The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Chapter 1 Study Questions Write your answers to these questions on a separate piece of paper.

1. Who is Tom’s aunt? 2. Why does Tom live with her? 3. Where do they live? 4. Who is Sid? 5. What is Tom’s aunt afraid Tom would do? 6. How does he get caught? 7. Who tattles on him? 8. Who is Jim? 9. What has Tom learned that excited him? 10. What is different about the new boy Tom sees? 11. Why do they fight? Who wins? 12. How does the new boy get him back?

Chapter 2 Study Questions 1. What does Tom have to do on Saturday? 2. Who does he try to bribe first and with what? 3. What inspiration does he have? 4. Who is the first boy to help whitewash? What does he give Tom? 5. List two more boys who help whitewash. 6. List five treasures he is paid. 7. How many coats of whitewash does the fence get? 8. What is the “law of human action” that Tom learned? 9. What is the difference between work and play, according to philosophers?

Chapters 3 and 4 Study Questions

1. How does Aunt Polly reward Tom for whitewashing the fence? 2. How does Tom repay Sid for telling on him? 3. What are the boys getting ready to do? Who are the generals? 4. Who is Tom’s first girlfriend? Who has he just fallen in love with? 5. What character who had been gone has come back to his or her family? 6. What does Mary give him as a bribe to memorize his Bible verse? 7. What can the students get in Sunday School with ten yellow tickets? 8. Who is the Sunday School Superintendent? Describe his personality. 9. What does Tom ask for from the superintendent? 10. What question does the judge ask Tom and what was his answer?

Chapters 5-7 Study Questions 1. Who is the “model boy”? Why do the other boys hate him? 2. What first distracts Tom during the prayer? 3. What “treasure” does Tom bring with him? What problems does it cause during the sermon? 4. What does Mark Twain seem to think about church services such as these? How do you know? 5. What two excuses does Tom use in his attempts to stay home from school on Monday morning? 6. How does Aunt Polly thwart his efforts to stay home? 7. How do the other boys react to Tom’s “condition”? 8. Who is Huck Finn? Why do all the mothers have him? Why do the children love him? 9. What do Tom and Huck argue about? 10. What three cures for warts are suggested in this chapter? 11. Why doesn’t Tom lie to his teacher about why he is late for school? 12. What is his punishment? Does it upset him? Why or why not? 13. What does Tom do to impress Becky when he sat next to her? 14. What does he reveal to her? 15. What plans do they make for lunchtime? 16. How do Tom and Joe pass the rest of the morning? 17. How do they get caught? 18. Describe what happens during Tom’s lunch with Becky. 19. What upsets Becky?

Chapter 8 Study Questions 1. Why does Tom always cross the stream two or three times? 2. Why does Tom envy Jimmy Hodges? Why does he decide that he is not ready to die? 3. What does Tom decide to do to make Becky sorry for how she has treated him? 4. What superstition is Tom disappointed to discover has nove worked? How does he explain its failure? 5. What famous book do Tom and his friends act out in the woods? Chapters 9-11 Study Questions 1. Who are the three “devils” in the graveyard? 2. Why are they there? 3. What starts the argument between Injun Joe and Dr. Robinson? Why has Injun Joe hated the doctor for a long time? 4. What tragedy do the boys witness? 5. Who is blamed for the tragedy? Why does he himself believe that he committed the crime? 6. What do Tom and Huck decide to do about what they have witnessed? How do they seal their promise to each other? 7. What do the boys hear that frightens them? What do they think it means? What makes them decide that it wasn’t meant for them? 8. For whom do the boys determine the sign was meant? 9. How does Aunt Polly find out that Tom had snuck out? Why was Tom so upset by her chastisement of him? 10. What happened right after Tom arrives at school to worsen his mood? 11. Why is school canceled for the afternoon? 12. What evidence makes Potter seem guilty? 13. What do Tom and Huck think will happen to Injun Joe for lying about the murder? 14. How does Tom’s conscience affect him in the week after the tragedy? 15. What aspects of Tom’s behavior does Sid find strange? How does Aunt Polly explain it? 16. How does Tom ease his guilty conscience? 17. Why don’t the villagers charge Injun Joe with grave robbing?

Chapters 12-13 Study Questions 1. What is bothering Tom besides the murder? 2. Why hasn’t Becky been coming to school? 3. With what is Aunt Polly obsessed? 4. What cures does she try on Tom? 5. What aspect of Tom’s behavior concerns Aunt Polly most? 6. What effect does the “cure” have on Tom? 7. Besides mending a crack in the floor, what else does Tom do with the medicine he has been requesting? What result does it have? 8. What does Aunt Polly decide about the Painkiller? 9. What breaks Tom’s heart at school? 10. What is Tom “forced” to do? Why does he think this is his only option? 11. Who decides to join him? Why? 12. What are the boys going to do? 13. Where do they decide to go? Why do they choose this location? 14. Who else joins them? Why does he come along? 15. How do they get their fire? 16. What does Tom think about as the boys’ raft approaches the island? 17. According to Tom, why is pirate life better than life as a hermit? 18. What keeps the boys from sleeping?

