The Characters of Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer - Tom is a young troublemaker who would rather sit on hot coals than work at anything. He loves vile things like dead bugs and animals, and has learned all the best ways to manipulate his friends and neighbors into doing his work for him. But even though Tom causes so much trouble, he does have a conscience. I don't think he exactly relishes in making his Aunt Polly angry or sad, and he can feel the weight of his wrongs heavy on his shoulders if he knows he'll be punished.

Huckleberry Finn - Huck is the town pariah who causes more trouble than he's worth. His dad is the town drunk, so Huck is on his own, looked down upon and pitied by the community. But the thing about Huck is that he doesn't seem to care one bit. It doesn't really faze him that he's despised by most people. But even though most adults think he's a dead beet, all the young boys look up to him because he's sort of this untouchable miscreant that they all wish they could be. Huck likes Tom, and the two make a perfect pair.

Reverend Sprague - We see the Reverend only once, giving his sermon in church, but I think his personality as a preacher was pretty much summed up in his debut. Sprague is like any other adult living in and controlling that kind of closed-minded society; he will drone on to these uninterested kids about how their feelings are sinful and how grateful they should be to their parents and teachers for guiding them to the "right path". But of course he doesn't allow anyone in the church to find out for themselves what they want to believe is the right path. This church decides for them. And he can also be so immersed in his sermon that he either ignores or is oblivious to the fact that no one is listening, and that there is a pincer bug bouncing around biting peoples' dogs.

Sid - Sid is Tom's little snitch of a brother. He loves to watch Tom at all hours, waiting in the wings for him to do something wrong or sneaky so he can hold it against him in the future. I think Sid might admire Tom a little bit, too, because he's so attentive to everything that Tom does. Sure, he'd never trick other kids into whitewashing a fence for him. But he probably has some dark part of himself buried deep inside that's waiting to come out.

Becky Thatcher - Becky is the new girl in town, the lawyer's daughter who Tom immediately falls in love with. She is sweet and innocent but can hold her own and be extremely stubborn when she's holding a grudge. I think she probably values trust and loyalty in a person because of the way she reacted when she found out that she wasn't the first girl to be engaged to Tom Sawyer.