Twain’s novel about Tom Sawyer is an adventure story. The young protagonist gets involved in one adventure after another, often bringing heartache to his guardian Aunt Polly. Every time, Tom gets away with fooling her, she is stricken by her conscience for not doing a better job of raising her nephew. When Tom has played yet another of his innumerable tricks on her, she decides to take action and punish him. His punishment is to whitewash the fence. Tom very cleverly tricks his friends into doing the work for him while he has a wonderful, idle time watching them labor.
Tom is friends with the town’s vagabond, Huckleberry (Huck) Finn. Together, they witness the murder of Dr. Robinson in the graveyard, where they had gone for a midnight adventure. The murderer, Injun Joe, implicates Muff Potter as the guilty party and escapes himself. …
