SparkNotes: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Character List The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain Plot Overview Analysis of Major Characters Tom Sawyer - The novel’s protagonist. Tom is a mischievous boy with an active imagination who spends most of the novel getting himself, and often his friends, into and out of trouble. Despite his mischief, Tom has a good heart and a strong moral conscience. As the novel progresses, he begins to take more seriously the responsibilities of his role as a leader among his schoolfellows. Read an in-depth analysis of Tom Sawyer. Aunt Polly - Tom’s aunt and guardian. Aunt Polly is a simple, kindhearted woman who struggles to balance her love for her nephew with her duty to discipline him. She generally fails in her attempts to keep Tom under control because, although she worries about Tom’s safety, she seems to fear constraining him too much. Above all, Aunt Polly wants to be appreciated and loved. Huckleberry Finn - The son of the town drunk. Huck is a juvenile outcast who is shunned by respectable society and adored by the local boys, who envy his freedom. Like Tom, Huck is highly superstitious, and both boys are always ready for an adventure.

Huck gradually replaces Tom’s friend Joe Harper as Tom’s sidekick in his escapades. Read an in-depth analysis of Huckleberry Finn. Becky Thatcher - Judge Thatcher’s pretty, yellow-haired daughter. From almost the minute she moves to town, Becky is the “Adored Unknown” who stirs Tom’s lively romantic sensibility. Naïve at first, Becky soon matches Tom as a romantic strategist, and the two go to great lengths to make each other jealous. Joe Harper - Tom’s “bosom friend” and frequent playmate. Joe is a typical best friend, a convention Twain parodies when he refers to Joe and Tom as “two souls with but a single thought.” Though Joe mostly mirrors Tom, he diverges from Tom’s example when he is the first of the boys to succumb to homesickness on Jackson’s Island. As the novel progresses, Huck begins to assume Joe’s place as Tom’s companion. Sid - Tom’s half-brother. Sid is a goody-goody who enjoys getting Tom into trouble. He is mean-spirited but presents a superficial show of model behavior. He is thus the opposite of Tom, who is warmhearted but behaves badly.

Mary - Tom’s sweet, almost saintly cousin. Mary holds a soft spot for Tom. Like Sid, she is well behaved, but unlike him, she acts out of genuine affection rather than malice. Injun Joe - A violent, villainous man who commits murder, becomes a robber, and plans to mutilate the Widow Douglas. Injun Joe’s predominant motivation is revenge. Half Native American and half Caucasian, he has suffered social exclusion, probably because of his race. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Characters | GradeSaver Buy Study Guide Tom Sawyer The young protagonist of the novel. Living with his aunt St. Petersburg, Missouri, Tom has a penchant for adventure and "showing off." Constantly getting into mischief, he plays hooky from school and would rather go swimming than tend to his Sunday school lessons. Blessed with an active imagination, Tom dreams to be a noble robber such as Robin Hood or a pirate. Hungry for attention, Tom is obsessed with appearing noble and obtaining the envy of his peers. However, Tom is extremely clever and possesses an incredible insight on human nature. Throughout the novel, Tom must learn to listen to his conscience and become accountable for his actions. Huckleberry Finn The town's social pariah.

Son of an abusive and drunkard father who left town, Huck has failed to have been raised with any parental guidance or authority figures. Because he can smoke a pipe and never has to attend church or school, he is the envy of every schoolboy and the nightmare of every mother in town. Huck and Tom often have adventures and both believe in various superstitions. Although disregarded by the "sociables," Huck possesses a kind spirit and consideration for others. Aunt Polly Tom's somewhat elderly aunt and guardian. Religious, simple-mannered, and kind-hearted, Aunt Polly is respected among the citizens of St. Petersburg. Responsible for Tom's discipline and upbringing, Aunt Polly is constantly torn between expressing her exasperation and showing her lover for Tom. Every time he causes trouble, another hair on her head turns gray; she often wishes Tom would behave properly like his brother, Sid. Sid Sawyer Tom's younger half-brother. Always trying to tattle on Tom, Sid keeps a close on eye his brother's wrongdoings. A goody-two-shoes, he is a punctual and studious pupil. Mary Tom's older cousin who resides with Aunt Polly.

