Tom and Becky In “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain, there are many different relationships portrayed. The one that is the focus of this paper, is the relationship between Tom and Becky. Throughout the book, Tom and Becky have many different interactions. It is introduced very early in the story that Tom has feelings for Becky. Their relationship is in many ways very childish, but by the end of the book, it has turned into something deeper than that. Tom and Becky are schoolmates; and it seems that most of their interactions are focused in, or at least around, school. Becky was at Toms house for a lesson when Tom first secretly told her that he loved her. The way that he did this was very much in the way Tom would usually conduct …show more content…
This act, in and of itself, was very childish; but that is to be expected from children. When Tom once again tells Becky that he loves her, even while she begged him not to out of embarrassment, he insists that she must return the feelings. And not only that she must return the feelings, but also that she must say it to Tom. After hiding her face from Tom for quite a long while, she told him to turn his head, or else she wouldn’t say it to him. He complied, and she whispered the words weakly into his ear. “Io... love… you.” While Becky might have had these feelings for Tom, she was certainly not ready to say them, or confront them. Sadly, Tom was a very self-centered boy, and he pushed her, and pushed her until she was very uncomfortable. Not only was their relationship childish, but Tom was very childish as well. He made Becky believe that they were now ‘engaged’ as he called it, and that they “can’t ever be with no one else,” after they had kissed, which was another thing that Tom pushed Becky into doing, whether she wanted to or not. It wasn’t that Tom meant to hurt Becky, or make her do things that she didn’t desire to do. Tom was just too self-focused to even realize that he was doing to Becky. When he accidentally let on that he had been previously ‘engaged’ to a different girl, this …show more content…
But when she finally tries to right her wrongs, Tom ignored her, instead speaking to another girl of his adventures of being a pirate. Becky was hurt by Tom’s childish behavior, but instead of telling him how she felt, she decided that she would make him jealous as well. This is another example of the childish behavior that is displayed in their relationship. The first real display of a mature attitude in Tom was when he took Becky’s punishment at school after she accidentally ripped their teachers special book. After this, Tom and Becky forgave each other for all their past wrongs and jealousy, and were once again friends. The last, and probably best act of maturity in their relationship comes from Tom when he and Becky get lost in the cave. When the two of them realize what has happened, and that they cannot find the rest of their group, Becky starts to cry. Tom does his best to stay strong, but he also worries that they will never find their way out of the cave. After more than two days of being trapped in the cave, unable to find an escape, Becky gives up and says that she wants to die. Tom, unable to believe that such a thing was actually going to happen, let Becky stay where she was safe, and went on his own, searching for a way out of the cave; coming back occasionally to make sure that Becky