Coming of Age and Progressing Through Childhood in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

In this novel Mark Twain shows how this young boy named Tom acts as he progresses through childhood. He lives with an aunt named Aunt Polly who is a very strict person. When Tom does things that he should not do she punishes him. Even when he knows that he is wrong and should not be stealing he still does it anyway. He knows what not to do because they are also religious. They go to church almost every Sunday but Tom hates it and thinks that the sermons are boring. After a while adulthood starts to come in and he starts calming down and he does not do the things he used to do. He starts to realize different things and he starts maturing more into a different Tom. The different Tom is better because he obeys, he stopped stealing, he was not as lazy as he used to be so the different Tom was a better Tom. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain shows the coming of age and how the typical American boy progressed through childhood.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom shows how some young kids like him are very rebellious and disobedient. In the beginning of the novel Tom is stealing jam out of the pantry when his Aunt Polly finds him. When Aunt Polly finds him before she can do anything he tricks her into turning the other way, and when she turns the other way he hops over the fence and runs before getting a punishment. In another incident Tom is asked questions by his Aunt Polly because she feels like he did not go to school that day, but little does she know that while she is asking him questions he is stealing sugar. His brother Sid sees him stealing sugar and tells on him but Tom is quick enough to leave the house before he gets a punishment once again. While he left the house he seen this boy on the streets so troublesome Tom decided to start arguing with this boy and then they start fighting over nothing. When he decided to go to his crush house and he got water poured on him he threw a rock at the window and broke it and snuck back in the house. Some children change their attitudes if they go to church or have a role model in their life. Tom goes to church and Sunday School but he thinks that is is very boring and really does not pay attention to what Mr. Walters is saying.

In the story Aunt Polly shows how she disciplines rebellious, disobedient kids like Tom. When he did bad things sometimes she would make him do house work or what she thought was a good punishment for him. In the beginning of the story Tom was stealing jam and she tried to beat him but he tricked her into not beating him. She tries to give him other types of punishment instead of beating him all the time. Tom was stealing sugar at the dinner table and left the house before he got a punishment so when he tried to sneak back in his Aunt Polly told him to whitewash the fence. When Sid tried to steal sugar Aunt Polly blamed it on Tom and beat him even when he did not do it. That really hurt Tom because he got blamed for something he did not even do. And she did not even apologize to him after she found out Sid did it.

After this happens Tom feels very sad and wonders what she would do and say to him if he was to just die. Tom says, “How she would throw herself upon him, and how her tears would fall like rain, and her lips pray to God to give her back her boy and she would never, never abuse him any more” (Twain 21)! After a while she started slacking up on how she disciplined him. Once he went on that pirate adventure with his friends and did not tell her and they thought they were dead she starts to realize that she should not have treated him the way she did. Aunt Polly says, “He warn’t bad, so to say only micheevous. Only just giddy, and harum scarum, you know. He warn’t any more responsible than a colt. He never meant any harm,and he was the best hearted boy that ever was” (Twain 99). When she found out about Tom’s trick she felt like it was cool but she also was disappointed because he did not tell her that it was just fun and games. Aunt Polly got angry because she was made foolish because Joe Harper had already told his mom about Tom’s trick. Even when Tom said he did not think they knew, Aunt Polly could not believe him because she can not trust him anymore even if she tried. At the ending of the novel Tom begins to grow up. He is not the same boy as he was in the beginning of the novel. Even though he might still play a lot and have some childish ways some things he stopped doing for the better. He was not the same Tom that did not do his chores, or the one that stole things, or the one that was lazy he was a more mature Tom.

The adult in Tom came out when he went back to Aunt Polly’s house and considered to leave her a note to tell her that he was okay even though he did not do that. Tom even stopped stealing because at first he always felt like he had to steal things. For example he had stole sugar from the dinner table and also jam from the pantry and always got caught. When he went on the pirate adventure with his friends they stole many different things. When Tom and his friends first met up they each had stolen supplies such as boiled ham, a few trifles, skillet, half cured leaf tobacco, and other supplies. They even stole a raft just so they could get to the journey they was destined to get to. They even pretended to be Indians and decided to smoke a pipe. Before they went to sleep they prayed and they got scared that lightning would come down and strike them because of all the bad things they are doing. When they prayed they promised to not steal as pirates ever again because they knew what they were doing was very wrong and that the bible does not command of that. This is the start of the reason why Tom stopped stealing because they promised not to steal as pirates. Once you get into a habit of doing something you continue to do the same thing over and over so if he did not steal for a long time most likely the outcome after the adventure was going to be him not stealing anymore. He started maturing as an adult and growing up when he witnessed the murder of Dr. Robinson.

Tom got put into a situation that he really did not understand as a boy but he understands when he starts maturing. With all the lies he has ever told once he got into the mature stage everything changed he could not keep silent about the murder and he told the truth about everything. He did not think about himself anymore and he did what was right so when the Widow needed to be saved he goes and help save the Widow.

Tom really set a good example for people like him that starts out pretty rough but starts seeing things different. Some kids are “bad” but all you need is something to turn your life around or somebody to come in your life and teach you certain things other people could not teach you. Aunt Polly could not teach Tom how to start being mature and act like an adult as he got older he had to get into certain situations to where he had to make adult decisions. Beatings are not always the answer if a kid does something wrong because then kids like Tom start to wonder how their guardian would feel if they was to die or run away. You should also take time and talk with your kids to see why they are acting the way they are and maybe that will stop bad behavior. When you start doing things over and over it is a habit so if you steal and you promise not to steal and you do not steal every day you most likely will not steal again if it is a habit. In the story it shows how Tom stole everything he could get his hands on if he wanted something he stole it. As time progressed it took that one situation such as the adventure they went on to change his mindset about stealing since he did not steal again. People always need second chances to prove themselves even if you feel like they do not need a second chance. They can always change and make you realize they are not the same person they used to be.