Understanding the Tone

The tone tends to move from one extreme to another throughout the novel. Twain begins the novel with light-hearted language that portrays young boys’ foolishness and naivety only to transition to a darker and more serious tone as the plot continues. The novel is the overall transformation of Tom Sawyer from a boy to a young man, and the language and tone used throughout matches his maturing perspective perfectly. The most important and obvious tone shift occurs when Tom and Huck sneak into the graveyard and witness the violent murder of the young doctor. This causes the boys to make a serious vow of silence and throws them into a very grown-up situation filling them with guilt. The rest of the novel is not nearly as dark as the graveyard scene, but it is definitely not as playful as the beginning. 

Twain keeps a good balance through the end of the novel by keeping it humorous but still effectively addresses the heavy issues at hand. By having a child deal with such mature situations, Twain is able to reach such a broad audience. The character Tom himself is perfect for a child, while the story still satisfies any adult. When I was reading Tom Sawyer and recalling my childhood addiction to the movie Tom and Huck I had two completely different perspectives. I think reading this novel or seeing the movie as a child, you focus more on Tom’s wonderful imagination and adventures instead of Twain’s darker underlying intentions. And now reading it as an adult, I pay more attention to Twain’s purposeful writing than the actual entertainment in the plot. I love how no matter what work of Twain's you are studying it is never just cut and dry, you can always count on him having an underlying meaning for just about everything. 

I sat down to write this post and brainstormed for a while to figure out what book, movie, or song I could connect with this topic and immediately thought of a childhood favorite that everyone knows. The children’s song where everyone joins hands and skips around in a circle singing “Ring Around the Rosy” is a perfect parallel to Twain’s writing in Tom Sawyer. Although the song is sung so sweetly and everyone laughs and falls down onto each other in the end, the meaning of the song is very different from what it seems. The song’s origin can be traced back to England in the 1600’s during the Bubonic Plague. This is such a good example of how something so innocent can have such a dark underlying meaning. And now enjoy this painfully obnoxious demonstration of the song! :)

I would hate to end this post on such a depressing note, so I would like to avert your attention from all of the darkness and shed light on something that I really enjoy about Twain’s writing. Along with his amazing ability to capture such versatile tones in one novel, I am amazed at his wit and accuracy when describing things that the children are saying and thinking. Children think in such distinct and irrational ways sometimes that you just have to smile, and there are so many moments in Tom Sawyer that I just couldn’t stop smiling about because he captured a child’s mind and its inner workings so beautifully. The way he describes blooming relationships between boys and girls, their stubbornness, and the dramatic way they view the world is genius. I thought it was wonderful to  be able to revisit my irrational childhood mind with Twain. Here’s a sneak peak into Little Annie’s irrational-minded and adventuresome days: 

 "...part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in." -from the Preface of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

If I keep this up, it will lead into a few other topics that I plan on discussing in other posts! So I’ll stop here, but keep reading for discussions on the different relationships Tom has, the children’s growing maturity and loss of innocence, and childhood rebellion. Get excited!