The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: How Did Tom’s Character Change By The End?
Mark Twain wrote many novels during his lifetime, but one of his most celebrated works is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This novel is centered around the adventures of the titular protagonist Thomas “Tom” Sawyer and his friends, Joe Harper and Huckleberry Finn. Tom Sawyer had many character traits that stayed constant throughout the novel. Despite this, many traits of his changed as well through the course of the novel. He went from simply being a troublesome boy at the beginning to a more responsible adolescent at the end. So, here are three traits of Tom Sawyer that he already possessed before the ending of the novel, followed by three he attained only late in the story.
3. Gallantry
Very early on in the book, Tom Sawyer was often immature or even a bit reckless at times as he was still a young boy. However, he still had plenty of courageous moments. For example, there was one point in the novel where Becky Thatcher, a girl that Tom liked throughout the novel, was incredibly upset at Tom, so much so that she would not even appreciate his attempts at reconciliation. A little while later, she finds a key to open the teacher’s desk drawer, which conceals an anatomy textbook that the teacher wanted to keep hidden, for it reveals the secret that he would like to be a doctor rather than a teacher. Tom enters the room and startles Becky, which results in her tearing a page out of the book. She starts to cry, realizes that she will be punished, and she blames Tom for making her rip the page.
Soon, the teacher returns, and interrogates each child to find out who it was. He reaches Becky, who Tom immediately begins to think will give away the fact that she tore the page out of the book, as she was incredibly nervous and upset. Courageously and without a moment’s hesitation, Tom takes the blame instead. This was a very noble act, especially considering Tom had no hand in tearing the page out whatsoever, despite the fact that he got into trouble often. Furthermore, it takes him no more than to realize what situation Becky was in and what he had to do. In a hot second, he rises out of his seat and says that he was the one who did it, which is immensely brave for a boy of his age.
2. Resourcefulness
Tom Sawyer was always a resourceful boy from the beginning, but this trait of his was often overshadowed by his stubbornness, recklessness, and immaturity. Tom was always great at catching on to things and was much sharper than a lot of his friends and acquaintances. One prominent example of this is when he is asked to paint the fence one day by his aunt. He does not want to do it, so he comes up with a clever plan to trick his friends and other boys into doing it for him. He knows that now he will want to paint the fence for the same reason that he does not want to. Despite this, he figures out that if he makes the job seem appealing and fun, the other boys will jump at the opportunity to be able to complete it.
His theory works, and soon, boys are lining up to take a turn to paint a small amount of the fence each. In addition, Tom Sawyer demands that each of them give him something of theirs in exchange to have a chance painting the fence. This way, not only does he not have to do it, but he is also receiving items that belong to his friends. This was an incredibly brilliant plan of his, and the fact that Tom managed to trick so many boys the same age as he was shows that he really is ahead of his time.
1. Adventurousness
Finally, Tom Sawyer never ceased to prove that he was an adventurous child. Though Tom grows a lot from the first page of the novel to the last, both physically and in terms of maturity, one aspect of him never changed, and that was that he had adventures consistently throughout his life. Tom’s playful, curious, determined, and brave personality causes him to be better suited for adventure than many kids of his age. Though some of his adventures are small in comparison to others, every adventure proves that he is incredibly plucky and quick-witted.
From running to Jackson’s Island pretending to be a pirate to hunting for buried treasure in a haunted house, Tom proved that instead of waiting for adventure to come to him, he would always go find it first. With the help of his friends Joe Harper and Huckleberry Finn, Tom found himself caught in all sorts of trouble that kept readers hooked and engrossed them in the novel. No matter what, Tom would never stop adventuring, and this was one of the reasons that The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was such a charming novel.
3. Maturity
Though Tom Sawyer was always very determined and driven, his immaturity came in the way of his decision-making throughout the first parts of the novel. This quality of his greatly affected the way he acted, and stopped him from being mature. For instance, when Becky Thatcher was incredibly upset at him, he tried to apologize but she did not want to accept it. Then, Tom angrily left, which shows how his pride got in the way of him handling the situation in a mature manner. Becky Thatcher then realized her mistake for not forgiving him, and called out his name. Tom did not understand that Becky was incredibly hurt, and it was just as much his fault for upsetting her as it was hers for not forgiving him, if not more.
However, this changes over time. Tom begins to have much more maturity and does not let pride or gluttony cloud his thinking as often. One good example of this is his navigation out of the cave. If he had been as immature as he was during the first part of the novel, letting petty matters get in the way of his better judgement he would have given up trying to find his way out of the cave just as Becky did. Luckily, he is incredibly driven to get himself and Becky out of the situation, no matter how long it takes or how much work it takes. Not only does this take a great amount of determination and persistence, it also takes maturity and proves that Tom has indeed grown since the start of the story.
2. Responsibility
If Tom lacked one important quality at the beginning of the book, it was responsibility. Being as clever and crafty as he was, Tom would always look for shortcuts or ways to get himself out of situations or problems that he caused or that it was his responsibility to fix correctly. He never could quite take responsibility for his actions and faults, or even do what he was supposed to do. He, like Huckleberry Finn, always wanted to get out of doing work, and often did not fulfill his obligations and commitments. He was always a troublesome boy, and never understood why being responsible was so important.
By the end, however, this could not have changed more: Tom became an incredibly responsible adolescent. He began to do things that he had to do, instead of looking for ways to get out of it. He also took responsibility for his actions, which greatly improved some of his relationships. For example, he takes responsibility to help his friend Huckleberry Finn be more respectable in society. He convinces him to stay at Widow Douglass’s and attend Sunday School, among many other things, which readers may notice were things that he neglected in the beginning of the book. As he grows older, his responsibility comes into play and he begins to realize the importance of not being the way he used to be.
1. Virtuousness
Though Tom always got himself into trouble, by the end of the story it was clear that he had a strong moral conscience. Instead of doing what is best for him, he begins to do the right thing to do which begins to make the readers view him in a different way. Despite this change being slightly inconsistent, the later parts of the novel have a myriad of situations in which Tom is virtuous. One of the most notable, however, is his testimony at Muff Potter’s trial.
Instead of letting Muff Potter be blamed for a crime that he did not commit, Tom Sawyer takes action and makes a testament at the trial, explaining what had really happened. This shows a lot of character development from the start of the book in countless ways. Not only is Tom no longer lazy, he is also incredibly courageous to do this. But most importantly, it shows how he truly is beginning to believe that it is important to do what is right, which shows how much he had grown as the plot unfolded.
Tom Sawyer pulled himself into a gargantuan amount of trouble in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but with that said, Tom grew immensely from start to end, especially in terms of maturity. Over time, he becomes more mature, responsible, and virtuous, despite always being gallant, resourceful, and above all, adventurous. As Tom changed from a child to an adolescent, he began to value and appreciate these traits more as he realized it was important to do what was right. This greatly improved not only his life, but also the lives of others around him.
