Guide-O-Rama
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters Five to Ten
Chapter Five: The Pinch Bug and His Prey
Have you ever let your mind wander when you were supposed to be paying attention? In this chapter, Twain is showing us how easily distracted Tom is.
p. 36 Instead of listening to the sermon in church, Tom plays with a pinch bug (a beetle). p. 37 Unfortunately, the poodle has the misfortune to sit on this pinch bug; how surprised everyone is when the poodle’s owner chucks the dog out the window of the church!
Now that is what I call a memorable service!
Chapter Six: Tom Meets Becky
I bet you never lost a tooth like this! At the beginning of the chapter Tom wants to find a way out of going to school. Little does he know that this will end in him losing a tooth-the hard way!
p. 41 He decides his toe hurts (“mortified” means sore), but then he switches to the excuse of a sore tooth. Aunt Polly comes up with an interesting way to extract it. See if you can’t figure out what she does.
p. 43 bottom two paragraphs: Keep in mind our discussion about historical references and the way we now refer to African Americans
p. 42-46 Tom meets Huck, and they discuss various remedies for curing warts. (Yes, these superstitions are strange!) They decide to try to cure their warts by meeting in the graveyard at midnight with a dead cat. Tom will “meow” (signal) Huck that evening. Tom trades his tooth for a tick from Huck—this tick will come up again in the next chapter.
p. 48-50 Tom manages to get a seat next to Becky Thatcher in school. The way he wins her affection is somewhat different than what is portrayed in the movie. How is their flirtation different here?
Chapter Seven: Tick Running and a Heartbreak
p. 50-52 I don’t know that I’d choose to entertain myself this way! Tom is bored in school, so he plays a game with a tick with his friend Joe Harper.
p. 53-56 Boy wins girl, boy loses girl! Tom and Becky steal a kiss and become engaged—that is, until Tom makes a major blunder. What secret does Tom reveal that ends things between them (for now, at least)? What last ditch attempt does he make to win Becky back?
Chapter Eight: A Pirate Bold to Be
p. 57-58 Tom is down in the dumps—he’s quite dramatic, you’ll find. He decides he’s had enough of life in St. Petersburg, so he decides to abandon everything and become a pirate.
p. 59-62 After seeing that his marble superstition has failed, along comes Tom’s friend Joe Harper. Tom puts his pirate plans aside for a while, and they play “Robin Hood” together. What do you think of this? Do children your age still play pretend?
***Chapter Nine: Tragedy in the Graveyard*** (Very Important Chapter!)
-Tom and Huck venture out into the graveyard, and they get more than they bargained for. They unwittingly witness a murder! The villain of the novel Injun Joe murders young Dr. Robinson. Reread the middle paragraph on page 67 and see if you can figure out Injun Joe’s motive.
-p. 68-69 An innocent person is blamed for this murder. Who is he? What evidence suggests that he is the guilty one?
What do you think you would do, if you were in Tom’s shoes? Would you report what you had seen or would you keep it quiet, for fear that Injun Joe might come after you?
Chapter Ten: Dire Prophecy of the Howling Dog
-The frightened boys run for shelter, and they take refuge in the old tannery (a tannery is a place where skin is treated “tanned” to become leather). They discuss what to do about the murder, and they decide they are going to keep it to themselves (“keep mum” p. 71).
-The blood oath that they swear appears on page 72. Here’s what it says, in case you can’t make it out: “Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer swear they will keep mum about this and they wish they may drop down dead in their tracks if they ever tell and rot.”
-But, they are not alone in the tannery! Who else has crept in? He turns out to be the victim of the superstition discussed here: Tom and Huck believe that if a stray dog howls in your direction, you will die. They predict that Muff Potter is a goner!
p. 75-76 -As this portion comes to a close, Tom’s spirits are low: his conscience is burdened with knowledge of a murder, Aunt Polly has washed her hands of him, he gets punished by the teacher for playing hooky, and he finds his knob on his desk. What does this last incident mean?
Final tip: Focus on Tom’s character traits. As you think about your reading thus far in the novel, what adjectives (describing words) would you use to characterize the protagonist? If you reread this guide, you will find several answers.