An analysis of literary techniques in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Before going into depth on the tactics employed by Mr. Twain to bring his story to life, I feel obliged to say that I have never read this book before now, and was very reluctant to begin at first. However, after reading the novel in its entirety, I found that it was an excellent story. Short, concise, filled with imaginative language, events, descriptions, and a wonderfully dry sense of satirical humor, I greatly enjoyed this book, despite my adamant bias against classical literature (old books).

I believe that the primary theme of this novel could be best described as: A metaphorical analysis of the irony of society. I reached this conclusion based on the volume of satirical dissections of basic habits, and how the strict, sometimes arrogant adult society was shown to mirror the less sophisticated child society in many ways. For example, the children held in high esteem many superstitions, so many, in fact, that they were essentially free to choose their interpretations of them. A very long excerpt that shows this freedom (pg. 76) is:

"If you buried a marble with certain necessary incantations, and left it alone a fortnight, and then opened the place with the incantation he had just used, you would find that all the marbles you had ever lost had gathered themselves together there, meantime, no matter how widely they had been separated. But, now this thing had actually and unquestionably failed. Toms whole structure of faith was shaken to its foundations. He had many a time heard of this thing succeeding, but never of it failing before. It did not occur to him that he had tried it several times before, himself, but could never find the hiding-places afterwords. He puzzled over the matter some time, and finally decided that some witch had interfered and broken the charm."

This practice seems to mimic many of the adult's fixation on religion, a belief that was very widespread in that time.  

The literary technique that jumped out at me most immediately was the way the author analyzed traits that are so deeply ingrained in society as to be almost invisible (actually I am not sure if this is a literary technique in the strictest sense of the word, but it was something that was done exceedingly well and greatly enhanced my appreciation of the story, so I consider it one). He also managed to do this without interrupting the flow of the story (I thought it even helped move it along and develop the theme). Early in the book, the author described his views on the relationship of work to play, a comparison that brought to my mind a psychological analysis I read at some point in some obscure piece of writing. If I remember correctly, it was about how people only covet what they do not have, and the moment it becomes easily attainable, it loses its intrinsic value. Mr. Twain wrote essentially the exact same thing (pg. 19):

"If he [Sawyer] had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he woud now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a treadmill is work, while rolling tenpins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement."

As one can see, this observation is only slightly different from the statement above, and certainly worded in such a manner as to make it amusing and interesting. In fact, he then went on to connect it to a humorous yet insightful example which, though drawing from now extinct practices, nevertheless conveys the precise message it was intended.

"There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn it into work and then they would resign."

I noticed this idea referred back to several times during the course of the book, which ties into the next device: that of allusion. 

Mark Twain made numerous allusions back to previous concepts at various points in the book, something I noticed and appreciated more than I would if he made allusions to external sources (I believe this practice also adds to the immortality of the piece, because although most books employ allusion, a great deal of them do so with concepts that fade with time, equally dimming the novel's theme). Since Mr. Twain alluded to points he had made in earlier parts of the same book, which were themselves satirical observations on  human nature (which does not fade nearly as fast as other topics, if at all), his works (of which I have only read one) remain relevant while others do not. One allusion (pg. 278) that linked to the very same observation quoted above is:

"'Why, its not as light as it might be. Got bricks in it?-or old metal?' 'Old metal, said Tom.' 'I judged so; the boys in this town will take more time hunting up six bits' worth of old iron to sell to the foundry than they would to make twice the money at regular work. But that's human nature-hurry along, hurry along!'"

As you can see, this quote shows that even on page 278 the author was alluding to points made in the very beginning stages of the novel.

The author also used a certain amount of hyperbole when describing certain events or objects, a practice that I believe was intended to bring the reader closer to the characters by describing things from their own point of view (that of a child). Perhaps the most obvious use of this device was when describing the children's transactions, which never involved actual money, but things that most "mature" people would consider junk, or even trash (the distinction being objects that are considered worthless as opposed to objects people would actively try to rid themselves of). A quick quote that shows this (pg. 55) is:

"'What's that you got?' ' Dead cat.' 'Lemme see him, Huck. My, he's pretty stiff. Where'd you get him?' 'Bought him off'n a boy.' 'What did you give?' 'I give a blue ticket and a bladder that I got at the slaughter-house.'"

Hyperbole was also used when describing Tom Sawyers imagination, like becoming a pirate or robber. These aspirations were accompanied by spirited descriptions that exaggerated their merits and technical achievability by no small degree (pg.75):

"But no, there was something even gaudier than this. He would be a pirate! That was it! Now his future lay before him, and glowing with unimaginable splendor. How his name would fill the world, and make people shudder! How gloriously he would go plowing the dancing seas, in his long, low, black-hulled racer, the Spirit of the Storm, with his grisly flag flying at the fore!"

Hyperbole relates to the theme because it is a technique that allowed the author to develop the plot, deepen the character, and bring the reader closer to the way Tom Sawyer thought, therefore understanding him better. This practice also relates to the first literary device I described, that of "trait analysis through psychological observations", by depicting how Sawyer felt about unlawful activities such as piracy, which ties into the pseudo psyche-analysis proposed by Twain: that play is whatever a person is not obliged to do.