One of the main themes seen throughout Tom Sawyer is the loss of innocence. The transition from childhood to adulthood is such prominent idea because the plot takes these young boys from playing around one day to witnessing a murder the next. After the night in the graveyard, you see an immediate change in Tom because of what he has experienced. He has a burden placed on his shoulders and an immediate moral dilemma to face. Should he tell someone what he saw and risk Injun Joe coming after him or should he keep his mouth shut? The struggle between right and wrong is present in any person’s transition to adulthood and we see him struggling with it even after his vow of silence with Huck. His guilt is so heavy that he even takes it upon himself to help Muff Potter our in smaller ways to almost make up for what he isn’t telling. Those actions alone show his progress toward adulthood, because most of the time children don’t feel responsibility to other human beings because they are still so dependent on others. We have to remember that Tom is still a boy though, constantly looking for adventure, yet so tied down by something he thinks he is responsible for.
Reading the book, we all know that the right thing to do is tell someone what happened, but in his dramatic and still-childish mind everything is an adventure and he would be risking his life by telling. Injun Joe obviously is a very dangerous man, but if Tom told somebody he would be protected and Injun Joe would be persecuted. Unless of course we think in Tom’s point of view and picture Injun Joe escaping from imprisonment and finding him in the dark of the night to get his revenge. Then that’s just a whole new adventure and obstacle to face.
When I think about the responsibility and adventure that Tom and Huck take on by vowing their silence, I just think about a classic American movie. The story is a group of boys leaving their homes to go on an adventure to find a boy that had gone missing. They are so immature and childish in the beginning of the film and go through a sort of reality check toward the end that forces them to quickly grow up. Instead of being the hometown heroes by finding the missing boy, they find the body of the boy and are jolted out of their fantasy and into a very grave situation that will change them forever. I think the situations that Tom and the boys from Stand By Me get themselves into are seen as adventures to them because there is the chance that they will become heroes. All any young boy wants is to be the macho man and the savior of the day, so I can understand why these boys always run into mischief. They don’t quite grasp the severity of the their actions and it forces them to leave behind their childish ways and address very serious events.
By the end of Tom Sawyer we still see a boy keen to adventure, but we also see a boy on the verge of manhood. Before the epilogue we see Tom finally being accepted and recognized as the hero that he has always wanted to be. I love the way Twain ends the novel with this idea that Tom is now acknowledged and respected by his small town because it seems to be the fulfillment of his childish dreams. With Tom Sawyer, Twain was telling us the story of a boy, not a man, so he ends it on that note but reassures us that the characters are doing well in their adulthood. I loved seeing Tom’s progression throughout the novel, but I am so glad that Twain leaves us with this image of an adventurous and foolish boy that we hope never truly grows up!
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