Tom Sawyer

Last updated
Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer 1876 frontispiece.jpg
1876 illustration by True Williams
First appearance The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Last appearance Tom Sawyer, Detective
Created by Mark Twain
In-universe information
Family Aunt Polly (aunt)
Sally Phelps (aunt)
Mary (cousin)
Sid (younger half-brother)

Thomas "Tom" Sawyer ( /ˈsɔːjər/ ) is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896). He is around 12 to 13 years old.

Contents

Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom Among the Indians, Schoolhouse Hill , and Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy. While all three uncompleted works were posthumously published, only Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy has a complete plot, as Twain abandoned the other two works after finishing only a few chapters. It is set in the 1840s along the Mississippi.

Inspiration

The fictional character's name may have been derived from a jolly and flamboyant chief named Tom Sawyer, with whom Twain was acquainted in San Francisco, California, while Twain was employed as a reporter at The San Francisco Call . [1] [2] Twain used to listen to Sawyer tell stories of his youth: "Sam, he would listen to these pranks of mine with great interest and he'd occasionally take 'em down in his notebook. One day he says to me: 'I am going to put you between the covers of a book some of these days, Tom.' 'Go ahead, Sam,' I said, 'but don't disgrace my name.'" Twain himself said the character sprang from three people, later identified as: John B. Briggs (who died in 1907), William Bowen (who died in 1893), and himself. However, Twain later changed his story saying Sawyer was fully formed solely from his imagination, but Robert Graysmith said, "The great appropriator liked to pretend his characters sprang fully grown from his fertile mind." [2]

Personality

Tom Sawyer is mischievous and sometimes gets himself and his friends into trouble. He is also superstitious but he actually has a pure heart. [3] He is not really a bad boy and is just capable of generosity and occasionally surprises even himself into bad situations. [4]

Portrayals

Actors who have portrayed Tom Sawyer in films and TV:

NameDateNotes
Jack Pickford 1917Film, Tom Sawyer
Gordon Griffith 1920Film, Huckleberry Finn
Jackie Coogan 1930, 1931Films, Tom Sawyer , Huckleberry Finn
Tommy Kelly 1938Film, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Billy Cook 1938Film, Tom Sawyer, Detective
Michael Miller1944Film, The Adventures of Mark Twain
Robert Hyatt1955Film, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
John Sharpe1956TV musical, Tom Sawyer
Kevin Schultz 1968TV series, The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Roland Demongeot1968Romanian/French/German TV series Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer/Tom Sawyers und Huckleberry Finns Abenteuer
Johnny Whitaker 1973Film, Tom Sawyer
Don Most 1975Film, Huckleberry Finn
Sam Snyders 1979TV series, Huckleberry Finn and His Friends
Patrick Creadon 1981TV film, Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
Fyodor Stukov1981Soviet three-episode TV miniseries, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
Chris Ritchie1985Film, The Adventures of Mark Twain
Eugene Oakes1986TV series, American Playhouse Series 5 : Adventures of Huckleberry Finn parts I, II, III and IV
Raphael Sbarge 1990TV film, Back to Hannibal: The Return of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
Jonathan Taylor Thomas 1995Film, Tom and Huck
Rhett Akins 2000Voice, animated musical film, Tom Sawyer
Grey Griffin 2003Voice, animated TV series, The Fairly OddParents
Shane West 2003Film, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Louis Hofmann 2011, 2012Film, Tom Sawyer), Die Abenteuer des Huck Finn
Joel Courtney 2014Film, Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn
Adam Nee 2015Film, Band of Robbers
Jeremy Shada 20153DS game, Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.
Reilly Jacob2016TV series, Once Upon a Time
Seth Green 2016TV series, Family Guy

References

  1. ↑ "Biography of Tom Sawyer - 1900". Sfmuseum.net. 1996-09-01. Retrieved 2012-07-24.
  2. 1 2 Robert Graysmith (October 2012). "The Adventures of the Real Tommy". Smithsonian . Retrieved October 1, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Tom Sawyer | Adventures, Mischief, Humor | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-07-05.
  4. ↑ "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Analysis of Major Characters | EBSCO Research Starters". www.ebsco.com. 2021. Retrieved 2025-08-26.
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