Anna McQueary

Ms. Gibson

English 8

November 9, 2020

Tom Sawyer

            If you have read the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark twain Tom is treated different than his younger brother Sid.  Sid would knock over a sugar bowl or do something bad and Tom would be blamed for it because Sid is “a perfect angel.” If that happened now both of them would be in trouble Sid for being a tattle tale and Tom for knocking over the sugar bowl. Life in the 1800s was way harder than it is now, the punishments, how they live, how they are treated are all different than today’s world.

In today’s world if kids get in trouble, they get grounded, and they get their electronics taken away or get a spanking. “The masters arm performed until it was tired, and the stock of switches notably diminished” (Twain 65). If kids get in trouble back in the 1800s at home, they can’t go play with all of their friends, and they will have a punishment. If kids get in trouble at school, they might get hit with a stick on the bottom, back, legs, arms, or palms. At school now kids will get sent to the principal’s office or get detention.

When kids in the 1850`s grew up, they would learn skills to get around. The girls would learn how to cook, sew, grow food, take care of kids, sometimes read and write, and they would learn manners. The boys would learn how to fish, hunt, cook meat, read, write, etc. Now kids grow up all learning the same stuff how to read, write, cook, clean, manners, etc. The teacher said, “Now, sir, go and sit with the girls! And let this be a warning to you” (Twain 65). Tom was punished for coming to school late by having to go sit with the girls. Now if they are younger, it would be a punishment in some ways, when are older they really don’t care that much.

Back in the 1850`s children would memorize Bible verses in Sunday school to learn about the bible. In Tom Sawyer the children would get tickets for every verse they learned, and one-hundred tickets would equal their very own bible. Sunday School now is not like this at all the kids would have lessons about chapters of the Bible. Kids would still memorize, but they learn about the bible too. At some churches if you memorize a certain number of verses, you get a Bible so in some cases it is the same.

When Huck`s father is a drunkard, all of the people in the town treat him different because there was no body to raise him and care for him. If that was happening in today`s time, the kids might treat him different, but he would have friends like Tom to hang out with him. “While poor Huck stood abashed and uncomfortable, not knowing exactly what to do or where to hide from so many unwelcoming eyes” (Twain 166). In this quote Huck had no one to welcome him home after they pretended to be dead. I’m sure that someone would be happy to see him come home in the present day, but also, they probably would have found them before that happened.

Overall, we know that living back in the 1850`s is way harder than living in the 2000`s. There are many things that are different like how they are treated in school, at home, and in the town compared to now. If people from the 1850`s and people from the 2000`s switched places, things would be very abnormal. So, now people know life in the 1800s was way harder than it is now than in today’s world.

 

Work Cited

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Barnes and Noble Classics. New York: 2003.