Historical Interpretation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain has remained a literary classic for over one hundred years. First regarded as a book for boys, the work has proven itself across many genres of literature. The many adventures and attitudes that the book conveys provides the reader of today with the experience of going back in time to see another way of life in the old south of the United States. The Mississippi River town of Saint Petersburg, Missouri is the central setting of Tom Sawyer; the reader gains a true sense of small town life in a rural southern town during the pre-civil war era. Though published after the Civil War, it is widely agreed that the story takes place before the war since the sequel also occurs before the war. Through comparing known facts that occurred during this period and the references given through the story, the reader is able to construct an accurate historical picture of what life was like for Tom and his community.
The one room schoolhouse that Tom attends is a dictatorship style situation. The variety of learners within the classroom encompasses elementary students through high school students. Learners sit in straight unchanging rows that discourage collaborative learning experiences. The teacher Mr. Dobbins is an educator and disciplinarian; corporal punishment occurs swiftly to those who infract the rules and often demonstrated with a harsh tone. "His rod and his ferule were seldom idle now- at least among the smaller pupils. Only the biggest boys, and young ladies of eighteen and twenty, escaped lashing. Mr. Dobbins' lashings were very vigorous ones" (502). Tom is no stranger to physical punishment from the instructor for his actions in addition to an incident when he takes the lashing for his beloved Becky's violation of the rules. Though rapidly declining, with permission from the parent corporal punishment exists within some schools...