Plot Overview

Figure 1. Home/away/home pattern (from Nodelman, 1996, p. 158)

In conclusion, although The Adventures of Tom Sawyer has a strong American flavor, it delights everyone who may get hold of it, regardless of culture and time. It is several types of book all at once as suggested by Frey and Griffith (1987):

“Tom Sawyer is a wandering, unplanned, improvisational and episodic book, mixing its moods and its literary effects freely, always happy to interrupt its own flow with a choice comic turn, a folksy observation on human nature, a bit of stage-melodrama, or a satiric shot at Sunday schools, bleeding-heart sentimentalists, and people who put on airs” (p. 131).

They not only complete the task for him, but also trade him prize possessions for the privilege of performing this laborious task.

After playing war games with his friends, Tom spots Becky Thatcher, a new girl in the town, and instantly develops a crush on her. Smitten, Tom heads home only to be wrongly accused of breaking the sugar bowl. However, it is Sid who accidentally breaks the bowl.

At Sunday school, Tom trades the small treasures he conned his friends into giving him during the whitewashing task on Saturday in return for tickets they earned memorizing biblical verses. He earns an honorary Bible with the tickets, however when he is asked the names of the first two disciples by Judge Thatcher, Becky’s father, he responds incorrectly.

On his way to school Monday, Tom encounters his friend Huckleberry Finn, the juvenile outcast of the town and son of the town drunkard. The two boys plan to meet up in the graveyard around midnight with the intent to perform a ritual to cure warts. At school, Tom attempts to draw Becky’s attention with his usual boyish antics. After winning her over, he professes his love to Becky, and suggests that they “get engaged”.

Nevertheless, their romance ends when he accidentally blurts out during lunch that he was previously engaged to another girl named Amy Lawrence.

At midnight, Tom sneaks into the graveyard along with Huck. Being steadfast believers in superstitions, the two boys expect the graveyard to swarm with ghosts. Upon hearing voices approach them, they hide in fright. The voices they hear belong to a trio of grave robbers, namely Injun Joe, a villainous criminal, Muff Potter, the town drunk, and Dr.

Robinson. From their hidden spot, Tom and Huck witness a scuffle break out among the body snatchers. As Dr. Robinson seizes a headstone and knocks out the drunk Muff Potter with one blow, Injun Joe rapidly snatches Muff’s knife and fatally stabs the doctor in the chest. The boys flee the graveyard before learning that Injun Joe is planning to pin the murder on the knocked-out Muff Potter. Mortally scared of Injun Joe and petrified at what they have witnessed, the boys swear a blood oath to remain silent about the truth. Soon after Potter is wrongfully arrested and jailed, the boys suffer pangs of conscience and they smuggle small comforts such as food and tobacco into his cell through a little jail window.

Back at school, Becky snubs Tom completely by paying no attention to his boyish antics. Feeling low and desperate, Tom forms a gang of “pirates” including himself, his bosom friend Joe Harper and Huck. They agree that they have had enough of the society and escape successfully to Jackson’s Island, an uninhabited island in the middle of the Mississippi River, to become “pirates”. While the boys are missing, the townspeople assume that they have drowned in the river and search the river for their bodies. One night while the other two boys sleep, Tom sneaks off the island to return temporarily to St. Petersburg and leave a note for Aunt Polly letting her know that he is still alive. While at home, he eavesdrops on a conversation between his aunt and Mrs.

Harper about a funeral ceremony to be held for the boys. Following a fleeting moment of remorse at the mourning of his loved ones, Tom hits on the idea of astonishing the populace of the town by attending his own funeral. He convinces Joe and Huck to do the same. Thus, they return to the town and walk in on their funeral. Their return is welcomed with great rejoicing and they gain the admiration of all their friends.

At school, when Tom inadvertently catches Becky leafing through the pages of Mr.

Dobbins’ – the schoolmaster – anatomy book, she jumps out of surprise and accidentally tears a page out of it. Once Mr. Dobbins notices the state of the book and questions Becky about it, Tom nobly takes the blame and wins Becky’s heart back.

As Muff Potter’s trial approaches, Tom’s guilty conscience torments him more and more. In court, the defense counsel calls forth a surprise witness. Taking the witness stand, Tom testifies against Injun Joe and clears Muff’s name. In the meantime, however, Injun Joe flees the courtroom through an open window before anyone can catch him. The innocent Muff is released with the apologies of the townspeople. “With Injun Joe at large, Tom is terrorized by nightmares” (Oatman, 1985, p. 19). He fears that Injun Joe may take revenge on him for testifying against him, and Huck also holds similar fears.

One day, Huck and Tom agree to hunt for buried treasure and head to an old and shabby “haunted house” on Cardiff Hill. While exploring the house, they hear a noise downstairs and realize that they are not alone in the house. Peering through holes in the floor, the boys see two men entering the house. They quickly realize that one of them is Injun Joe, disguised as an old, deaf-mute Spaniard, and overhear Injun Joe and his companion, an unkempt man, discussing a devious plan to bury their stolen treasure somewhere in the house. The boys are delighted at the possibility of digging it

up. By a remarkable coincidence, however, the villains discover another box full of gold and decide to hide it in “Number Two” – under the cross. Tom and Huck become determined to find this secret hiding place.

Huck begins shadowing Injun Joe every night, waiting for an opportunity to seize the treasure. Meanwhile, Tom goes for a picnic with Becky, who has just returned from a vacation, and his classmates to McDougal’s Cave, a deep cave with a multitude of secret underground passageways. That same night, while Huck is following Injun Joe and his partner, he overhears their sinister revenge plan for Widow Douglas. As the outlaws head off towards her house, Huck runs to fetch help from the old Welshman (Mr. Jones). The Welshman and his sons hurry over to the estate of the widow;

manage to scare off the villains before any harm is done but fail to capture them. Huck becomes an anonymous hero since he forestalls the violence.

Unbeknownst to the other picnickers, Tom and Becky get lost within the depths of the cave. Their absence is not noticed until the following morning. As news of the missing children circulates across the town, the residents begin to pray and search for them. As they have lost all sense of direction and run out of food and candles after three days in the cave, Tom and Becky are well aware that they may starve to death there. Keeping alive the hope of finding a way out, Tom comforts Becky and explores the passages of the cave. Searching for a way out, he encounters Injun Joe using the large cave as a hideout. But the man runs away quickly and Tom does not let Becky know this incident as he does not want her to become even more anxious. Eventually, just as the searchers are ending their search and rescue activities, his persistence pays off and he finds a small hole through which they crawl. Thus, they escape deadly peril.

The whole town rejoices over their safe return. Judge Thatcher orders the cave to be sealed off with an iron door. When Tom learns of this, he explains the judge that he encountered Injun Joe in the cave. A posse of men accompanies Tom to the cave and they find the corpse of Injun Joe, dead of starvation.

A week later, Tom and Huck head off towards the cave and find the box of gold there.

The boys return to the town with their treasure, only to be ushered into the parlor of Widow Douglas. The old woman is throwing a party to thank everybody who helped her against the villainous Injun Joe. Meanwhile, Tom rushes forward and declares that they possess a treasure amounting to over twelve thousand dollars. The disclosure of the

newfound treasure puts the town into a frenzy of excitement and the two boys are now respected throughout the town. The Widow Douglas announces her wish to adopt Huck with a view to civilize him and to give him a permanent home. Feeling utterly miserable, Huck attempts to run away from civilized life. Tom finds him and promises to include Huck in his gang of robbers on the condition that he returns to the widow’s house and becomes “respectable”. Huck agrees reluctantly.