Tom Sawyer Characters

To describe Tom Sawyer in words is nearly impossible. He doesn't follow the rules, and he doesn't care if that's right or wrong. He loves his family, and his aunt is always patient with him, but that doesn't stop him from doing wrong. Tom has a way of turning off his conscience when he wants to have fun, and turning it back on to beg for forgiveness. He isn't like other boys in the sense that he is clever and knows how to play his cards. He hates work, and he hates getting caught even more. He is very superstitious. He is also best friends with Huck Fin.

Huck Fin is Tom Sawyer's wing man. he doesn't have a home and he has a drunk for a dad. His behavior is worse than even the town's pariah Tom Sawyer. He doesn't really have any friends, until he meets Tom. He is motivated by having to take care of himself because he has no one else to do things for him. He enjoys having fun as well, but he more talks the talk then walks the walk. Tom and Huck make perfect best friends because they understand each other's trouble making ways. Huck is even more superstitious then Tom.


Sid, Tom's little brother, is completely the opposite of Tom. He is considered a goody two shoes because he would never dream of doing anything Tom does, let lone do it. He takes pleasure in telling on his brother because though it makes Tom angry, it brings him favor in the eyes of his aunt. He is hard worker and follows all the rules placed in front of him. he is exactly the boy every mother would want.

Amy lawrence is Tom's ex-fiance. She is a sweet girl, who didn't know any better than to accept Tom's proposle. She is a good girl and does well in school.

Becky Thatcher is the girl Tom proposed to after he broke it off with Amy Lawrence. She was tricked into believing that she was Tom's first fiance, and took pride in that fact. she enjoys teasing Tom because he is an easy target to playfully annoy.

Injun Joe is the man who believes he murdered the doctor. He has a very guilty conscience too because when he awoke from being knocked out he had the weapon on his hand. He is more talk then walk because even though he always carries a weapon he's never actually killed anyone. He is very gulible as well because he believed he is the killer even though he not.