Mary is depicted as a sweet and good-hearted young lady who sees the good qualities in Tom's character. Religious and pious, Mary was an exceptional student ­ the opposite of Tom. Becky Thatcher The daughter of Judge Thatcher. Becky is Tom's age and has recently moved into town. Prim and proper, Becky is the opposite of Tom: she has never been in trouble and is used to obeying her mother's words. With blonde hair and dressy frocks, she quickly wins Tom's affection and attention. Judge Thatcher SparkNotes: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Plot Overview The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain Context Character List An imaginative and mischievous boy named Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. After playing hooky from school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to whitewash the fence as punishment on Saturday. At first, Tom is disappointed by having to forfeit his day off. However, he soon cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his work.

He trades these treasures for tickets given out in Sunday school for memorizing Bible verses and uses the tickets to claim a Bible as a prize. He loses much of his glory, however, when, in response to a question to show off his knowledge, he incorrectly answers that the first two disciples were David and Goliath. Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get “engaged” to him. Their romance collapses when she learns that Tom has been “engaged” before—to a girl named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a “cure” for warts. At the graveyard, they witness the murder of young Dr. Robinson by the Native-American “half-breed” Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away and swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they have seen. Injun Joe blames his companion, Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Potter is wrongfully arrested, and Tom’s anxiety and guilt begin to grow.

Tom, Huck, and Tom’s friend Joe Harper run away to an island to become pirates. While frolicking around and enjoying their newfound freedom, the boys become aware that the community is sounding the river for their bodies. Tom sneaks back home one night to observe the commotion. After a brief moment of remorse at the suffering of his loved ones, Tom is struck by the idea of appearing at his funeral and surprising everyone. He persuades Joe and Huck to do the same. Their return is met with great rejoicing, and they become the envy and admiration of all their friends. Back in school, Tom gets himself back in Becky’s favor after he nobly accepts the blame for a book that she has ripped. Soon Muff Potter’s trial begins, and Tom, overcome by guilt, testifies against Injun Joe. Potter is acquitted, but Injun Joe flees the courtroom through a window. Summer arrives, and Tom and Huck go hunting for buried treasure in a haunted house. After venturing upstairs they hear a noise below. Peering through holes in the floor, they see Injun Joe enter the house disguised as a deaf and mute Spaniard.

He and his companion, an unkempt man, plan to bury some stolen treasure of their own. From their hiding spot, Tom and Huck wriggle with delight at the prospect of digging it up. By an amazing coincidence, Injun Joe and his partner find a buried box of gold themselves. When they see Tom and Huck’s tools, they become suspicious that someone is sharing their hiding place and carry the gold off instead of reburying it. Huck begins to shadow Injun Joe every night, watching for an opportunity to nab the gold. Meanwhile, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal’s Cave with Becky and their classmates. That same night, Huck sees Injun Joe and his partner making off with a box. He follows and overhears their plans to attack the Widow Douglas, a kind resident of St. Petersburg. By running to fetch help, Huck forestalls the violence and becomes an anonymous hero. Tom and Becky get lost in the cave, and their absence is not discovered until the following morning. The men of the town begin to search for them, but to no avail. Tom and Becky run out of food and candles and begin to weaken.

The horror of the situation increases when Tom, looking for a way out of the cave, happens upon Injun Joe, who is using the cave as a hideout. Eventually, just as the searchers are giving up, Tom finds a way out. The town celebrates, and Becky’s father, Judge Thatcher, locks up the cave. Injun Joe, trapped inside, starves to death. A week later, Tom takes Huck to the cave and they find the box of gold, the proceeds of which are invested for them. The Widow Douglas adopts Huck, and, when Huck attempts to escape civilized life, Tom promises him that if he returns to the widow, he can join Tom’s robber band. Reluctantly, Huck agrees. More Help NEA Big Read NEA Big Read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer > Josephine Reed: Now, The Big Read. Greg Brown sings "Out in the Country " Out in the country, gravel road a ramblin' all around. Out in the country, gravel road a ramblin' all around.

