Tom Sawyer

I felt one of the interesting aspects we talked about in class was the interaction Tom had with other children. In most of the prior stories none of the main characters had any interaction with children. I feel like maybe the children only interacted with adults because in the nineteenth century children were treated and expected to act like little adults. Tom is the first one to interact with children, but also children of both sexes.
I feel like because Tom was able to hang out with children his own age and do activities that many children would normally do readers are able to relate to him. I know as a child I did not pick out bibles and make toast; however I did hate doing chores and would look for ways to get out of them. Even Tom’s interaction with his friends is something that most readers would relate to. Basically because Tom did hangout with other children his character was less like an adult and therefore more enjoyable

Tom is also one of the first characters in our stories to have encounters with children of the opposite sex. None of the other stories really talked about a child’s first crush or even the general norm for children in dealing with gender differences. Tom acts how you would expect a young boy to act around his crush. “And thus he would die—out in the cold world, with no shelter…would she drop one little tear upon his poor, lifeless form,”(p 27) It is very typical for children in love to want as well as wonder what kind of attention they can get from the opposite gender. Tom’s reaction was different from Gerty when she encounters a boy for the first time. Gerty was very shy and unsure of how to act. Because Tom had had other interactions with children he was comfortable enough with him-self that he just did what it took to get the girls attention.