The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Chapter Summaries – Flashcards

Written by: Mark Twain

Tom lives with his Aunt Polly. He is a boy who gets into lots of trouble. He has to paint fence and he doesn’t want to do it because all of his friends are playing. He ends up making it seem fun in order to get his friends to help. The friends give him things so that they can help because they think that they are missing all the fun!

Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, the new girl in town. He asks her to be engaged. When she finds out that he was engaged to Amy Lawrence before, she cries and pushes him away. Tom runs home and Amy feels upset with herself.

Huck and Tom go to the graveyard with a dead cat hoping to cure their warts. They see Injun Joe and Muff Potter digging up a grave for Dr. Robinson. They demand more money from him, and they all start fighting. Injun Joe kills the doctor and leaves Muff Potter to take the blame.

Muff Potter is arrested for the murder of the Doctor. Huck and Tom both swear that they will not ever tell what they saw in the graveyard.

Tom decides to leave home and lead a life of crime when Becky does not return his affection – he thinks that he is unloved and friendless. He runs into his friends Joe and Huck who also want to run away with him. The three boys steal food, fishing hooks and lines and meet back at the river to begin their adventures as pirates.

The boys are enjoying their time away on the island but start to miss home. They hear a cannon go off over the water which means that someone has drowned. That night Tom sneaks back to his house and overhears his Aunt Polly and Mrs. Harper (Joe’s mom) crying and talking about how sad they are that the boys fell off the raft and died. They are having a funeral on Sunday. Tom swims back and tells the boys about what he heard. They decide to stay on Jackson Island until Sunday. The three boys sneak into the funeral. Aunt Polly and Mrs. Harper smother them with kisses and praise God for their safe return.

Tom is a hero at school, and Aunt Polly showers him with love and attention. At school, Becky tears a page in the teacher’s secret book, but Tom takes the blame for her. At Muff Potter’s trial, Tom tells the truth about being in the graveyard and how he saw Injun Joe killed the doctor. Injun Joe espcaped out of the courtroom window and was gone.

Tom and Huck go on a hunt for buried treasure at the haunted house in the valley. While they are upstairs, two men come in – and one of the men is Injun Joe. The two men talk about hiding money at the house, but when they hear a noise upstairs, Injun Joe tries to climb the stairs but falls through the rotted stairs. The two men decide to leave with their money. Tom and Huck overhear Injun Joe saying that he is going to hide his money to his den under the cross.

Tom and Huck spend the new few days looking around town for Injun Joe’s hiding place. Tom goes to Becky Thatcher’s picnic, and all the kids go exploring McDougal’s cave. In the dark cave, Tom and Becky get attacked by bats and become seperated from the group. The whole town is searching for them. While searching for a way out, Tom sees Injun Joe. Finally, they are rescued by a group of men. Becky’s father, the Judge, told Tom that he had put a big iron door on the opening of the cave so that no one would ever get lost in there again. Tom told the Judge that Injun Joe is in the cave.

A group of men open the door to the cave and find Injun Joe dead. Huck told Tom that while he was lost in the cave that he had overheard Injun Joe making a plot to hurt old Widow Douglas. Huck told Farmer Jones and his sons who saved the Widow from Injun Joe. Tom and Huck find Injun Joe’s hidden treasure, and when they return to town, the Widow is throwing a party for Huck and offers for him to live with her. Tom tells everyone that they are rich and the money is put into the bank. Huck tried living with the Widow, but runs away after three weeks. Tom convinces Huck to return to the Widow so that he can be in his robber gang.