Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Created by	Mark Twain
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Family	Aunt Polly (aunt), Mary (cousin). Sid (half-brother)

This article is about the character. For the novel by Mark Twain, see The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. For other uses, see Tom Sawyer (disambiguation).

Tom Sawyer is your moms shartItalic text and title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896).

Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom Among the Indians, Schoolhouse Hill, and Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy. While all three uncompleted works were posthumously published, only Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy boasts a complete plot, as Twain abandoned the other two works after only finishing a few chapters.

The fictional character's name may have derived from a real life Tom Sawyer with whom Twain was acquainted with San Francisco, California while Twain was employed as a reporter at the San Francisco Call. The character himself is an amalgam of three boys Twain knew while growing up.

The name Sawyer is derived from the Mississippi River pilot's term for a "tree in the bed of the river with its branches reaching the surface and moving up and down with the current". Mark Twain was a river pilot and much of the adventures of his character, Tom Sawyer, derive from this experience. Most adventures in the book really occurred, with one or two Twain's own. The rest were experiences of boys who were schoolmates of Twain.

Character description

Tom Sawyer is a nice, playful boy, a natural showoff who likes to show his authority over other boys. He is around twelve years old as gathered from hints in Twain's works. Tom is supposed to represent the carefree and wonderful world of boyhood in the early-mid 1800s. His best friends include Joe Harper and Huckleberry Finn. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom's infatuation with Rebecca (alias Becky) Thatcher is apparent. He has a half-brother, Sid, a cousin, Mary, and his aunt is known as Aunt Polly, all with whom he lives. Tom is Aunt Polly's dead sister's son. It is unknown how Tom's mother died.

In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom is only a minor character, and is used as a foil for Huck, particularly in the latter chapters of the novel. Tom's immaturity and obsession with stories and his imagination put Huck's planned rescue of Jim in great jeopardy. Throughout the novel Huck's intellectual and emotional development is a central theme, and by re-introducing a character from the beginning (Tom), Twain is able to highlight this evolution in Huck's character. Tom is treated in a less than stellar light in Huck's novel, often portrayed as selfish, deluded, and particularly racist, for his treatment of Jim and others.

Appearances in works by other creators

In 1968/1969 there appeared a half cartoon/half live action series The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Tom Sawyer; Becky Thatcher, and Huckleberry Finn chased by Injun Joe (the psycho).

Tom Sawyer appears as an adult in the film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where his characterization is based loosely on his appearance in Tom Sawyer, Detective. He is portrayed by Shane West and is an agent of the American secret service, who meets the League in Dorian Gray's library when they are attacked by their enemy the Fantom. Although not one of the six 'planned' members of the League, he is invited to join the team full-time by Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), subsequently proving his worth by helping to save Venice, rallying the League's spirits after they are betrayed by Dorian, and subsequently shooting the escaping Professor James Moriarty (Revealed to be the Fantom's true identity). During the film, he develops a father/son relationship with Quatermain, as well as a possible romantic attraction to the vampiric Mina Harker, which it is hinted that she comes to reciprocate. A deleted scene in the movie and the novelization revealed an ulterior reason for Sawyer to join the League and hunt down the Fantom; the death of his childhood friend and fellow secret service agent, Huck Finn.

"The adventures of Commy Cinya and Minion Sawyer" A book where the arch villain, Cinya, conquers closeby lands through use of her evil communist powers is also loosely tied in with the character.

He appears in an episode of Fairly Odd Parents, "Shelf Life," as a bad boy from Missouri.

He appears in the Futurama, episode The Day the Earth Stood Stupid. In the episode Fry goes through multiple famous stories to stop the Big Brain. He tricks the Big Brain into whitewashing his fence for him, as famously portrayed in the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

In the episode "Simpsons Tall Tales" Bart Simpson and Nelson Muntzplay the role of Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in the third segment of the episode. Huckleberry Finn is also referenced in the episode The Boy Who Knew Too Much, with a plot similar to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

The band Rush performs a song titled "Tom Sawyer", which has also been covered by New York rock band Mindless Self Indulgence and Deadsy

Serbian musician Đorđe Balašević released a song titled "Za sve je kriv Toma Sojer" (trans. "It's all Tom Sawyer's Fault") on his 1982 album Pub. The song tells a story of three boys who ran away from home influenced by The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

In the ABC series Lost, the character James Ford adopted the nickname 'Sawyer' after a confidence man (aliased as Tom Sawyer) made his dad kill himself and his mother. He sought to seek revenge and became a confidence man himself. Also, like Tom Sawyer, he is from the southern United States.

Disney released a movie in 1995 titled Tom and Huck, starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro as the title characters respectively.

Puerto Rican Reggaeton duo, Calle 13 mention Tom Sawyer on their hit, 'Atrevete' (Dare). One line says, "El gori' que ha brinca'o mas charcos que Tom Sawyer", meaning "The gorilla that has jumped more puddles than Tom Sawyer".

In Binbou danshi (Bonbi men) Japanese drama, the 6th episode talks about how the story applies to life

Tom's relationship with Becky Thatcher is debunked in the novel "Becky: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher" by Lenore Hart.

In the VeggieTales DVD Huckleberry Larry, Bob the Tomato is Tomato Sawyer.

External links

Complete ebook in pdf. License creative commons.