Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

5 star:		(120)
4 star:		(73)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The adventures of Tom Sawyer was a great book for a beginner reader. I would recomend this book to every one and people who are trying to learn their second language english. The reason I like this book is because it was easy to read and was very adventrous. This book is very fun to read because it has many surprises and thisngs you wouldnt expect from a small boy like not listing to any one and run away from home. I thought this book would be boring and to easy and i would not enjoy it but i was wrong. This book turned out to be not to easy and was one of the best books i have read this year. The only reason this is the best book I read this year is because it is the only book I read this year. I hope the next book I read will be longer and better than this book I read.

The book starts out with Tom Sawyer, a mischievous boy, just trying to have fun. He plays hooky on a Friday and then has to work on Saturday because his Aunt Polly finds out. Tom doesn't want to work so he convinces other kids to take the privilege of doing his work for him. He even persuades the kids to give him something so they can work for him.

As the book continues, Tom becomes interested in Becky Thatcher, the daughter of Judge Thatcher. Their relationship doesn't work out so Tom becomes friends with Huckleberry Finn. They decide to go to the graveyard one night to find a cure for warts, instead the witness the murder of Dr. Robinson by the Native American Injun Joe. Tom and Huck are so scared that they run away and exchange blood to make an oath that they will never tell anybody about the murder. The murderer Injun Joe blames the murder on Muff Potter, an unlucky drunk. Tom now feels guilty that Potter is arrested instead of the real killer, but doesn't do anything about it.

Tom, Huck, and Joe, another friend, decide to run to an island and be pirates. They are just boys that want to try new adventures and have fun. However, when they are gone, all of their loved ones think they are dead so they have a funeral. The boys noticed how much their relatives missed them that they come to their funeral. The community is very happy to see them back, and all their friends think that they are heroes. When the murder trial comes around, Tom decides to testify about what he saw, and Injun Joe runs out of the courtroom. During the summer, Tom and Huck go looking for buried treasure and see Injun Joe hiding treasure in a house. Injun Joe sees Tom and Huck's shovels and decides not to bury the treasure there. Huck watches Injun Joe every night to try and get the treasure. He then over hears Injun Joe's plan to attack the Widow Douglas. Huck then runs for help to stop any violence.

Tom becomes better friends with Betty, and they both go into a cave and get lost. They are lost for a couple of days and are out of food. They run into Injun Joe who is using the cave as a hideout. Tom finally finds a way out and Betty's dad, Judge Thatcher, locks the cave so Injun Joe starves to death. After about a week, Tom and Huck go back into the cave and get the treasure. Huck is adopted by the Widow Douglas who he saved earlier.

The author kept me interested by keeping the plot going and going. Once you thought that Injun Joe was caught, he escaped. I like the story that the author tells. It is an adventure of an imaginative boy who is not afraid to do anything. I don't think this book is very unique because it ends with a happy ending.

Tom's family is pretty normal for that time period. His family consists of a mischievous boy, a caring but discipline guardian, a mean half-brother, and a close to perfect cousin. The author tries to make this book as realistic as possible so the characters are believable. For example, Huckleberry Finn is a believable character because he has a drunk as a father and has a lot of freedom. I think that Injun Joe is a very memorable character because he is a murderer. The author made me care about the characters by putting them in bad situations. For example, I cared about Tom when he was stuck in the cave and couldn't get out.

The theme in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer has to deal with Tom maturing throughout the book. In the beginning, Tom was an imaginative boy that made childish pranks and got him and others in trouble. However, by the end of the book Tom was putting other peoples concerns above his. For instance, Tom took the blame for the book that Becky ripped. He also testified in court for Injun Joe's trial. Tom changed from a little boy to a growing man in his maturity level. I think that the author did a good job of achieving this message by setting Tom up to change drastically.

this was a very good book and a very good and smart purchase on my part. i liked it alot and i would recommend it. good shipping and customer service as well

Excellent vendor... product Product arrived very quickly and book in perfect condition... excellent vendor !

