Mark Twain develops the theme of friendship with the use of descriptive imagery, narration, and tone in his novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. The importance of friendship comes up throughout the entire book as Tom faces his many experiences and challenges that he constantly stumbles upon. His friends including Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper were by his side and partook in the wild schemes and ideas that Tom always had to offer.
“It was the cool gray dawn, and there was a delicious sense of repose and peace in the deep pervading calm and silence of the woods. Not a leaf stirred; not a sound obtruded upon great Nature’s meditation. Beaded dewdrops stood upon the leaves and grasses. A white layer of ashes covered the fire, and a thin blue breath of smoke rose straight into the air. Joe and Huck still slept.” Page 106. This excerpt was taking from the chapter of when Tom and his friends ran away from home to Jackson’s Island to become pirates. They ventured off into the forest of the vacant island providing the food and shelter they needed to survive in the wilderness by using their natural resources. Mark Twain is able to capture the essence of the bonding they achieved through the experience by the detailed and descriptive imagery he uses.
“Tom stirred up the other pirates and they all clattered away with a short, and in a minute or two were stripped and chasing after and tumbling over each other in the shallow limpid water of the white sandbar.” Page 108. Mark Twain is the narrator and he views his story as an adult who sees the adult world critically and looks back on the pastimes of childhood in a somewhat idealized manner, with wit and the feeling of a loss. I find that to be very interesting because now the author can tell us what is going on through the mind of multiple characters, or not tell us at all. It gives me as the reader a deeper understanding of each character and how they all correspond together. In the expert I chose; Tom, Huck, and Joe are still on Jackson’s Island. The narrator shows us how they have that strong friendship of being together.
The tone of the novel is satirical and nostalgic. Satirical means the use of irony, sarcasm, or ridicule. It is a literary composition that includes a lot of scorn and mockery. Nostalgic means the feeling of loss, regret, or wanting something that was meant to be forgotten. Something that was in the past, that one aches to remember. In the tale of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain says that he based off the characters from his life. “Huck Finn is drawn from [his] life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual-- he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I [Mark Twain] knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture.” Preface. Twain was able to incorporate the friendships from his past to create the story of Tom Sawyer. The reason the tone is satirical and nostalgic is because Twain wanted to reach out to the young readers so that they can appreciate the youth that they pertain, the friends they have, and the adventures they have yet to experience.
In conclusion, Mark Twain’s use of descriptive imagery, narration and tone, expresses Tom Sawyer’s value of friendship. The small details paints the vivid images of Tom and his friends, expressing the bond they have without dialogue. The narration tells us from a third person perspective of their connection while they continue on with adventures. The tone is tangled throughout the entire novel of the author’s fondness of his past, and his yearning for his childhood and companions. Friends are timeless and Twain’s story is the living proof.
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