Tom Sawyer

"You can tell he was a kid once--and he loved it."  

This is what Destry said about Mark Twain as I chuckled aloud one afternoon while reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer for Carrie's May book club selection.

I think Destry perfectly summarized why this story is a classic.  I've read this book several times and each time, I escape through Twain's unmatchable ability to paint the life of a carefree, mischievous boy.  Who else but a young boy would consider himself rich with "an apple, a kite in good repair, a dead rat and string to swing it with, twelve marbles, part of a jews-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a spool cannon, a key that wouldn't unlock anything, a fragment of chalk, a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six firecrackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass doorknob, a dog collar--but no dog, the handle of a knife, four pieces of orange peel, and a dilapidated old window sash" (14).

Other examples of Twain perfectly capturing the unique energy that is a little boy:

• "Tom was over the fence and gone.  There was a gate, but as a general thing he was too crowded for time to make use of it" (18).

• "The next moment he was 'showing off' with all his might--cuffing boys, pulling hair, making faces--in a word, using every art that seemed likely to fascinate a girl and win her applause" (27).

• "he was the envy of every boy he met because the gap in his upper row of teeth enabled him to expectorate in a new and admirable way" (39).

• "There comes a time in every rightly-constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure. . . to buy a new drum, and a sure'nough sword, and a red necktie and a bull pup, and get married" (143).

I couldn't help but laugh as I enjoyed Twain's clever insight into young boys, and my enjoyment of the book had my teens vying for their turn to read the book again.  Even as I read the book from my current perspective as a parent and don't want my boys to experience his same adventures, I have to agree with Aunt Polly that Tom "warn't BAD, so to say--only mischEEvous.  Only just giddy, and harum-scarum, you know.  He warn't any more responsible than a colt.  HE never meant any harm, and he was the best-hearted boy that ever was" (92).

Twain's gift with words made me stop and savor his phrasing more than once.  I think my favorite word picture was this one:

"the old man laughed loud and joyously, shook up the details of his anatomy from head to foot, and ended by saying that such a laugh was money in a man's pocket, because it cut down the doctor's bill like everything" (174).

Even as Tom Sawyer provides lots of entertainment and laughs, Twain shares some more serious, adult themes within his story.  As I face challenges in raising my children and resisting ornery eyes or smart mouths, I echo Aunt Polly's "I've GOT to do some of my duty by him, or I'll be the ruination of the child" (4).

 I also got a kick out of Mark Twain's less-than-subtle observations on the nature of mankind.

• "He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it--namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.  If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is OBLIGED to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do" (15).

• "Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it" (32).

• "This funeral stopped the further growth of one thing--the petition to the governor for Injun Joe's pardon.  The petition had been largely signed; many tearful and eloquent meetings had been held, and a committee of sappy women been appointed to go in deep mourning and wail around the governor, and implore him to be a merciful ass and trample his duty under foot.  Injun Joe was believed to have killed five citizens of the village, but what of that?  If he had been Satan himself there would have been plenty of weaklings ready to scribble their names to a pardon-petition, and drip a tear on it from their permanently impaired and leaky water-works" (192).

I'm so grateful to the fellow book lover who recommended Tom Sawyer for our May book club selection.  As my Spring calendar collected more and more scribbles and I thought the last day of school would never arrive, I enjoyed a refreshing break in the form of  a good visit with this old friend.