Eighty percent of kids want to become independent and not have to be bossed around. As a child or teenager, this a very common in today’s world. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, illustrates the teenage life of a mischievous child known as Tom Sawyer who constantly lives his own life and follows his own orders. Tom learns valuable lessons, including friendship and trusting in others, although his character stays the same the whole way. Through Tom’s major actions and decisions, Mark Twain teaches readers that childhood rebellion is a common phase where children have a habit of becoming independent when transferring from a kid to an adult. Mark Twain teaches readers one of Tom’s traits, childhood rebellion, through Tom witnessing …show more content…
When Aunt Polly catches Tom eating jam again, Tom says behind you Aunt, and, “The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The lad fled on the instant, scrambled up the high board-fence, and disappeared over it” (4). Tom proves to the readers his ability to elude trouble, and is motivated by his belief he can do anything he wants. Tom, like many other boys, want to have the freedom to make their own choices, so in order to have things their own way, they try to rebel against their parents as frequent as possible. In addition, when Aunt Polly asks Tom to whitewash the fence, he, tricks Ben to whitewash the fence, and, “By the time Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for a kite in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with; and so on, and so on, hour after hour” (18). Although Aunt Polly wants to teach Tom responsibility through giving him a job, in Tom’s mind, all he wants to do is relax, and be free of work. To do this, he makes his classmates and friends do his work for him, and tricks his Aunt Polly of doing it, completing his goals of making his Aunt Polly proud of him and not doing any of the work. Once again, Mark Twain expresses childhood rebellion through Tom’s actions against his