The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 14-17
Chapters 14-17 covers some of the boys' adventures on the island. Tom wakes up very early, and watches a magnificent show of the morning beginning. The other boys wake up, and the trio of "pirates" explore the small island. They discover that the island is only 3 miles long and 1/4 a mile wide, but the exploration still takes a long time, because they go swimming every hour.
Then they hear something from the direction of the village, and they go and check it out. They watch the activities of a ferry, and realize that the village thinks someone has drowned. It doesn't take long for Tom to figure out that it's them that had supposedly drowned! The boys watch the proceedings, and talk about different body-finding-and/or-make-floating techniques, and incantations. Then the ferry goes away.
All the boys are excited for a while at the village's mistake, but it soon dies away. Homesickness attacks. Joe even makes a suggestion about going home (thought not right away). He barely avoids getting in trouble with the other two.
Tom waits until the others are asleep, and then makes notes and a bit of a treasure-chest of Joe's hat. He then sneaks to the village, and his own home. He sneaks inside, somehow without being noticed. He hears Aunt Polly being sorrowful, and Mrs. Harper as well. He learns of how they are thought dead, especially since they hadn't shown up at home in time for supper, and how their raft showed up at the next town empty. He hears how they will delay the funeral until the weekend, and if their bodies aren't found then, the funeral will happen then.
Tom waits until everyone is asleep, including Aunt Polly. He almost leaves the note, and suddenly gets an idea. He then heads back to the island, without leaving the notes. He almost takes the skiff he used to get back, since he's a pirate and pirate take boats, which the skiff was by technicality. But he realizes it will cause searches, and then maybe the discovery of the boys!
He then heads back to the camp. He makes a grand entrance at breakfast-time. He tells the other two about his adventures (and adds some to it). Then, when breakfast is done, he goes to sleep until 12:00 PM, since he was up all night. The others go exploring and fishing while he does this.
After dinner that night, the boys go hunting for turtle eggs. And they find a good amount on the bay of the island. So much so, that they are able to have a big meal that night and it for breakfast in the morning on Friday!
The boys have a lot of fun for a good deal of the day. It's mostly swimming, playing in the water, and being naked. But then homesickness strikes once more... this time, it hits so hard, Joe and Huckleberry almost leave. Tom then lets loose his secret, and convinces the boys to stay longer.
That night, Tom and Joe try smoking. Up to this point, only Huckleberry had smoked an actual pipe, and the other boys only cigars. Things go well for a little while. The boys even talk about smoking and how others they know would react to it.
Then Tom and Joe get sick from overdoing it. They make an excuse of going to find a lost knife, and head off. They are gone for a long while.
Huckleberry eventually goes out to find them. He finds them both fast asleep, a good distance from each other. He decides that they have taken care of any trouble they had run into.
The boys return for dinner. There's no talk, and the not-so-well duo don't look terrific or proud. Afterwards, Huckleberry offers to make them pipes. They turn down the offer, saying that their stomachs didn't agree with one of their dinner items.
That night, Joe wakes up. He senses something terrible very close, and wakes up the other two. Very soon, a terrible storms hits. The boys aren't really ready for this, though they do their best to survive in the storm. But their tent flies off, and they have to take shelter under a great oak.
When the storm finally ends, they find that their campsite had been squished by a fallen sycamore tree. The good news was that they hadn't been there and squished themselves. Their luck continues when they find some dry wood, and manage to make themselves a fire to dry and warm up themselves. But they are unable to sleep for the rest of the night, since everywhere is wet.
The next morning, they manage to sleep on the beach. But they eventually wake up, mainly by the sun scorching them, and they're not in a good mood. Homesickness once again flies in, and Tom has to remind the other two of his secret in order to keep them from completely being depressed and flying the coop.
While their spirits are up, Tom suggests a career change... becoming Indians instead of pirates! This flies very well, and the boys become three chiefs (and then three tribes), and play Indians all day. That night, they gather, but "have" to smoke the peace pipe to make peace and eat with each other. Tom and Joe find that they have a bit of tolerance to smoking this time, and they are delighted. They are careful for the next bit, but then are proud to make the night without having to go lost-knife searching. The rest of the night is very joyful, and full of talk.
Good reason for not smoking! Mark Twain shows a good job of getting sick on smoke. He also shows how something that starts good can end very bad, especially when you overdo it. And he shows how the sickness can carry on for a while. That scene was well-done.
I didn't care for the tolerance level later. I get that no one knew in the old days that smoking was bad. But we know now that smoking is bad, and this scene repulsed me. But it does show one important virtue... "practice makes perfect"! Practicing something can make you get better at it, whether it's a good or a bad thing. In that respect, it was a good scene. I just didn't care for what it was used on.
Mark Twain is getting decisively better as the book goes along. We had two more very good scenes: the morning scene right at the beginning, and the storm scene. Mark Twain made the morning extremely beautiful, and pretty much alive. That was amazing!
The storm scene wasn't as well-done, but it was still very well-done. It seemed real, and described the terrible storm very well. I liked how it described the storm as a fight, and how some trees didn't win. I just think that scene was well-done.
Tom and Joe are way too prideful. They should have admitted that the smoke was making them sick! They did not do a good job hiding it... it was so obvious that the boys were running off to be sick, and not look for a missing knife! And then it was obvious that it was the smoke that was making them sick, and not their dinner! And yet, they continued lying to Huckleberry! And then it was their prides that made them smoke the "peace pipe", though they should have just refused it!
Which brings up a confusing scene... did Huckleberry even know that his friends were sick from the smoke? It was crystal clear to me, but Mark Twain didn't make it clear whether or not Huckleberry knew it. That doesn't make much sense.
The homesickness thing was something that made better sense. When you move off, homesickness strikes, especially when you run away. You miss how things were!
Mark Twain does a good job at this, showing that even Huckleberry missed his old way of life, though I'm pretty sure that this new life was actually somewhat better for him. But Mark Twain didn't do the best job with the homesickness scenes... for example, he didn't show why Joe missed his mom. It didn't make the greatest of sense then. And there were some other parts of the homesickness scenes that didn't make the greatest of sense.
And I don't get the worm scene. Why was Tom so excited when the worm went over his clothes? Mark Twain did not make that clear. He added something about pirates and their clothing, but his explanation was not a good or understandable one.
One thing was cool, though. Tom says a very old saying to a ladybug that's still around today! It's "Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home,/your house is on fire, and your children's alone." It's cool to learn that the saying is still around today.
Tom Sawyer is definitely a very clever boy. His cleverness has been shown many times throughout the book. It was shown again and again during these chapters, however. He was clever in using his secret to get the other boys to stay. It was then clever how he used the secret to perk up their spirits, and then suggest something that kept them happy and on the island for the rest of the day.
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