Even the teachers of the Sunday school yearn to be recognized as they try to impress Judge Thatcher when he visits their classroom. The only character who begrudges Tom his dramatic flair is Sid, who is mean-spirited and a loner. In writing about the village of St. Petersburg, Missouri, Twain was describing a contemporary Southern American village to his original readers. Rather than glamorizing his subject matter by writing about a more well-known location or glamorous characters, he aimed towards realism in describing the daily lives of average people living on the Mississippi River, people in whom his readers might recognize themselves. His preface explains that much of the book is based on his own experiences growing up, implying that little has been reinvented. Yet, even as he sets out to tell the stories of ordinary villagers with beliefs and values that represent those of many mid-nineteenth-century Americans, Twain adds accompaniments to his depiction, playing up the quaintness of village life. A more realistic view of a community would stress, for example, unresolved injustices, the discrepancy between rich and poor, or the life of a slave in St. Petersburg And there are elements of realism in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, for example Twain 's descriptions of Huck 's life as a homeless boy who is looked down upon by his elders. Even so as a novel consisting of many short stories with happy endings, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is largely a sentimental portrait of