Review of Tom Sawyer

Written by Mark Twain in 1876 this classic book shows the development of an adolescent boy in Missisippi, America. Tom Sawyer is the quintessential 'bad boy with a heart of gold' and all the antics he gets upto are the focus of this book. He is perennially lazy, avoiding chores , school, homework and church recitals like the plague. His greatest enjoyments are fishing and swimming the day long. In other words he is like the majority of mankind the world over and this is what attracts us. His Aunt Polly is an original character - strict spinster aunt who imposes stricter discipline on him but still allows him to get away with a large chunk of his misdemeneours. In one classic scene Aunt Polly forces him to whitewash the long fence around their house. It is a Saturday and Tom knows that all his friends will be passing by the road soon going for their holiday enjoyments. He is ashamed that they will jeer and boo him when they see him working away- a thing he detests. So he comes up with a famous plan. He pretends to be engrossed in his work and does not reply at first to the first of his chums who happens to pass by. His friend first jeers at him for having to work on a holiday. On getting no proper response from the deeply absorbed Tom he has doubts. He then asks Tom to lend him the brush for painting for a while. Tom is internally jubilant but increases his friend's interest in fence painting by telling him that it is such an important task that his aunt would entrust it to noone but him and such sentiments in a similar vein. He gives his friend the brush only in exchange for the apple he possesses. Soon he manages to con his other friends in painting and trades a trunkfull of things in exchange for allowing them to paint his fence. When his Aunt Polly comes for an inspection she is astonished to find the job completed spectacularly! Tom Sawyer manages to kill many birds with one stone.
The philosophy of work and play is aptly stated in this book. Work is something which we are obliged to do whereas play is something which is something which we would naturally enjoy doing and are not in any way obliged to do.