Chapter 31

Recently I have found that sometimes whether or not someone  will like a certain chapter depends upon whether or not the reader can connect to it.  Often I find stories where I can connect to the characters and their feelings more appealing.  Often, authors use fright as a connection that most readers can take in a variety of ways.

Fear is also like the fishing pole to a reader in this chapter.  The reader often knows that the bait is just a trick yet that still can't convince them not to take a huge mouthful of it.  That is what it felt like to me in this chapter; I knew that Tom and Becky weren't going to die, but I still fell for it.  The extensive  descriptions and the extreme discomfort Tom and Becky seem to rub off on me as they take on the toughest of challenges for survival and sanity.   It was truly a nightmarish vision on starving, slowly the life draining out of them until there was almost nothing left.  Shivers ran down my spine when they saw Injun Joe, they wouldn't have  the strength to run from him if he  did reveal a knife.  I think that Injun Joe would have killed them both if he too wasn't suffering from starvation.  Of all the horrible choices that Tom has made in this book the one to leave Becky and go exploring on his own was both the worst and best at the same time.  Best because he got them out and worst because there was always the issue of getting lost again if he ran out of string.  I found Tom and Becky's escape totally unrealistic because what are the odds that there would be a boat right there, right then that was willing to take them back to their town?  I say that they would be pretty slim.  Although this chapter was crazy and weird, I still do like it that Tom and Becky made it back just like I knew that they would. 

I enjoyed this chapter but I would suggest that they stretch it over the course of maybe 3 or 4 chapters instead of just one because it was a lot of content to take in for one chapter.  Of all Tom's adventures this one was definitely the one that they were all leading up to. It was a great chapter but I figure that the rest will be just as boring as the first ones, and as many generations that pass, Tom Sawyer will always be "that book I  read when I was a kid" type of  classic.