The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

In 1876 many Americans were in a mood to look backward. It was the hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The country had come a long way since it won its independence from Britain. The United States was becoming powerful industrial country, with large cities, great factories, and railroads that crisscrossed the nation. For city dwellers, life was growing busier and busier. They longed for a simpler time, without smoke-spewing factories and clanging streetcars. To Americans, small towns and farming communities seemed friendlier thanthe cities. In the Hannibal of Mark Twain’s boyhood, it always seemed to be summer.  For Twain, a summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart. . . .There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. Tom Sawyer is often described as an idyll, and for those of you who might know this definition of idyll, allow me to explain….An idyll is a remembrance of simple, peaceful, and innocent country life, often by a person who now lives in the city. Many parts of Tom Sawyer are certainly idyllic. However Mark Twain does not remember only the pleasant parts of life in Hannibal. Evil is floating around the edges of Tom’s small-town paradise. In addition, we learn more about the social classes- all from the from wealthy, educated people to the penniless drunks, the enslaved African Americans, and the homeless people.

Twain brilliantly contrasts the world of childhood with the world of adults. Often these two worlds are in conflict. More often than not, the young people in Tom Sawyer succeed  in tricking the adults. In many ways, Tom and his friends seem to run the town.  Throughout The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,  Twain shows the reader that he admires imagination. Tom’s greatest strength is his imagination. It leads him to adventure, friendship, and even wealth. It is the quality that lifts him above the townspeople of Hannibal, who are too busy with their daily tasks to pay attention to the wonderful world around them.Imagination lets Tom see the wonder in daily life.Even though Tom Sawyer has a serious side, most of us will remember the novel for its humor. In addition to one of the most famous episodes in American literature (the fence painting), Tom Sawyer contains humor of all kinds. Mark Twain can be sly or clever with words. He can choose slapstick humor or social criticism with a comic sting. The novel also features oddball characters, imaginative misadventures, and introduces us to a new dialect.However, Mark Twain’s humor also has a dark side as we learn his disgust for cruelty, greed, hypocrisy, and  dishonesty. Some critics claim that readers recognize something of themselves in Tom Sawyer.

Tom represents a freedom that few, if any, people enjoy. This is another reason for the book’scontinuing popularity. Who would not want o join in Tom’s search for lost treasure? Who has not dreamed of escaping to a deserted island to fish, swim, and play in the summer sun? Who has not longed to leave real lifebehind for a while and live in a world of the imagination?  I end with a quote from Twain about this novel…“Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred. . . . Part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what unusual enterprises they sometimes engaged in.”

In the hopes of guiding my students to recognize the importance of collaboration, contribution, communication, cooperation, and social awareness, I selected the study of wolves. We began by reading Seymour Simon’s, Wolves, and watching Jim and Jamie Dutcher’s amazing documentary film, Living With Wolves. A collaborative project titled, Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad, Wolf, was compiled to give the seventh grade class additional opportunities to learn more about these incredibly wonderful creatures.  Upon completion of the project, the students wrote poems from a wolf’s point of view. This poetry assignment, Be One With the Wolf Within, can be viewed on the bulletin board in the upper school hallway. One student volunteered to have her poem, titled Omega, posted on the webpage for view. 

Student poem titled: Omega

Dear Seventh Grade Parents,

Each day in the seventh grade brings a new learning experience and your children are an absolute joy to teach. The Outsiders proved to be an immense hit with the class, and as you know, yesterday we had a classroom party to complete our novel unit.  An earlier email included some photographs taken by our special services director, Peg O’Rourke, who just so happens to be a talented photographer who can always be counted on for capturing special moments around our school.

To add to the festivities, Dr. Desmond stopped by and joined in the fun by assisting me in teaching the students to do the swim while dancing to Surfin’ USA by The Beach Boys.  Ms. Barnes dropped in as well, and would be happy to report that the greasers caused no problems at our little gathering.

Although the novel has several themes, below are the three that we focused on, and I am hopeful you will have an opportunity to continue discussing these messages with your child/children.

1.Why it is important to “stay gold,” that is, to keep your youth with its innocence, wonder at the beauty of the world, and understand that we are all related.

2. The divisions between these two groups, and how they are similar to the divisions between cliques and groups in society, and recognizing how and why they are artificial and based on circumstances of birth and random events in life. Socs, like Greasers, have sorrows, problems, difficulties in coming of age, dreams for the future, etc. Divisions between people are harmful because they interfere with friendships and relationships that would normally develop if the divisions were ignored.

3. Violence is never a good way to solve problems.

Before we begin our next novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the class will complete a short study of wolves to learn how wolves are social animals that live in packs with complex, highly organized social systems. The students will compare and contrast how a wolf-pack society is similar to human society.

Your child/children make my world a better place,

Joanie Lampert