Sam Elliott reads from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer... Saturday morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. The locust trees were in bloom and the fragrance of the blos­soms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above it, was green with vegetation, and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting. Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all glad­ness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden. Reed: That's Sam Elliott reading from Mark Twain's nostalgic hymn to American boyhood, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Welcome to The Big Read, a program created by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services. I'm Josephine Reed.

The largest reading program in American history, The Big Read is designed to unite communities through great literature. David Ives: When I think of this book I think of a bright sunny day... Shelley Fisher Fishkin: I think that Mark Twain had one of the best ears in the 19th century. He listened to how Americans talked and he captured that on the printed page. Ken Burns: Twain wrote about the moment and he wrote about all time. He wrote about the human condition. And he did so in a vast array of books. And no one is more archetypal than Tom Sawyer. Richard Rodriguez: Tom Sawyer is the first investigation of this theme of what it means to be a boy in the eternal summers of America in the nineteenth century at a time when Americans were beginning to realize that the country was settling. It was no longer so much exploring but it was beginning to have an address. Reed: Today we're talking about Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Here's your host, poet and former chair of the NEA, Dana Gioia. Gioia: Of all the great literary figures in American history, none has been so widely and continually popular as Mark Twain.

He was a witty humorist, a wise political voice, an internationally admired lecturer, and a sharp-eyed travel writer. But most importantly, Twain was a brilliant storyteller. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, and perhaps his greatest achievements in fiction were his tributes to boyhood along the Mississippi River—The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Burns: I see Tom Sawyer as several different things. He's Mark Twain, Sam Clemens. Gioia: Filmmaker Ken Burns created the 2002 documentary, Mark Twain. Burns: He is America in a way. He's this rough hewn frontier go-getter filled with a kind of native intelligence, not book-learned. He's got the “bark on,” as Twain I'm sure would say. And we now think of that barefoot boy in coveralls and a straw hat and a piece of straw sticking out of his mouth. Ron Powers: So here comes Tom Sawyer and the genre is exploded forever. Gioia: Twain biographer, Ron Powers. Powers: Tom is not evil, but he's a con artist, he knows how to work people.

He knows how to work people into painting the fence for him, he's always got a scheme, he's always got a trick, he's always the director. Sam Elliot Reads from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer... Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then he gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as before. Ben ranged up alongside of him. [...] “Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?”[...] Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: “What do you call work?” “Why ain't that work?” Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: “Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer.” “Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?” The brush continued to move. “Like it? Well I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?” That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple.

Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth—stepped back to note the effect—added a touch here and there—criticized the effect again—Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said: “Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.” [...] Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart. [...] the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned for the slaughter of more innocents. [...] Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. Gioia: Writer Anne Fadiman. Anne Fadiman: His entire being is built on rebellion. Everything he's told not to do he wants to do, everything he's told to do, he wants not to do. PJ O'Rourke: Children are not fully civilized beings. There is a reason for the Christian doctrine of original sin. Gioia: Satirist and writer P.J.

O'Rourke O'Rourke: They come into our world trailing clouds of a number of things, glory perhaps, but also diaper vapor, and many other things. They're selfish, they're greedy. While they have sympathy, they have no empathy. Gioia: Tom revealed his lack of empathy daily by drugging the family cat with painkiller or deceiving his sweet and gullible guardian Aunt Polly with elaborate white lies. When he wasn't hooking candy or pummeling his half-brother, Tom was picking fights with neighborhood kids or sneaking out of the house to play with friends. O'Rourke: You read it again. You read it at 60, like I am, and all your sympathies are with Aunt Polly. None with Tom, you know. Tom's a brat. If Tom were in my daughter's class in school, I would say to her to stay away from that fellow. I might have a word with his parents, for that matter. Gioia: Playwright David Ives Ives: Tom Sawyer has a kind of distanced view of boyhood and understanding of boyhood, but a very distanced one. O'Rourke: But it is a true portrait of childhood.

