Pansies

Chapter three of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" gave me a little look into what Tom is thinking about. After being rewarded by Aunt Polly for getting the whitewashing done, he heads to a 'meeting'. This meeting is between two 'armies' or boy clubs. They meet about some disagreement and then part their ways. As Tom is walking along he spots a new girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. All thoughts of his previous crush, Amy Laurence, vanish. Tom had spent months getting Amy to admit her feelings for him and only a week later, Tom had already had a change of heart. Tom Sawyer spends quite a bit of time attempting to impress this new girl. After all of his hard work in showing off, she throws a pansy his way and walks inside her house. Of course, Tom is excited about this pansy; a sign of hope that this girl might like him!

When Tom got home, he was in good spirits. He didn't mind the knuckle beating he got from attempting to steal sugar from the jar. When Aunt Polly stepped out of the kitchen, Sid (Tom's half-brother) reached for some sugar but knocked to jar off the table and broke it. Aunt Polly came rushing in and immediately belted Tom for the deed. After the confusion was settled, Aunt Polly felt terrible, but she didn't voice it. Tom went off and pitied himself.

I find this chapter sort of humorous. It shows just how fast one's emotions can change. Tom goes from being obsessed with Amy Lawrence to being in love with this 'new girl'. I can somewhat to relate to this mood swing of Tom's. My opinio

n in many things often changes quite fast. For example, chocolate. I have to be in 'the mood for chocolate'. If I'm not in the right mood, I just don't like chocolate. So my opinion changes towards chocolate a lot.

Will Tom ever actually meet up with this new girl? Or will he get over her over night? Tom doesn't even know her name, but Tom is quite a determined boy. I think that they will cross paths and become good friends. I think that this chapter was just the start of the introduction to this new character, the unnamed 'new girl'.

In the back of the copy of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" I am reading, there is a 'Notes' section. In this section it tells me that when Mark Twain was writing this book, he had certain houses in mind when describing Aunt Polly's house and street. Mark Twain had the Clemens house at 206 Hill Street, Hannibal in mind for Aunt Polly's house. Jeff Thatcher(also mentioned in this chapter)'s house was based on a house across from the Clemens on Hill Street. Both of these houses still stand today and can be visited.