Although I have always enjoyed Mark Twain's work--his Diary of Adam and Eve is one of my favorites--I've never read Tom Sawyer. Recently I found a small book from the Barnes-Nobel collector's library and decided to read it. That particular issue is probably not the best to use, especially for a first introduction because it is badly edited and exhibits an inordinant number of spelling errors and misplaced words. Certainly for a volume one will use for quotations in any paper one writes a better copy, like the one above, would be more desireable.

Despite his depression in later years, Mark Twain captures the sly sense of humor and dry wit that is a characteristic of American humorous writers: O'Henry and Will Rogers, among them. This is well illlustrated in Tom Sawyer, a novel about being a kid, not just in the 1880s but any time. Twain gets right into the heart and mind of childhood, it's myths, superstitions, trials and victories, even it's great philosophies: "He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain (p. 25)." (The latter a gloss on the whitewashing of Aunt Polly's fence.)

Truly a Twain and truly a joy.

For THOSE WRITING PAPERS: in English literature. How might Twain stack up against a modern humorist? What types of things make this a "dated" work? Why does that datedness appeal to many readers. How is Tom like modern children? Mark Twain was an adult when he wrote the book. Do you think that that fact makes the story less about a child and how he views the world and more about how an adult remembers being a child? Watch a film about Tom Sawyer. How has Hollywood reworked the story? Does seeing some of Tom's adventures help one enjoy them more? Or does getting "inside his head" through the book make it more enjoyable?

If you're reading this review and expect to find some new insight or original thought as it has to do with this great book, don't. Because there is no way I'm going to be able to add anything to the thousands of things already written about it. What I instead aim to do is to get you to read the thing, if in case you already haven't. (There, see, here I go imitating the darn thing, and an awful job of it too, no doubt.)

The first thing I would tell you is that the book is an "adventure," which, well, you've probably already figured out, that word being in the title and everything. The point is, the plot just rollicks along, with Tom and Huck witnessing a murder, running away from home, and finding a buried treasure. So if that's all you're interested in--a good plot--well, here you go. Okay, okay, it's maybe just a tiny little bit improbable, especially the treasure part, but again, it's an adventure and it'll keep you on the edge of your seat and don't let this stop you.

The next thing that's real good about this novel is that it almost perfectly captures boyhood: the wild swings between joy and despair; the bravado of confrontation; the excitement of sneaking out at night; the pretending to be cowboys and pirates; the fascination with bugs and dead cats; the monotony of school and church; and the constant, never-ending, daily conflict between doing the right thing and the wrong thing. All of this is familiar to anyone--boy or girl but particularly boy--who has had the happy experience of being a young human-being in America.

What's also great is the way the book captures time and place, giving us a rare glimpse into a rural America that existed a hundred and sixty years ago. A rural America in which an apple--or for that matter an apple CORE--was a real treat. Tom has two sets of clothes: the ones he wears every day of his life, and the "other" ones, those he wears on Sundays. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, wears shoes during the summer. Here is a description of the village "pariah," Huck Finn, the first time we meet him: "Huckleberry was always dressed in the cast-off clothes of full-grown men, and they were in perennial bloom and fluttering with rags. His hat was a vast ruin with a wide crescent lopped out of its brim; his coat, when he wore one, hung nearly to his heels . . . ; but one suspender supported his trousers; the seat of his trousers bagged low and contained nothing . . ." You get the idea. The wayward son of the town drunk was "idle," "lawless," "vulgar" and "bad." Naturally, all the boys looked up to him.

The book is also ridiculously funny, but I guess I'm not going to go into that. Look. There's nothing more for me to say. If you haven't read this book, then do it. Not because some teacher told you to, or because you've been told it's grand literature or some other such nonsense, or, God forbid, you think you might learn something. Hang it, you need to read this for no other reason than that the book is just plain old fun. Why, I've read it about ten times over the years and I still think it's fun. In fact, more so maybe than the first time I read it. So there. Nothing more, nothing less, and let's just leave it at that.