Truer, I think, even than Twain meant it to be. Gioia: P.J. O'Rourke O'Rourke: This was him. I mean we've all known that that this was semi-autobiographical. But, I mean, this was him deep down inside. I think he exposed more of himself than he ever meant to do. Gioia: In 2005, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Ron Powers wrote a highly-acclaimed biography about the man who would eventually take the pen name Mark Twain. Powers: Sammy Clemens was born in 1835 in a little riverfront village. Gioia: Ken Burns. Burns: He was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, a tiny just speck on the map. Fishkin: And he moved to Hannibal, Missouri not far away shortly thereafter. Gioia: Shelley Fisher Fishkin is a noted Twain scholar. Fishkin: He spent his childhood in Hannibal, and that is the setting for St. Petersburg in Tom Sawyer. Gioia: Like Sam Clemens, Ron Powers grew up in Hannibal, Missouri.

Powers: To this day Hannibal, Missouri is a little cluster of civilization out there on the great prairie, it's not near anything. And you can hear that and think how unfortunate, but really it gives Hannibal its majesty. Because it was a civilization unto itself. He thought of Hannibal as holy. In fact, in his books, he called it St. Petersburg ... heaven. Gioia: As a boy, Sam Clemens was mesmerized by the sounds of the Mississippi River – the steamboat whistles, the spinning wheels, and the rushing water. Sam was also deeply affected by the mournful songs of the slaves on his uncle's farm. Ron Powers. Powers: They sang their spirituals and they told their stories. And outsiders, the white overseers, thought they were being charming. And they were, but they were also speaking to one another in a very secret codified way of escape, and little Sam internalized it. And I always have believed that he heard language as music. Gioia: The tall tales and ghost stories told to him by slaves not only captured his imagination, they also helped develop his ear for dialogue.

When he began writing, Twain rejected the ornate Victorian style that characterized the literary mainstream of the mid-19th century. “My works are like water,” he said, “The works of the great masters are like wine. But everyone drinks water.” Twain tuned his ear to the timbre of the common folk, the poor, the uneducated, the delinquent, and the slave—and he translated those voices to the page with extraordinary authenticity. Shelley Fisher Fishkin. Fishkin: Voices of children, voices of slaves, voices of servants, voices of ordinary people. Mark Twain listened and he made us listen to the stories that they told and to the truths that they conveyed, and he still has a lot to say that we need to hear. Gioia: Clemens left home for the first time at 17 and trekked east. Seemingly always in the right place at the right time, he passed through Saratoga Springs, New York as the potato chip is invented, and later witnessed part of the great debate over the Missouri Compromise in Washington, D.C. At 21, he broke from his eastern sojourn and returned home.

Fishkin: He returned to the Mississippi River Valley and pursued his childhood dream of becoming a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi. Gioia: Ron Powers Powers: And he was not only a riverboat pilot, he was the best chronicler of what he called life on the Mississippi. He gave us that mythos. The riverboat pilot as a god-like figure on a river that was powerful and mysterious, the river that T.S. Eliot called a “strong, brown god.” And then the Civil War happens, and he is part of the Civil War. For three weeks. He's part of a little ragtag militia group in Missouri and then he realizes that you might get shot in a war, so he goes West with his brother Orion to Nevada and is present at the creation of the Wild West. The important part of that experience is that the young Sam Clemens, he hasn't yet called himself Mark Twain, although he's about to, the young Sam Clemens hears American language as it is spoken at the grassroots, and he absorbs it. Gioia: Shelley Fisher Fishkin. Fishkin: Sam Clemens took the name Mark Twain in 1863. Gioia: Ken Burns.

