Book 20: Finished.

I finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer loving is just as much as I always have. It is hard to say anything negative about a book the captures the spirit of childhood and adventure so well.

Sure, it might not stand up to Dostoevsky or Austen in regards to real human emotion, but I love it anyway. It is not meant to be a novel read for depth, but for enjoyment. It is the kind of book meant to be read at night when you're tucking in your children, or to give a child for Christmas so they can get lost in childhood fun.

Tom is the prime example of youth so how can that be a bad thing?

As it says in the conclusion;

"So endeth this chronicle. It being strictly a history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go on much further without becoming the history of a man. When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop-that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can," (227-228).

And while I have read this at different stages of my life-youth and adulthood, I still love it just as much, if not a little more. Perhaps it is because Tom reminds the reader of childhood, and how the biggest adult issues still seems to be just fun to a child. Or how children can always surprise you (by running away for a few days then popping up at their own funeral).

But, it is just a novel about American youth and vitality and how, if you try really hard, good things can come your way. It definitely is a far cry from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I am less familiar with, but special in its own way.

Happy Reading.

Book 20: Why I Love Tom Sawyer.

I said in yesterday's post that I absolutely adore the character of Tom Sawyer and I wish I could someday have a boy just like him. I told Matt this and he looked at me like I was crazy. I mean, Tom is known for crazy antics, running away, and mischievous schemes, but I love him anyway. Although, I am sure that if I do get blessed to have a boy like him, I may regret this post in the future.

One of the main reasons I love him is that he knows everything about everything. And he usually gets the boys that surround him to go along with what he wants. Take for example the point in time where Tom, Joe, and Huck run away to the island. Here is a snippet of Tom's influence on the others,

"Joe was for being a hermit, and living on crusts in a remote cave, and dying, sometime, of cold and want and grief, but after listening to Tom, he conceded that there were some conspicuous advantages to a life of crime, and so he consented to be a pirate," (94).

Once the boys are on the island, hidden away from the town, Huck asks,

"'What does Pirates have to do?'
Tom said:
'Oh, they have just a bully time-take ships and burn them, and get money and bury it in awful places in their island where there's ghosts and things to watch it, and kill everybody in the ships-make 'em walk a plank.'
'And they carry the women to the island,' said Joe; 'they don't kill the women.'
'No,' assented Tom, 'they don't kill the women-they're too noble. And the women's always beautiful, too,'" (99).

Even though the reader can be 100% positive that Tom has never encountered a pirate, he can pretend and play that he does to get the others to go along with his schemes.

Another great example of Tom's vast knowledge of everything comes in near the end of the novel. Here, Tom is explaining to Huck how gangs work. Again, you can be sure that Tom is really going all out to get Huck to understand how a ransom works and what it is:

"Money. You make them raise all they can, off'n their friends; and after you've kept them a year, if it ain't raised then you kill them. That's the general way. Only you don't kill the women. You shut up the women, but you don't kill them. They're always beautiful and rich, and awfully scared. You take their watches and things, but you always take your hat off and talk polite. They ain't nobody as polite as robbers-you'll see that in any book. Well, the women get to loving you, and after they've been in the cave a week or two weeks they stop crying and after that you couldn't get them to leave. If you drove them out they'd turn right around and come back. It's so in all the books," (214).

See? You just have to love Tom for all his knowledge.

But the real reason I love him? It all comes down to one scene, and probably the most famous scene in the novel.

Of course I am talking about the scene where Tom is being punished by having to whitewash the fence. While the other boys in town get to go out and play, Tom is painting. But, he soon turns it around so he is not doing a spic of work:

"'Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?'
The brush continued to move.
'Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?'
That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth-stepped back to note the effect-added a touch here and there-criticized the effect again-Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:
'Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little,'" (23).

Of course Tom hems and haws a bit before insulting the boy by saying,

"Yes, she's [his aunt] awful particular about this fence; it's got to be done very careful; I reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it's got to be done," (23).

Of course Tom caves, and soon boys from all over are clamoring to help paint the fence by trading Tom precious items in return for a stab at painting the fence. That is pure genius. I love it and I hope my future boys will have that skill. Okay, maybe that's mean, but you have to see how clever Tom is and I have all the respect in the world for cleverness.

Anyway, that's a bit about why I love Tom so much. He's such a great, well-developed character that really comes to life in the way he talks and his attitude throughout the novel. I just love him to pieces.

(Can you tell?)

Book 20: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

I have a big soft-spot for Mark Twain. I think he must have been a very humorous man to know and I would love to have an opportunity to pick his brain. He wrote what I think to be one of the best pieces of writing ever: Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses. I should be fair and say that I have only read one of Fenimore Cooper's works, but it was the biggest chore of my life and I hated every moment of it (I read The Pioneers for an English class in college).

The fact that Mark Twain cites the first offense as, "That a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the "Deerslayer" tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in air."

What's not to love?

Twain has also critiqued a lot of other works and I always find his reviews to be honest and wonderful to read. He had this to say about Austen: “I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.” Now, I love Pride and Prejudice, but really, how can you not love Twain for his honest review?

Anyway, I only have two Twain titles on my list: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I have read both countless times and adore them each for different reasons. But Tom? I have a soft spot for Tom Sawyer. I would love to have a little boy as smart and as clever as Tom. I mentioned as such to Matt when I told him I was reading this and he looked at me like I was insane (But at least Matt knew who he was, as Tom Sawyer is one of the books our school district required everyone to read in the eighth grade).

The last time I read this it was for fun a few summers ago. My copy is pretty battered, but I love it anyway. There is a large essence of childhood and youth lingering around Tom Sawyer and I hope I can recapture some of that as I read through it once again.

Sunday Salon: February 7, 2010.

While Matt is in the other room cuddling with the cats and watching the Super Bowl, I decided to sneak into the second bedroom, aka our "den," to write this quick little post of the week. It's how we do things. :)

I am not a big professional football fan. I mainly watch for the commercials. My two favorites this year were the Doritos commercial with the little boy teaching his mom's date a lesson, and the Dodge Charger commercial. Both were winners in my book. But I still don't like Doritos (I actually don't like any kind of chip), and I can't afford a Charger. So I guess those ads didn't fulfill their purpose, huh?

This has been a relatively decent week in reading. I am still behind in reviews (about a week or so), but I am slowly catching up. I don't like to post more than once a day, so I am trying to space out the posts I already have written. Hopefully it all evens out soon. I don't like being so far ahead. The pressure of not having a post written makes me read faster. Er. Not really. I just pretend it does.

Anyway, I managed to finish The Winter's Tale last Sunday night like I knew I would. I picked up The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain shortly after and managed to fly through it. I finished it Friday night. It was still just as good as I remembered. I started Washington Square by Henry James yesterday and I only have about 30 pages left, so it should get finished tonight.

I'm not really sure what I should read next. I've been more or less just staring at my shelves until a title pops out at me, but nothing is popping. I'm thinking I should read a romance (maybe Wuthering Heights?) seeing as it is February and all, but I don't know if I want to tackle that.

Well, I best go join the husband.

Happy reading everyone!