Romance to Reality

A response to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

As time passes people expect children to mature and develop into successful adults. The child should always grow up but in Tom’s world, Tom never does. He goes strolling along in life acting the same way as he did when he was a toddler and since this time and place he’s in, lets him, why should he have to change? A boy has to become a man at one point in time otherwise when he gets into the real world outside of his childhood security blanket, he will be caught off guard and get swept way in the harsh waters of life.


The novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer shows us this world of romance that people crave actually did exist and, yes, there is evil, evil that is scary but the evil is still human and still holds human weakness unlike when compared with irony, a world where evil is all powerful and merciless. Tom’s world is painted brilliantly with bright pastels that radiate happiness while our world has those colors but every one is tinted with looming and menacing shadows. The only real evil in Tom Sawyers life is Injun Joe, the murderer of Dr. Robbinson and at the end, the town ends up forgiving Injun Joe. A huge difference between reality and romance is that in a romance world people forgive easily but in real life we have a difficult time with forgiveness because we know our kind and that the evil in a person can emerge at any time, revisiting their old self and knowing they might never change back into the person we thought we once knew. The truly evil never change and people don’t just forgive the evil men and women in the world for what they’ve done because the trust is now broken between them.


Not only is there very few evil in the novel but also the evil accentuates the romance incorporated in town of St. Petersburg. Injun Joe crafts a plan in his head to get the money and to not get the noose tightened around his neck. This plan would have worked out if Tom and Huck hadn’t witnessed the murder on that night in the cemetery. The pair keeps it a secret until Tom’s one moment of weakness comes and he tells all at Muff Potter’s murder trial. Injun Joe hops out the window and escapes from being captured. The romance in this is that Tom holds this dark secret for so long. A huge human weakness is resisting your conscience and only the real cold-hearted evil can keep a secret that leads to something important.


Tom is a child of innocence and is unchanging in his adolescent actions. Tom has the possibility to be a responsible and achieving kid but he has these moments where it is easy to lose all hope for him. Tom, in the novel, shows his evil side combined with his innocent side. When the boys run off to the pirates and Tom watches people mourn over him, this is a sign that Tom really could be evil on the inside. The kid is so lost in the world inside his head that he doesn’t even comprehend the cruelty in his actions and when people call him out, he always finds a way to make it sound right and all in good fun. His obstinate behavior disallows him to see that he really is hurting people without knowing it for instance when Tom tries to get Becky back by making her jealous but almost ruining their mediocre relationship. He needs to expand his practically nonexistent corner of the universe and see what life really is like.