Burns: And of course he borrowed for his pen name the soundings that would take place. Fishkin: He chose his name based on the leadsmen, the steamboat call, Mark Twain which meant the water is two fathoms deep. Gioia: Ken Burns Burns: I think that in some ways taking that name, Mark Twain, was realizing how poised we are on the edge of safety and danger at any given moment. Gioia: The riverboat call of “mark twain” could mean either the entrance into a safe depth of water—two fathoms, or twelve feet deep—or else the passing from safe into dangerous waters. Twain likely relished the dark ambiguity of the name. Ken Burns. Burns: Around the edges of Tom Sawyer is a world of slavery, of death, of illness, of danger on the river, that is never too far away. Gioia: Twain had a complicated and mostly negative opinion of organized religion. Tom and Huck, like many kids, avoid church and Sunday school at any expense. They are, however, obsessed with superstition. P.J.

O'Rourke O'Rourke: And one thing that's interesting about Twain's attitude towards religion is he makes Tom a sort of superstitiously religious kid. Fadiman: Tom and Huck go to the graveyard at midnight. Gioia: Anne Fadiman. Fadiman: We don't expect anything serious to happen because the reason that they're there is to satisfy one of Huck's superstitions, which is that you can get rid of a wart by bringing a dead cat to a graveyard at midnight on the day after a bad person has been buried. Sam Elliot Reads from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer... (page 70-72) It was a graveyard of the old-fashioned Western kind. It was on a hill, about a mile and a half from the village. It had a crazy board fence around it, which leaned inward in places, and outward the rest of the time, but stood upright nowhere. [...] A faint wind moaned through the trees, and Tom feared it might be the spirits of the dead, complaining of being disturbed. The boys talked little, and only under their breath, for the time and the place and the pervading solemnity and silence oppressed their spirits.

They found the sharp new heap they were seeking, and ensconced themselves within the protection of three great elms that grew in a bunch within a few feet of the grave. [...] Tom's reflections grew oppressive. He must force some talk. So he said in a whisper: “Hucky, do you believe the dead people like it for us to be here?” Huckleberry whispered: “I wisht I knowed. It's awful solemn like, ain't it?” [...] Some vague figures approached through the gloom, swinging an old-fashioned tin lantern that freckled the ground with innu­merable little spangles of light. [...] Potter and Injun Joe were carrying a handbarrow with a rope and a couple of shovels on it. They cast down their load and began to open the grave. The doctor put the lantern at the head of the grave and came and sat down with his back against one of the elm trees. He was so close the boys could have touched him. “Hurry, men!” he said in a low voice; “the moon might come out at any moment.” Gioia: Moments later, Tom and Huck watch from the shadows as the three grave robbers begin to argue.

When tempers escalate and Muff Potter is knocked unconscious, Injun Joe fatally stabs the doctor. Then, he cleverly frames the unaware Potter for the crime. The boys escape unseen. Afraid for their lives, they make a blood oath that they will tell no one about what they witnessed. But with Muff Potter in jail and the real killer on the loose, Tom lives in constant fear of the ruthless outlaw, Injun Joe. Anne Fadiman. Fadiman: He has, I think, real reason to worry that Injun Joe might come after him if he ever realized that Tom had in fact witnessed the murder. Gioia: Writer Richard Rodriguez. Rodriguez: Injun Joe, he's a half-breed. That is, he is a figure of both civilizations. He is part white, but he's also an Indian, so he lingers around town but he's never fully in town. He's just at the edge of town. Gioia: You're listening to The Big Read from the National Endowment for the Arts. Today we're discussing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. O'Rourke: I think that it's hard to top when the boys become pirates and live on the island.

Gioia: Richard Rodriguez. Rodriguez: When they have escaped from civilization, when everyone thinks that they have drowned... Gioia: Anne Fadiman. Fadiman: These were days out of time in which they could be entirely boys. Gioia: P.J. O'Rourke. O'Rourke: Anybody who's ever been a boy (or a girl for that matter, I'm sure) has had that kind of moment when a piece of extended play gets out of hand. We're going to steal this rowboat and we're going row across the lake, and about half way across they lake you go, "What am I doing? I'm going to get in so much trouble for this!" Sam Elliot Reads from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer... “Who goes there?” “Tom Sawyer, the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main. Name your names.” “Huck Finn the Red-Handed, and Joe Harper the Terror of the Seas.” Tom had furnished these titles, from his favorite literature. [...] The Terror of the Seas had brought a side of bacon, and had about worn himself out with getting it there.

