Tom Sawyer

     The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic book that can be easily enjoyed, but takes a lot of patients. This story is about a boy's adventurous childhood. This book focuses mainly on the character of Tom Sawyer who lives every day of his childhood to the fullest. This is something we should all do because we only have one life. Tom was always making drama and getting into mischief, but somehow always got out of it using his cleverness and charm. This book was written for people to escape from reality for just a moment, and remember there own childhood. After all, everyone was a kid once. That is the theme of the story, escapism.

     Tom Sawyer has  many different themes mixed in with the main one, but Adventure is one that can be strongly recognized. Although we may not have gotten into as much trouble, we all got into mischief as a kid. But it is Tom's predicaments that define him. Most people do not witness a murder, get engaged,  run away, watch their own funeral, navigate out of a labyrinth cave, and find hidden treasure, all by the age of 13. Sure, it seems unrealistic for all of this to happen to one person, especially to someone of his age, but  Tom seems to bring it on himself. After all, the main theme is escapism. What does mischief and adventure have to do with escapism? In my opinion, if you are stressed out about school, sports, or any other kind of drama, reading about other people's lives can help you to escape from the real world. I know that when I am depressed about something in my life, it helps me to read or watch a TV drama about other people's problems. It makes me feel less alone.

     Even though this book can be stress-relieving, it can also be frustration-inducing. Personally, I thought the beginning of the book was very slow . Not much of importance happened in the book until well into the story. One could also find this book hard to comprehend at times. The fact that the story took place in the 1830's and was written in 1876, has something to do with the matter also. People talked a lot differently 200 years ago. If you decide to read this, you need to understand that culture advances through the years. Some might find this a hard book to enjoy, but if you have a respect for the way of life back then, you could find a lot to like about this book. So, overall, this book is a classic, and could be enjoyable to anyone, if you are open to it.