Jocelyn Gunter

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer focuses on a young boy named Tom and his adventures in boyhood along the Mississippi River.  The Mississippi River plays a large part in the novel.  Mark Twain involves many real life aspects of growing up on the Mississippi River into his book.  One of these aspects is the motif of trading.  Trading plays a large part in Mississippi life and is an important part of the book.  The book has many themes of social structure and adulthood scaled down to a young child’s perspective and his journey through these social structures on his way to adulthood.

The Mississippi River was an important part of life in the U.S. during the 1800s.  It was mostly uncharted territory and was a part of the expansion westward.  The river was a main way of transportation.  The river transported goods from the North to the South and vice versâ.  It also transported people to and fro.  Another role it played was being an entrance to the Gulf of Mexico and therefore allowing people to bring goods into the middle of the country from all over the world, allowing America to transport her goods to the rest of the world.

 The Mississippi was booming during the 1800s, but her prosperity was short-lived.  This prosperity was due to the invention of the steamboat and its introduction on the river.  The steamboats allowed two-way transportation and increased her importance and prosperity.  By the 1900s, river transportation was decreasing due to the growth and influence of the railway system.  The Mississippi became important again after the Civil War when the river was deepened and widened, allowing heavier and bulkier freight to be carried on the river.  Despite this, the Mississippi was never the same as during the 1800s.  Yet, the Mississippi played a significant role in America’s history, in literature, and in Mark Twain’s writing.

Trading is a major part of life for any community and country.  Trading takes place at many different stages of life and in many different ways.  It is a basic part of any economy.  It is not only for adults, though.  Children create economies too, in a way, and trade toys, clothes, and other personal items in change for favors, other items, or money.  This mini trading is preparation for real world trading and economy.  You give something to gain something.  It is a basic principle of life. This basic principle of life is seen in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Tom Sawyer and his friends have their own trading system.  Part of this system is Tom tricking his friends into doing or giving him things for nothing.  An example of this one-sided system is when Tom fakes enjoying whitewashing, although he hates it.  Tom is trying to escape a chore and being made fun of for having to do a chore on Saturday.  Tom convinces his friends whitewashing is so much fun, and all of the boys want to try it.  By him convincing his friends, all of his friends try whitewashing and complete his chore for him.  Tom is given a finished chore, and the boys are given nothing but tricks.  The boys do have a true trading system, but the one-sided system is seen multiple times in the book.  An example of their true trading system is when Tom trades his trinkets for tickets.  Tom wants the tickets because he wants a Bible from Sunday school.  Tom does not want the Bible for the fact of owning a Bible but for the glory that comes with receiving a Bible.  Only those who studied and learned their Bible verses received tickets and 1000 tickets could be traded for a Bible, but only the most diligent and smartest students received 1000 tickets and therefore a Bible.  Tom was not one of these bright and diligent students, so he had to trade his things for tickets to falsely earn the glory he so desperately wanted.

Many of the things the boys traded at the beginning of the book are small, worthless items, to adults at least.  To the boys, the items hold a lot of worth.  At the end of the book, the boys, on of their many adventures, find a treasure.  This treasure cost 12,000 dollars.  This a huge difference compared to the beginning of the book in terms of what the boys owned.  This money is saved for the boys, Tom and Huck, and both boys receive a hefty allowance.  This money helps slowly bring them into the adulthood trade life, giving them money to buy things, which is trade.  Their miniature economy grows to a great wealth, which allows their small-scale trade to grow in maturity and into adulthood, just like the boys were the story to continue.

Mark Twain, from growing up on the Mississippi River, knew how important trade was to living on the Mississippi River and incorporated this into his book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and his other books, for example The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Although the trade he shows is small-scale childhood trading, it is still part of the essence of life on the Mississippi.  Just like Tom, the trade system grows and matures with the book.  The trade system also shows a dirty part of real life trading.  Just like Tom tricked his friends into trading their free time to do his chores, people of the real world are scammed by companies around us.  It is a fallacy, very similar to information commercials.  Tom lies to his friends and convinces them he believes something is greater than it really is.  In the same way, commercials today trick viewers into buying their products, although they know they are not what they seem.  Mark Twain embodies this essence, even though televisions and commercials were not around yet when he was alive.  He knew lying and schemes go on in the adult world, not just childhood, and the same was true with trade and life in general. Mark Twain captured the essence of trading in childhood, adulthood, the 1800s, and even today.

Bibliography

Lee, Michele. “Mississippi River: Economic History.” (2010) http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2010/finalwebsite/background/mississippiriver/mississippi-economic.html. Web. 10 October 2015.

Moore, Richard. “The History of Transportation of the Mississippi River.” Hamline University Graduate School of Education, (2001), 1-2. http://cgee.hamline.edu/rivers/Resources/Voices/transportation1.html. Web. 10 October 2015.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Minneapolis: The American Publishing Company, 1876. Print.