Finn the Red-Handed had stolen a skillet and a quantity of half-cured leaf tobacco, and had also brought a few corn-cobs to make pipes with. But none of the pirates smoked or “chewed” but himself. The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main said it would never do to start without some fire. That was a wise thought; matches were hardly known there in that day. [...] They felt no longing for the little village sleeping in the distance beyond the majestic waste of water. A vagrant current or a slight rise in the river had carried off their raft, but this only gratified them, since its going was something like burning the bridge between them and civilization. Gioia: David Ives. Ives: Not having had children I have to say that I still sympathize with Tom Sawyer and I've been trying to run away to that island and be a pirate for my entire life. Gioia: Anne Fadiman. Fadiman: They broke every rule that they could possibly break, and they were completely free. There's no doubt in my mind, that's freedom. Rodriguez: When they are on the island they feel both the pleasure of fishing. They feel also the danger of nature.

Nature is this fierce storm that suddenly comes and the necessity for a roof, or shelter. Gioia: Richard Rodriguez. Rodriguez: That's a very rich segment in the book because when it balances between the adventure of leaving home and the yearning for home. Gioia: Ron Powers. Powers: The coincidences and the convergences of Mark Twain's life are just inexhaustible and infinite. His capacity to be where famous people or famous events were, or were taking place. The publishing of Tom Sawyer in 1876, the centennial of the country's birth, he's given us an archetypal American character and, of course, his being born and dying with the convergence of Halley's comet. Fishkin: Twain died in 1910. He was 75. At his death he was a revered national figure. The country loved him, and the obituaries and the notices that appeared all over the world showed that the world loved him. Gioia: Shelley Fisher Fishkin. Fishkin: Twain's later years were marked by a lot of very painful personal loss.

During the last 14-15 years of his life, almost everyone he loved was taken from him. Gioia: Ken Burns. Burns: His own son died. Then another daughter, and then another daughter. His beloved father in law a little before that. His wife. By the time he was at the end of his life, he was down to one child, and I think, that he had retreated into the persona of Mark Twain, only because the life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens was so unbelievably painful and impossible to bear. Gioia: Ron Powers. Powers: Humor saved his life, he had that covered. He knew it. He understood it. He said “the real source of all humor is not joy, but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.” And he's absolutely right. One of his gifts was to be able to convert the grief and the anger into humor. Gioia: Ken Burns. Burns: I think when you just survey the whole arc of this man's life, it is filled with the most delicious kind of humor that I know.

This is a man who said, “It's not that the world is filled with fools, it's just that lightning isn't distributed right.” Gioia: Tom's guilty conscience eventually begins to get the better of him. He has a hard time ignoring the fact that the imprisoned Muff Potter is an innocent man. Tom and Huck slowly admit to themselves that they alone have the knowledge to set things right—but at their own great peril. The boys visit Potter at the jailhouse several times to bring small comforts to the poor prisoner, but also to comfort their troubled hearts. P.J. O'Rourke. O'Rourke: I think we're to see in Tom Sawyer a certain moral development. One of the stories being told in there is how an ordinary heathen boy, an ordinary, conscienceless, little creature attains a conscience, which according to Twain's philosophy is basically through love and sympathy for others. Sam Elliot Reads from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer... The boys had a long talk, but it brought them little comfort. As the twilight drew on, they found themselves hanging about the neighborhood of the little isolated jail, perhaps with an undefined hope that something would happen that might clear away their difficulties.

But nothing happened; there seemed to be no angels or fairies interested in this luckless captive. The boys did as they had often done before—went to the cell grating and gave Potter some tobacco and matches. He was on the ground floor and there were no guards. His gratitude for their gifts had always smote their con­sciences before—it cut deeper than ever, this time. They felt cowardly and treacherous to the last degree when Potter said: “You've been mighty good to me, boys—better'n anybody else in this town. And I don't forget it, I don't. Often I says to myself, says I, ‘I used to mend all the boys' kites and things, and show 'em where the good fishin'-places was, and befriend 'em what I could, and now they've all forgot old Muff when he's in trouble; but Tom don't, and Huck don't—they don't forget him,' says I, ‘and I don't forget them.'” [...] Tom went home miserable, and his dreams that night were full of horrors.

