“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain tells the story of Tom, an imaginative and troublesome young boy who never passes up a chance for an adventure. The story takes place in the mid-nineteenth century in St. Petersburg, Missouri. The novel has several themes which include love, imagination, rebellion and superstition.
One of the major themes that the author talks about in this book is childhood love. There are several emotions that Tom experienced when he first meets Becky Thatcher. As stated in the book: “He worshiped this new angel with furtive eye, till he saw that she had discovered him; then he pretended he did not know she was present, and began to “show-off” in all sorts of absurd boyish ways, in order to win her admiration.” (p.17) Afterwards he tries to get Becky’s attention with a doorknob and out of excitement, accidentally mentions his former love, Amy Lawrence, causing the relationship to fall apart. To show us the pain Betty is going through the author carefully chooses his words to show us how powerful love is. The statement: “So she (Becky) sat down to cry again and upbraid herself; and by this time the scholars began to gather again, and she had to hide her grief and still her broken heart and take up the cross of a long, dreary, aching afternoon, with none among the strangers about her to exchange sorrows with.” (p.52) explains the previous fact. For an end of the year exploration Tom’s whole class goes on field trip in a cave. When Tom and Becky realize that they are lost in the caves, he constantly tires to console her and give her some hope for their escape. The passage on page 187, “He sat down by her and put his arms around her; she buried her face in his bosom, she clung to him, she poured out her terrors, her unavailing regrets, and the far echoes turned them all too jeering laughter.” reminds us of an existing love between the two children. Aside from his love for Becky Tom also loves his Aunt Polly and sees her as if she was his own mother. Even though Tom uses every trick in his book to manipulate or deceive his aunt, he doesn’t mean to cause any harm towards her. When Aunt Polly accuses Tom of lying about his dream, he agrees but says that he kissed her before waking up.