Synopsis
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is Mark Twain's classic that follows the boyhood adventures of the great Tom Sawyer. An imaginative and mischievous boy, he lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. The novel is the story of Tom and his best friend Huck Finn, whose playfulness and sense of mischief lead them to all sorts of adventure—some of which is far from the stuff of childhood. Scenes such as Tom Sawyer tricking his friends into whitewashing Aunt Polly's fence for him through to attending his own funeral, Tom's imagination and scheming lead him into mischief and peril over and over again.
Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get “engaged” to him. Their romance collapses when she learns that Tom has been “engaged” before—to a girl named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a “cure” for warts. At the graveyard, they witness the murder of young Dr. Robinson by the Native-American “half-breed” Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away to an island to become pirates. While frolicking around and enjoying their newfound freedom, the boys become aware that the community is combing the river for their bodies. Guilt over their worried families forces the two boys to return home. But the murderer remains at large, and an innocent man stands accused of the crime. The worlds of carefree childhood and adult consequences collide as Tom must decide whether to reveal the truth, potentially costing him his own safety, or allow an innocent man to suffer.