The next day and the day after, he hung about the courtroom, drawn by an almost irresistible impulse to go in, but forcing himself to stay out. Gioia: Anne Fadiman. Fadiman: Eventually he knows that he has to do the right thing, and he comes forward in court as a witness on Muff Potter's behalf. Gioia: As Tom uncovers the facts of the graveyard murder to an enthralled courthouse audience, Injun Joe suddenly springs from his seat and dives through a nearby window to escape. For the rest of the novel, Tom and Huck fear their next encounter with the murderous fugitive. Powers: What is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer about? Burns: Well I think there's lots of ways to interpret it. Gioia: Ken Burns. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (TV Series 1980– ) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.

Error The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Tomu Sôyâ no bôken (original title) 26min This cartoon takes about off all the adventures of Tom Sawyer and his friend Huck. This Is the best adaption of Mark Twain (Samuel Clement) book, the quality of It Is above cinema and other... See full summary » Stars: a list of 40 titles created 31 May 2012 a list of 39 titles created 08 Aug 2012 a list of 179 titles created 03 Oct 2012 a list of 46 titles created 17 Oct 2013 a list of 14 titles created 10 months ago Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1980– ) 8.1/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. A brave young boy from Iraq fights evil forces and evil to save the day !

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See full summary » Stars: Ryûnosuke Ôbayashi, Kayoko Fujii, Terue Numanami Escaping from Vega's evil forces, the young Prince of planet Fleed leaves his destroyed homeland aboard the UFO Robot Grendizer, a powerful war machine, and makes it to Earth. Rescued by a ... See full summary » Stars: Hiroya Ishimaru, Chiyoko Kawashima, Ken'ichi Ogata Hello! Sandy Bell (TV Series 1981) Animation | Adventure Hello! Sandybell is the story of a girl who lives in Scotland with her father. She spends her time playing with her faithful dog (Oliver) and her friends. One day she meets the Countess of ... See full summary » Stars: Yuriko Yamamoto, Kaneto Shiozawa, Sean Hayes Edit Storyline This cartoon takes about off all the adventures of Tom Sawyer and his friend Huck. This Is the best adaption of Mark Twain (Samuel Clement) book, the quality of It Is above cinema and other Toons made about him. This will tell of from flying in a ballon, walking on a mine and visiting the ghosthouse and the adventures on Jackson island.

6 January 1980 (Japan) See more » Also Known As: Las aventuras de Tom Sawyer See more » Company Credits User Reviews The best adaptation of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", a hymn to childhood, an anime with timeless and universal appeal .... 7 October 2015 | by ElMaruecan82 (France) – See all my reviews Having watched clips from the 1973 musical adaptation, boy, was I disappointed by the infamous split-up scene between Tom and his sweetheart Becky Thatcher, caused by his first mention of previous fiancée Amy Lawrence. Becky (Jodie Foster) gets up and leaves Tom (Johnny Withaker) who looks more annoyed than upset. In ten seconds, the case is closed. It works more dramatically in the 1980 anime. Tom and Becky discuss on the grass. One thing leading to another, Tom asks her to be his fiancée. Not quite reluctant, she gives her cheek, which he kisses. It's a cute moment that captures children's innocently mature perceptions of relationships. Happily, Tom then gives Becky a bunch of flowers and while she's enjoying the magic of the moment, he mentions Amy and the harm is done.

