How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The middle-aged man turned out to be a prodigious personage -- no less a one than the county judge -- altogether the most august creation these children had ever looked upon -- and they wondered what kind of material he was made of -- and they half wanted to hear him roar, and were half afraid he might, too. He was from Constantinople, twelve miles away -- so he had travelled, and seen the world -- these very eyes had looked upon the county court-house -- which was said to have a tin roof. (4.39)
Though Tom and the children are so used to their small town life that twelve miles might as well be 12,000 miles.
Quote #2
After the hymn had been sung, the Rev. Mr. Sprague turned himself into a bulletin-board, and read off "notices" of meetings and societies and things till it seemed that the list would stretch out to the crack of doom -- a queer custom which is still kept up in America, even in cities, away here in this age of abundant newspapers. (5.6)
Twain takes pleasure in pointing out some of the more peculiar institutions that have become part of American life. This particular practice, Twain would be pleased to know, continues to this day.
Quote #3
"Yes, that's it, Huck -- that's it; though when you're burying it if you say 'Down bean; off wart; come no more to bother me!' it's better. That's the way Joe Harper does, and he's been nearly to Coonville and most everywheres. But say -- how do you cure 'em with dead cats?" (6.80)
Once again, Tom shows that, as far as he's concerned, going anywhere outside of St. Petersburg is the equivalent of going pretty much everywhere. His knowledge of the world is confined to his hometown.
Quote #4
It was a graveyard of the old-fashioned Western kind. It was on a hill, about a mile and a half from the village. It had a crazy board fence around it, which leaned inward in places, and outward the rest of the time, but stood upright nowhere. (9.2)
Here, Twain emphasizes the typicality of St. Petersburg. It may not be "Anytown, USA," but it is meant to recall Twain's hometown and those of many other readers.
Quote #5
Close upon the hour of noon the whole village was suddenly electrified with the ghastly news. No need of the as yet undreamed-of telegraph; the tale flew from man to man, from group to group, from house to house, with little less than telegraphic speed. (11.1)
Twain lets us know that gossip spreads like wildfire in the small town and reminds us that Tom Sawyer's story is set firmly in the past.
Quote #6
Even the Glorious Fourth was in some sense a failure, for it rained hard, there was no procession in consequence, and the greatest man in the world (as Tom supposed), Mr. Benton, an actual United States Senator, proved an overwhelming disappointment -- for he was not twenty-five feet high, nor even anywhere in the neighborhood of it. (22.5)
Tom, young and, clearly, not worldly, seems to have really bought into the myth surrounding great American politicians.
Quote #7
"You don't know me. Least you don't know all about that thing. 'Tain't robbery altogether -- it's revenge!" and a wicked light flamed in his eyes. "I'll need your help in it. When it's finished -- then Texas. Go home to your Nance and your kids, and stand by till you hear from me." (26.78)
Tom Sawyer is set at a time when Texas was considered wild and unsettled, a perfect place for hiding from the law.
Quote #8
When [Becky] pleaded grace for the mighty lie which Tom had told in order to shift that whipping from her shoulders to his own, the Judge said with a fine outburst that it was a noble, a generous, a magnanimous lie -- a lie that was worthy to hold up its head and march down through history breast to breast with George Washington's lauded Truth about the hatchet! (35.3)
By the end of the book, Tom has attained the status of an American hero, at least in the eyes of Judge Thatcher.
Quote #9
The widder eats by a bell; she goes to bed by a bell; she gits up by a bell -- everything's so awful reg'lar a body can't stand it."
"Well, everybody does that way, Huck." (35.7-8)
The Widow's regimen, and, most especially, Tom's defense of it, seems curiously at odds with the vision of boyhood, of specifically American boyhood, that Tom has come to represent.