The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is one of literature’s great love letters to childhood. Mark Twain modeled Tom, Huck, and the town of St. Petersburg after people and places from his own childhood. Tom’s misery over his chores, his delight at the feelings of first love, his hatred of Sunday school, and his brash need to show off reflect authenticity on Twain’s part. Tom’s love of make-believe is a key element of his personality. This play instinct is often lost in adulthood or is forced out of adults in the face of their growing responsibilities.

Books about growing up are often coming-of-age stories that celebrate maturity as an objective good. Tom Sawyer exemplifies this in some ways. However, in the Conclusion, Twain is clear in his sadness when he writes that, because Tom Sawyer is a boy’s story, “[i]t must stop here” (276). If he were to write about Tom as an adult, the story would end with a marriage, and the sense of adventure would end.

While Tom experiences some maturation, there is no sign that the changes in him will be permanent. The greatest moments of Tom’s maturation are his testimony against Injun Joe, his resilience in

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