He mumbles, she throws the flowers at his face and runs away, crying. Tom would weep later, in his bedroom, after having contained himself during the dinner. And it's impossible, not to feel this sadness, enhanced by a beautifully poignant flute tune. And that's how the anime is superior to the film, or any other adaptation. It doesn't just tell stories or anecdotes, like even the novel does, it awakens emotions like joy, sadness and terror, in a blending of narrative genres: drama, adventure and romance. There are so many other great moments like the defining fence whitewashing, the trip to Jackson's Island and the emotional come-back during the funeral, the frog-jumping contest, the glorious hot-air balloon's entrance or the cemetery murder, all make 'Tom Sawyer' one of the greatest animated series. And after 750 movies reviews, I forgot that TV was also the source of cherished memories. And the first TV program coming to my mind was naturally the first to leave an indelible mark in my heart, MY childhood series, in fact, the ultimate childhood series and one of the most emblematic the 80's.

This is probably the only privilege I believe people born in the late 70's and early 80's got: the Golden Age of TV animation, which we most owe to Japan, and more specifically the ambitious World Masterpiece Theater anthology. During three decades, the project consisted on adapting every year children's classics from around the world, which resulted in other unforgettable anime such as "Heidi' or "Princess Sarah", stories that couldn't match the movie format, because of their rich plots and dense universes. And Tom's universe is everything but home and school (although they're part of it): the outside world is the real thing: forests, steamboats coming down the Mississippi River, which Tom dreams to navigate once. Tom embodies all the exhilaration of childhood: thirst for adventures, friendship, courage and freedom, symbolized by that round hat, suspenders and these habits of running (the bad boys' trademark) barefoot with his friend Huckleberry Fynn, fishing some catfishes, building a cabana atop a tree or digging a treasure. The remarkable achievement of the Father of American literature was to use his own childhood backdrop to provide inexhaustible sources of adventures appealing to both children and adults.

However, the series features many scenes of frontal nudity and urination, but they never looked risqué or out of place, they're just boys being boys, period. I guess today, even a cartoon like 'Tom Sawyer' would suffer from a few edit. I just hope it wouldn't go as far as cutting the scene where Dr. Robinson is killed and his corpse revealed. In fact, the show itself made a few progressive moves by sugarcoating the treatment of slaves, and made Jim more a friend to Tom, than the family's slave (although an episode was centered on slavery). Still, this is a show to be enjoyed in an adult way as the episodes make you feel like watching a movie, which says a lot about the quality of anime from that era. In 49 episodes, characters have grown on us, and we all identify with them. At home, there's the authoritarian but loving Aunt Polly who spends half the time wondering where Tom's gone; his nerdy pain-in-the-ass brother Sid, cousin Mary who's the nicest character of all.

And there are the friends, Ben Rogers, the glutton, cowardly but well-meaning son of the grocery owner, Joe Harper, and Muff Potter the lovable drunk who, after being saved by Tom and Huck, tell them about the treasure: the series' obligatory connecting thread, making Injun Joe, the perfect antagonist (although Mr. Dobbins and his obsession for whipping deserves a mention). Injun Joe doesn't appear in many episodes but the effect of his presence is unforgettable. Both Tom and Huck trembles of terror or are paralyzed until he disappears, evilly laughing. They never play heroes with Injun Joe, and even rely on adults like children generally do. The Native villain contributes to one of the most terrifying episodes, starting with the on-screen murder of Dr. Robinson, causing the two witnesses to run, hide and make an oath of silence. The murder's aftermath features heartbreaking moments with Muff and Tom's traumatic nightmares finally leading him to testify against Joe, who literally jumps at him before running away, leaving Tom in the arms of Muff, in tears. During these life-and-death situations, 'Tom Sawyer" is as thrilling as a movie.

The rest of the time, it's a wonderful show served by a gallery of endearing characters, terrific soundtracks... and I still wonder how I ended up being such a Sid, while Tom was my hero. And less a hero because of the adventures than the little touches like his reconciliation with Becky after a 8-episode break-up. Tom takes the blame for having torn the page of Mr. Dobbins' biology book although it was Becky, earning himself the whip of his life. Everyday courage, that's the stuff heroes are made of, and Becky knew it. And 'Tom Sawyer' is the stuff great shows are made of, and today's kids should know it, or him. 4 of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes

Question: What was the name of the girl that Tom Sawyer loved?
Answer: BECKY THATCHER