Blaine's Reviews > The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.

Even if you’ve never actually read this book, it’s influence is so vast that you are almost certainly familiar with the character of Tom Sawyer on some level. His ploy to entice his friends to help him whitewash his Aunt Polly’s fence is one of the most famous scenes in all of literature. Remember when Ferris Bueller explained how to fake being sick so he could stay home from school? Ripped off from this book. Remember in A Christmas Story when Ralphie gets his mouth washed out with soap and he imagines going blind and his parents never forgiving themselves for punishing him? Inspired by a scene in this novel.

While there is a loose plot, the book is more a series of vignettes. There’s taunting and scuffles between boys. Little brothers who tattle. Playing and trying above all to avoid work. Puppy love. Crazy superstitions and rituals and blood oaths. Pretending to be robbers and pirates and searching for buried treasure. There are even caves and funerals and a murder trial. Was life ever truly like what’s presented in these pages? It reads now like a boyish fantasy about living as a rebellious 12-year old boy. Indeed, these boys’ ideal form is shown in the description given of Tom’s best friend, Huckleberry Finn:

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; he never had to wash, nor put on clean clothes; he could swear wonderfully. In a word, everything that goes to make life precious that boy had. So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg.

Tom Sawyer’s presentation in this novel is the triumph and glorification of street smarts and guile over book smarts and hard work. He usually deserves a much greater punishment than he receives. He skates through life on charm and optimism and a bit of luck. He’s like a penny that always lands on heads. And yet, you can’t help but root for him. He has a genuinely good heart, protects his friends, and even risks his life to do the right thing. Tom Sawyer is a uniquely American literary character; I can’t imagine another culture presenting such a flawed character so charmingly and heroically.

If you’re looking to be transported to simpler times, or long for the simplicity of youth, you can’t go wrong with this book. It’s a classic for a reason. Recommended.