"Tom Sawyer" Response: Love

At some point in your life, there’s bound to be someone you like a little more than everyone else. They’re the one that you would do anything for, just to catch their eye. You’ll get into trouble for them, and you’ll go crazy just to get a seat next to them. Love makes us do foolish, unimaginable things, but without it, life would seem so lost.

Love can sometimes make people feel like a different person, changing one’s perspective on things. Tom Sawyer falls into this trap when he meets Becky Thatcher, a girl whom he had seen while walking one day. On the first day of school, Tom arrives late to class because he decided to stop and talk to Huckleberry Finn, which is deeply frowned upon for children to do. Rather than making an excuse, he tells the truth to the teacher, in order to sit on the girl's side of the room, right near Becky. Tom’s love for her changes his normal behavior, which is bound to happen when we like someone. It almost blinds us, and makes it harder to see what's really happening.

As wonderful as this feeling can be, it doesn’t always end up so grand. Tom is the kind of kid that always gets his way, no matter what the circumstance. So when he first began his admiration of Becky, he tries and does everything he possible can to get what he wants. When it finally happens, Tom is overjoyed, only for it to come crashing down because he messed it up by telling Becky about him and Amy Lawrence, someone he was supposedly “engaged” to. Becky is heartbroken, and Tom is left feeling awful and confused. Love can be a beautiful thing, but it will knock every single person down that dares to cross it.

It can be a difficult journey when dealing with love, and every step is filled with something more to think about. There's always going to be a new problem that will emerge, but we still continue on, for the moments that aren't problems, the reason we're there on the journey. Life wouldn't feel quite the same without love.