Before writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Samuel Langhorne Clemens took on several different careers. He started working at the age of twelve as a store clerk to earn money for his family after his father died. He moved on to different small jobs such as a delivery boy, an apprentice to the town’s blacksmith, and later a compositor with local printers and newspapers
(“Twain, Mark”). Clemens was forced to leave school to go work at the Missouri Courier as a printer’s apprentice. Next, he discovered his avid passion for writing while working at the
Hannibal Journal. Beginning in 1853, he set out as a journeyman printer to St. Louis, New York, and Philadelphia. He roamed the country in this way before getting his first paying job as a
writer …show more content…
The small town of Hannibal was a model for the fictional town, St. Petersburg, Missouri, which was where Tom’s story took place (“SparkNote”). Just like Hannibal, St. Petersburg’s summers were full of circuses, revivalists, and minstrel shows. Tom and his playmates attended these and also took a steam ferryboat to the site of a cave, which they then explored (Twain 161, 203). Twain and his pals came to many of these events and wandered through caves as well (“Mark Twain Biography”;
Ward, Duncan 6). Mark Twain did say in the preface of his book that most of the adventures he wrote about, such as these examples, actually happened (Twain 5). Violence was just as prevalent in St. Petersburg as in Hannibal. When Tom and Huckleberry
Finn were out exploring a graveyard at night, they witnessed the murder of a man, named Dr.
Robinson, by the villain, Injun Joe (Twain 79). Because the boys were so frightened, they swore to each other to never tell anyone of what they saw for fear of being sought after by the evil murderer in revenge (Twain 83). Tom had nightmares multiple nights about the murders he witnessed and Injun Joe coming after him. Both boys, Tom and Twain, suffered of
(“Twain, Mark”). Clemens was forced to leave school to go work at the Missouri Courier as a printer’s apprentice. Next, he discovered his avid passion for writing while working at the
Hannibal Journal. Beginning in 1853, he set out as a journeyman printer to St. Louis, New York, and Philadelphia. He roamed the country in this way before getting his first paying job as a
writer …show more content…
The small town of Hannibal was a model for the fictional town, St. Petersburg, Missouri, which was where Tom’s story took place (“SparkNote”). Just like Hannibal, St. Petersburg’s summers were full of circuses, revivalists, and minstrel shows. Tom and his playmates attended these and also took a steam ferryboat to the site of a cave, which they then explored (Twain 161, 203). Twain and his pals came to many of these events and wandered through caves as well (“Mark Twain Biography”;
Ward, Duncan 6). Mark Twain did say in the preface of his book that most of the adventures he wrote about, such as these examples, actually happened (Twain 5). Violence was just as prevalent in St. Petersburg as in Hannibal. When Tom and Huckleberry
Finn were out exploring a graveyard at night, they witnessed the murder of a man, named Dr.
Robinson, by the villain, Injun Joe (Twain 79). Because the boys were so frightened, they swore to each other to never tell anyone of what they saw for fear of being sought after by the evil murderer in revenge (Twain 83). Tom had nightmares multiple nights about the murders he witnessed and Injun Joe coming after him. Both boys, Tom and Twain, suffered of