Now that I have completed The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, I can see why it is such a renowned classic. It tells the story of Tom Sawyer, a carefree boy who looks for nothing more than to have fun in life. Mark Twain called it a "hymn" to boyhood, as it is an accurate depiction of the life every young boy desires. His adventures vary from the many runaways, to his cleverness with chores (the whitewashing of the fence) and the chilling witness of a murder. His many experiences, have aided his transition from an immature boy, to a well versed, developed young man. Many lessons can be learned from this classic tale. Through his actions Tom displays an enviable character who has no regard for rules and society. His lighthearted spirit, subconsciously questions, what are rules if they are not broken, and what is "society." The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, is truly a timeless masterpiece which will withstand the test of time, and provide excellent literature for generations to come.

I can't paint the fence in front of my house without thinking of Twain's TOM SAWYER or HUCK FINN. But besides that, these two classics are imbedded within the American mind--they're really as important to us as the Statue of Liberty and the Jefferson Memorial. So many books that have followed owe a debt to Twain, either for their use of the child narrator voice, the humor, or the insight into the human condition. Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD comes to mind, as does McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, Salinger's CATCHER IN THE RYE, and a host of others. Sawyer is a gem of a book and the term "Classic" doesn't even begin to cover it. As corny as this sounds, SAWYER is as American as apple pie.

In this book, the author, Mark Twain shows his insights into humanity by portraying them through the eyes of a naive young boy. Twain shows the flaws in humans by nature and also the good side of humans. The flaws are more of a focus in this book in my opinion, flaws that are poked at by satire. Many things, everyday things, are turned into a satire in this book. Although some things are blatantly made fun of, the literary device of satire is one used most often to do so. Things that are part of everyday peoples' lives, such as religion, are portrayed in a comical spoof way. The feeling that Twain had a bad experience with organized religion is one that every reader should get from the text. Or, perhaps it is his belief that organized religion is for those superficial and shallow. The kind of people that are insecure about what other people think of them, so since others are going to church and getting involved they will too. I feel the same way that Twain does about this such thing. All in all, his use of this literary device strengthens the book, giving it not only substance but entertainment value. Twain is able to take a random and normal setting and make it special to the reader. Set in early southern 1900's America, a place where not very much went on, he took the life of a young boy and made it entertaining, good literature. Tom Sawyer, a typical misbehaved young boy growing up through grade school, is the protagonist of this book. Twain makes him a literary character that one can never forget, a simple character, yet one that will always parallel someone that one may encounter. This book is filled with many unforgettable characters, such as Tom, Aunt Polly, and Huck. Twain is undoubtedly one of the best American writers that has yet to write, many of his writing styles and techniques have been the basis of many other stories. He wrote at a time where fantasy was almost not appropriate. The status quo of literature was one that showed the real truths of life, this most likely because of the aftermath of the Civil War. This period of American literature is called Realism, because there was no fantasy, there was no romanticism and there was no outrageous fiction. People wanted to see the cold hard truth in that grim time. A country always has to grieve after such a thing as a war, and it is a process. From this process of grieving we were given the period of realism. Twain was, and is, the most popular author of this period, because his writing was simple, yet so entertaining. In this particular book, he used many literary devices to strengthen his text. All throughout the book Tom is portrayed vividly in the reader's imagination, reminding us all of simpler times. Twain's satire of this period is humorous and enjoying to read. Twain pokes fun at the popular things of his time such as, convention and proper etiquette. The literary device of satire backs Twain's text and enhances the reading experience of the book.

I first read this when I was about 12 years old and bored out of my mind one summer. I discovered an old tattered copy among my father's faded leather-bound tomes on a shelf in our hallway. By the end of the first chapter I was hooked. This was the first, and remains one of the very few books I've EVER read that I literally could not put down once I got started. I remember effortlessly reading over 100 pages of it one day (and getting a stiff neck as a result) and being amazed that I was able to read so much in a few hours and that I even enjoyed every minute of it. This is the ultimate book for reluctant boy readers. Tom and Huck are two of the greatest character creations in all of American literature. And their adventures are sheer pleasure to read. Once the reader finds himself in the graveyard with the dead cat at midnight, that's it. He's a Twain fan for life.

To this day I find Tom Sawyer a much more fun book to read than Huck Finn. And I think that even for today's Internet and MTV generation, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer can rival anything, even the ubiquitous Harry Potter books for holding a reluctant reader's interest. 25 stars out of 5!!