Throughout the novel, Mark Twain subtly comments on the oppression felt by children from society and the adults around them. The overall attitude shown by the children reflects that they are constantly made to feel small and incompetent, as a result of regular, and sometimes unnecessary chastising. In such a way, all the people of St. Petersburgh are shaped by their society and societal views, which in turn has them shaping their children to be the same. Often this sort of strict environment is harmful on the children, as they feel the need to get away and be freer on their own, while adults fail to consider how the children feel.
The world that Tom Sawyer knows is ruled by adults, but not all of them have the good influence one might expect.
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By enticing them with He is heard saying things like “you don’t get to whitewash a fence every day.” In this way, tom gets exactly what he wants, and more.
Mark Twain portrays a power struggle within the novel when he e power the adults have over the children can be seen in the way they advise the children
“She lifted up her voice, at an angle calculated for distance, and shouted, 'Y-o-u-u Tom!’,” (Twain, 2). Aunt Polly opens up the novel by repeatedly shrieking Tom’s name, in her most threatening possible tone followed by more desperate attempts to draw out Tom. “'Well, I lay if I get hold of you, I’ll--- ' She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom—and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.” Aunt Polly’s tone immediately gives off the impression to both the readers, and presumably to Tom, that he is to find only criticism and scolding during the impending conversation. Tom’s evasiveness suggests that he is familiar with this situation in which Aunt Polly uses an urgent tone that, as he uses his familiar tactics to try and get away, suggesting that he does this often. It can be understood that these opening lines symbolize “an adult seeking to pull the boy back into the oppressively mature society that will underpin the work’s action and Tom’s subsequent , reactionary