Mark Twain's disliking of romanticism shows through Tom Sawyers character. Tom is a boy who bases most of his ideas and plans off of story books. His plans are pretty unrealistic and mostly wouldn't happen in an actual situation, which shows how most romantic novels, like the ones tom has read, puts ideas in peoples minds that are unrealistic. It seems quite ironic that Huck, who has been through so many different adventures and hardships wants to be like Tom because Tom has really not done anything except make believe he is this heroic person who can do really awesome things just like hero's in story books.
Tom sawyers unrealistic mindset really shows in chapters 36-39, when they two boys are trying to free Jim. This task really isn't that hard, but tom had to make it that way by coming up with this elaborate plan that really didn't make any sense and was super unrealistic. Tom has them dig under the cabin with case-knives, and when the hole is dug and Jim is able to come out Tom comes up with more things for them to do. Jim could have gotten out of the cabin long before he did but with Toms bazaar plan he didn't. While in his long stay in captivity Tom had him tame reptiles, and tend a flower with his tears, over exaggerating the entire situation. To make matters worse Tom has to write these letters to his aunt and uncle about how the Indians were planning to steal there runaway slave which makes there escape even more difficult. Because of all these setbacks Tom Sawyer gets shot in the leg. Huck and Jim go along with all of this because to them Tom is this smart boy who can read and has gotten a good education, when really all that reading he did put them through a lot of difficulty, and before Tom was there and Jim and Huck got through tough situations just find using there street smart, something that Tom Sawyer doesn't really have.
When Tom gets shot it really shows you the foolishness of his plan and romaticism all together. Dramatizing a situation won't help them in the end it will only make matters worse, all that time they put off making the plan more difficult, and to tom more adventerous, just made it more likely to end badly which showed when Tom was shot.
Anna - try and capitalize names, like Tom. Good examples here, but you can go further with the details of the escape. Note: It's not Indians. It's a gang of bandits from Indian Country (the West that is still not settle by whites). These bandits play on the reoccurring "gang" of criminals theme.
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