Chapters 14-15 Study Questions 1. How do the boys spend their first morning on the island? 2. How are they feeling by the middle of the afternoon? Why don’t they talk about it? 3. What is the sound that the boys hear? 4. What is the ferry boat looking for? How does this change the mood of the boys? 5. Where does Tom go after the other boys have fallen asleep? How does he get there? 6. What does Tom learn from eavesdropping on his aunt’s conversation with Mrs. Harper? 7. What doe the townspeople think has happened to the boys? 8. Why doesn’t Tom leave the note he has written?

Chapters 16-18 Study Questions 1. What do the pirates argue about on the morning that Tom returns from the village? 2. How does Tom keep Joe and Huck from leaving? 3. What does Huck teach Tom and Joe? How does it go? 4. What frightening experience do the pirates have in the middle of the night? What are they thankful for upon returning to their camp? 5. How does Tom distract the boys from homesickness the following day? 6. Describe the mood in the village on Saturday. (Include the adults, the children, and Becky.) 7. What happens at the funeral? How does the congregation react? 8. What has been Tom’s secret? 9. What was Tom’s “dream”? 10. How are the boys treated at school the next day? 11. Describe how Tom and Becky relate to each other before school. How do each end up feeling? 12. What does Alfred do to get Tom in trouble? Why? 13. Who witnesses Alfred’s crime? Why does this person decide not to tell Tom?

Chapters 19-22 Study Questions 1. How does Aunt Polly discover that Tom has lied about his dream? 2. What makes her forgive him? 3. What happens when Tom apologizes to Becky? 4. What is the “mystery” regarding the schoolmaster? Who discovers what it is? 5. What is Becky worried about? 6. What consequences does Tom face for his ruined spelling book? How does Becky react to his punishment? 7. What does Tom do for Becky? What is his punishment? (2) 8. Why are the boys plotting against Mr. Dobbins? 9. What is Examination Evening? 10. What does Tom recite? How does it go? 11. How does Mark Twain describe the compositions of the girls in the class? 12. What prank do the boys play on Mr. Dobbins? How are they able to do it? 13. Why does Tom join the Cadets of Temperance? What promise do they require of him? What does he discover after making this promise? 14. Why does he quit the Cadets? What happens immediately after he quits? 15. Why is Tom disappointed by the appearance of the senator? 16. Why is Tom’s vacation so miserable? (4) 17. Why has happened to the town during his illness? Which person’s change disturbs him the most? 18. What does Tom think the storm might be meant to do? 19. What does Tom discover about the town after his second illness?

Chapters 23-25 Study Questions 1. What shakes the town from its sleepy summer atmosphere? 2. Why does Tom become increasingly depressed as Muff Potter’s trial draws near? 3. How does Tom resolve his guilt about keeping silent? 4. How does Tom feel about his decision to testify after the trial has ended? 5. What does Tom say he will do if he finds a buried treasure? What will Huck do? 6. Where do Tom and Huck search for buried treasure? 7. According to Tom, how can a person determine the exact location of buried treasure? 8. How does the treasure hunt turn out? What do the boys decide to do?

Chapters 26-30 Study Questions 1. What circumstances lead to Tom and Huck’s discovery of Injun Joe’s hidden box of money? Explain thoroughly. 2. How does Tom react to what he and Huck witness in the haunted house? 3. Why do Tom and Huck continue to risk an encounter with Injun Joe? 4. What happens to Tom in Number Two of the Temperance Tavern? 5. Why does it take almost a day for people to realize that Tom and Becky are missing? 6. Why does Injun Joe go to Widow Douglas’s home? 7. How does Huck save Widow Douglas? 8. Why does Huck make the Welshman promise not to tell anyone that it had been Huck who warned him? 9. What does Huck let slip during his conversation with the Welshman? 10. How does Huck react when he learns that there is nothing in the Temperance Tavern except liquor?

Chapters 31-35 Study Questions 1. How do Tom and Becky get lost? 2. How does Tom behave once he realizes that he and Becky are lost? 3. Why does Injun Joe turn and run when he hears Tom shout? 4. How do Tom and Becky finally get out of the cave? 5. Why does Tom blanch (turn white) when he learns that the mouth to the cave has been sealed for two weeks? 6. How does Tom feel when he sees Injun Joe at the mouth of the cave? How did Injun Joe die? 7. Why does Huck want to abandon the search for treasure? 8. How does Tom convince himself and Huck that they will be safe from ghosts? 9. Why does Tom suggest that they leave the guns in the cave? 10. How do Tom and Huck act when they run into the Welshman? 11. How do Tom and Huck react to the prospect of a bath, new clothes, and a celebration? 12. Why is Tom so furious with Sid for revealing the Welshman’s secret? 13. How does the gathering at Widow Douglas’s home help draw the story to a close? 14. How does Huck feel about his life with Widow Douglas?