The Essay

As I stepped out into the hall after fourth period, I wasn’t sure which way to go. If I turned left, it would take me too long to get to my next class and I would be late. But If I turned right, I would run into Josh, the school bully. I weighed my options. I could be late to class, or I could lose my face. I decided that I would rather be late. So I turned left and stared jogging down the long hallway that led to my English class. I looked at the clock every time I passed one and watched the minutes tick by. I was scared to be late because my English teacher already didn’t like me, so the last thing I needed to do was make her have another reason to dislike me. If only I could explain the situation to her. But I couldn’t, and as I walked in the door to room 203, every head turned, including Mrs. Hanscom’s, who was wearing a terribly frightening scowl on her face. I wanted to become invisible. As I walked to my seat with my head down, she began talking to me, “Mr. Brown, would you like to explain to me and the rest of the class why you’re late? I’m sure it’s a pretty fantastic story.” Her lips turned up into an evil smile. “Well, I, uh, I dropped all my books in the hallway and it took me a minute or two to pick them up,” I still had my eyes on my floor. “Is that so? Strange, isn’t it, that it would take you that long to pick up one measly notebook…?” she faked a confused expression. “Well, you’re right, in a normal situation it shouldn’t have taken that long, but, um, well, you see after I dropped it a bunch of kids ran by and kicked it across the floor because they didn’t see it. “Oh, well, that explains so much, but honestly that would only take about thirty second total, so please, continue.” Uh-oh, she was catching on, I told myself I would have to come up with a pretty great story to fill five minutes of being late, so I said, “Well, you’re right, it is a pretty great story, but It would take too long to tell.” She grinned her evil grin again, “All right then, class, make yourselves comfortable, this could take a while.” I could feel my cheeks turning pink from embarrassment. What was I going to say? “Well, also, I don’t think you would really believe me… it sounds really… fictional.” Her face turned into a scowl again. She could see I wasn’t going to cooperate, and I could see she was getting annoyed with that fact, “Fine,” she snapped, “Then why don’t you write me a story—special assignment just for you, Sam—and tell me exactly what it is that took you five minutes to get to class.” I swallowed loudly. At least I would have all night to think of an excuse. “Ok,” was all I could say because my voice was too shaky to say any more. She looked pleased that I was floundering, and decided her work was done. “All right class, let’s all get out our text books and read a little.” And then the day continued like every other day, and I began to slowly forget all about the essay I was going to have to write when I got home. When the day was over, I walked home like I did every day. When I got to my house, which was empty as usual, I went through my normal routine of snacking and relaxing before I started in on my homework. Eventually, though, I was going to have to do, just get it over with. But just as I was pulling out my history book, there was a tap on the window; just a slight one, but enough to grab my attention. It had been hot all day and there had been no breeze so it wasn’t simply the wind. I got up walked slowly to the window, expecting nothing. And that’s what I say, nothing. But just as I was about to turn around a light caught my eye, green and spooky-looking. I craned my neck, trying to see where the light had been coming from but again saw nothing. And there was a tap on the door.
The way my house was set up made it so that you had to go all the way around a large staircase, two hallways, and the living room just to get to the door. This sometimes took a while, so I was sure that was why there was no one at the door. I double checked anyway, looking down both side of the long porch that wrapped around the house. When I still saw no one I went back inside and sat down on the couch. I always over thought everything; it was one of my weak spots. And I was doing it again, sitting there, wondering if I was being ding dong ditched or if my life had suddenly transformed into some sort of horror cat-and-mouse kind of thing. I was also a little over creative. Or so my mom—and my teachers and my friends’ parents and even the mailman—had told me. But I couldn’t help it.
In the end reason won over and I decided that it was probably the little girl who had a crush on me and was my neighbor. We didn’t have a gate to our backyard—another project my mom had said she would “get around too” but never would because she was always busy with work and being a single mother was hard enough—so I assumed that was how she tapped on the back window. The green light I still couldn’t figure out, but it didn’t matter much. I wandered back to my homework, still untouched, and then I remembered the essay.
“Oh, no,” I thought out loud. What in the world was I going to write about? I was a bad liar, and everyone knew it. I was sure I would sound even worse on paper. I started pacing, racking my brain for excuses. They all sounded so stupid, it would be obvious I was making them up: I slept through my alarm clock, and my mother never woke me, I stepped in a mud puddle walking to school and had to go back and change, I was abducted by aliens…
Then the tapping started up again, this time from all sides. It was like I could have gone to any window and heard tapping outside of it. It sounded a lot like golf-ball sized hail. But when I looked out the nearest window I saw nothing again, and just like last time the tapping stopped. Whatever this was, it was getting on my nerves, and I wanted to figure out what it was. So I got up, took the longest strides I could, and when I got to the door, instead of looking for someone I walked all the way out to the front yard and looking up. And there it was; flashing green lights and all, right above my house.
I tried too think clearly and not too over creatively, but I just knew it was a spaceship. It had flailing limbs that looked a lot like tentacles coming out of it, and I was sure that was what was making the tapping noises on my windows and doors. Was no one else seeing this? I wondered. Looking around, I saw no one. No one else had come out of their houses to see what all the commotion was about. Then I heard a whooshing sound and looked up again to see a door extending from the ship. I turned to run inside but before I could something was picking me up and I was flying through the air.
Before I could blink I was inside the spacecraft. I realized that it was a mechanical arm that was what had pulled me inside. But that was it; the rest of the room was empty. Then another door opened it led to a long, skinny hallway that was very dark. I didn’t really have anywhere else to go, so I started down the hall. When I got about halfway down, the door slid shut behind me. The hallway was pitch black and I couldn’t see a thing, so I walked with my hands out in front of me. When I felt something cold and solid which I assumed to be a door, I waited. When it opened, I stepped inside.
This room was full, teaming with people, or rather, aliens. They weren’t green though, like what I would have expected, but they looked a lot like humans, except they were much, much taller, and had really large heads; they looked ready to pop. They weren’t very scary looking, so that’s why it didn’t freak me out when on of them walked up behind me. I still jumped when it tapped me on the shoulder though. When I turned around, I realized they were even taller than I had originally thought. I had to look straight up just to see their faces.
“Hello,” it began, its tone very formal. “We are from the planet of the lava, and we mean you no harm; we are simply here for research.”
It took me a moment to respond, “So, why do you need me?”
He looked earnestly confused, “why, for research of course!” he chuckled as if it was an obvious fact.
“So you’re going to… study me?”
“We are going to see how you react to certain situations, for research, and then we will return you to you’re home, completely unharmed.” He looked very certain of himself.
I, on the other hand, was not certain. I was actually very scared now. What did that mean? They were going to “study” me? But before I had a chance to respond other aliens were pulling me into another room. They sat me down in a chair and started asking me questions. Most of them were very easy to answer, and then they started shining a tiny flashlight in my eyes. When I shunned away they quickly turned the light off.
“I’m sorry, did that hurt?” he looked very concerned.
“Oh, well, no, it’s just that as humans it natural for us to look away when someone shines light into our eyes, I guess.”Other aliens in the background were writing onto something that looked like a sheet of metal with a screen.
After a few more strange “tests” like the flashlight one, the alien that had first talked to me said, “All right, we are done now,” then I felt something sharp poke into my arm and the room started to go black…
When I woke up, I was back on the couch. My mom was shaking me awake, and she was saying my name loud. When she saw me open my eyes, she quickly said, “What happened to you? You were out when I got home, and when I called to tell I was on my way you didn’t answer the phone. I was really worried!”
“I’m sorry Mom; I didn’t mean to scare you,”
“What happened?”
“Well, I guess I just fell asleep when I was doing my homework…” I trailed off because it wasn’t true, I knew what had happened. I had been abducted by aliens.
She frowned and walked away. I sat up and stretched out. It felt like I had been sleeping for a long time, and when I looked outside it was dark. I looked at my backpack and again was reminded of how I needed to write my essay. I sighed and got out piece of black paper and my pencil. I sat there for maybe five minutes before it dawned on me. I had been abducted by aliens! Of course! That was what I would write about! I had the details to make it sound realistic, even though she still probably wouldn’t believe me anyway.
I looked down at the paper again, still blank, and began to write, “There is a very simple explanation as to why I was late again today, but I doubt you will be open minded enough to believe me. But the truth is, it all started with a knock on my window…”

Who Should Decide Which Books are Suitable for Young People?

I agree with the those who oppose censorship because of many reasons. To start off with, though i do agree that parents should have the right to tell their child or child's teacher that they don't want their child to read a certain book, i also think that people should have a choice about what they read. I think this because sometimes it's a maturity issue. For example, some children might read a book and discover a word that they have never seen before and start using it even though it's bad because they aren't mature enough to control themselves. But why should other student who can handle reading those words and who can control themselves from saying them be punished? It is up to the parents what their child reads, but its not up to the parents what other children read. so if a certain book is not O.K. for one family, that doesn't mean its not O.K. for another family.
I also Believe that it is not wrong for teachers to suggest books that may not be completely appropriate for children, because if the book is not one that the child is allowed to read, then they don't have to read. I don't think the teacher is in the wrong until he/she forces a student to read a book. People should have the right to read whatever they want as long as it is alright with the parents and with their beliefs. As I said before, some people can handle certain things that others can't, so they shouldn't have to be stuck with only safe children's books all the time instead of being able to open their horizons and expanding their brain and creativity.