Tom Sawyer

For other uses, see Tom Sawyer (disambiguation).

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

Thomas "Tom" Sawyer is the 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 has a complete plot, as Twain abandoned the other two works after finishing only a few chapters.

The fictional character's name may have derived from a real-life Tom Sawyer with whom Twain was acquainted in San Francisco, California, while Twain was employed as a reporter at the San Francisco Call. The character himself is an amalgamation 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." Twain was a river pilot at one time, and many of the adventures of his character, Tom Sawyer, are connected with the Mississippi River, and partly derive from this experience.

Character description

Tom Sawyer is a 14 or 15 year old as gathered from hints in Twain's works. He was born in a town on the Mississippi River, where he and Huck grew up. Tom is intended to represent the carefree and wonderful world of boyhood in the antebellum era. Typical of boys in that era, he likes going barefoot most of the time. His best friends include Joe Harper and Huckleberry Finn. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom's infatuation with classmate Rebecca "Becky" Thatcher is apparent. He lives with his half brother Sid, his cousin Mary, and his stern Aunt Polly in the (fictional) town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. In addition, he has another aunt, Sally Phelps, who lives considerably farther down the Mississippi in the town of Pikesville. Tom is the son of Polly's dead sister.

In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom is only a minor character, and is used as a foil for Huck, particularly in the later chapters of the novel after Huck makes his way to the Phelps plantation. Tom's immaturity, imagination, and obsession with stories put Huck's planned rescue of the runaway slave Jim in great jeopardy - and ultimately make it totally unnecessary, since he knows that Jim's owner has died and freed him in her will. 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.

Appearances in works by others

In Frank Capra's 1946 movie It's a Wonderful Life starring James Stewart, the main character's (George Bailey) guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (portrayed by Henry Travers) is furnished with a copy of Tom Sawyer by his heavenly superiors. He later gives this book to George with a short, but meaningful, message on the inside page before the film ends: "Dear George, remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings, Love Clarence."

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 band Rush performs a song titled "Tom Sawyer".

Serbian musician Đorđe Balašević released a song titled "Za sve je kriv Toma Sojer" (trans. "Blame It All on Tom Sawyer") 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 a short Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends clip, Bloo was punished and had to alphabetize the trash. Helped by Mac, he tricks other imaginary friends into doing the work, thinking it was fun. But, just before he was to slip away, he became tricked himself, and shooed everyone away.

The film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has Shane West portraying Tom Sawyer as an adult. He is now "Special Agent Tom Sawyer", working as an agent for the United States Secret Service. Allan Quatermain takes him under his wing in the film. Sawyer also develops an attraction to the team's vampiric member Mina Harker, which she appears to reciprocate in a deleted scene.

In The Fairly Odd Parents episode 'Shelf Life', Timmy wishes Tom out of his book to write a book report for him on his adventures. Tom instead tricks Cosmo into trading his wand for painting lessons and the privilege to white-wash a picket fence (that Cosmo himself poofed-up in the middle of the library). When he finds out, Timmy threatens to send Tom back into his book. Tom doesn't want to 'go back to Missouri', and instead begins hopping through other books and changing their contents to keep just out of reach of Timmy and his fairies.

In the Simpsons episode 'Simpsons Tall Tales' the final tale told by the hobo is a parody of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in which the role of Tom Sawyer is replaced by Bart Simpson and the Role of Huckleberry Finn replaced by Nelson.

In the movie Easy A, Olive (played by Emma Stone) Mentions that most books you read in high school have some immediate significance to things that are going on in high school with 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' being the notable exception, stating that the book is about a boy who runs off with an older black man. Later in the movie, Brandon (Dan Byrd), who's actually gay, runs off with his older black partner. Upon hearing the news Olive exclaims "My apologies to Mark Twain!".

Tom Sawyer is announced in Wizards of Waverly Place where Max pretends his name is Tom Sawyer to impress his new girlfriend. Episode: Max's New Girlfriend

External links

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain at Project Gutenberg