupid things, make a fool of myself in front of girls, and get spanked for my rambunctuousness. Tom's story is likely to put a renewed spring in your step and provide a bit of spark to your own imagination.

I think it's fitting that, as I was reading the final page of Tom Sawyer in my office, the song "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King came up on my music playlist. This song, of course, appeared in the movie by the same name, a similar story about four youths who undergo a profound experience of their own. That movie has always been one of my favorites for the same reason that I thoroughly enjoyed Tom Sawyer - it provided safe harbor from the real world for a while, and reminded me of what it was like to be a kid.