Tom Sawyer

In the beginning of the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer was prescribed as a child who is always causing mischief. Becky Thatcher, Tom’s love interest, is going to have a huge influence on him as a person. In early chapters, Tom is always going around town causing trouble, not caring for anyone or taking blame for any of the trouble he causes. That changes in chapter 31 when Tom and Becky decide to ventures by themselves in a cave. They went deeper and deeper into the cave until they were not able to find their way back. Tom takes charge in order to keep Becky clam and tries to find a way out. The cave scene can also be viewed as Tom’s passage to maturity. Being lost in the cave with Becky, Tom learns to become a leader. He becomes selfless, and takes responsibility for being lost in the cave.
Tom becomes very considerate and tries not to worry Becky. Even though he knows that they are lost, “He still said it was ‘all right’ ”(p.307) in attempt to not startle Becky. Tom decides to lie because he knows that Becky would be very frightened by the fact that they are actually lost. Even though, Tom decided to just tell Becky that everything was okay, “there was such a leaden dread at his heart that the words had lost their ring” (p.307). He wants to make sure that Becky does not panic by telling her that they will reach the exit soon and everything was okay. But Tom is actually scared also because he knows that they are actually lost and he does not know how to find the way out. Later on, Tom decides to keep another secret when he finds out that Injun Joe is also in the cave. “He was careful to keep from Becky what it was he had seen”(p.317) because he knows that Becky would be even frightened knowing that they are in a cave with a murder. Even though, Tom is afraid of Injun Joe because of Tom’s testimony against him in the past, Tom still kept it a secret from Becky. Becky is the reason to why Tom is behaving so generously because he wants