Boys will be boys in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” Mark Twain uses “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” to reveal his own childhood; thus, many details of the book, such as the characters and setting, are close to his heart. It is the story of life in a boys' world and reveals Mark Twain's feelings about his childhood, his town and its people. The time period is approximately two decades before the Civil War and the setting is St. Petersburg, Missouri, a small village on the Mississippi River. The main character of the book is of course Tom Sawyer. Throughout the book, the author compares himself to Tom and his adventures. Tom is entirely a boy, which means he's about as rambunctious and mischievous as a little boy can be. He despises anything that restricted his childhood freedom, including school, church, and household chores. Not only does he despise these restrictions, but he will also do anything to get out of them. For example, he skips school and gets his friends to do his chores for him. Although he hates the constraints of life, he loves the liberating aspects of life. He longs to enjoy nature and all it has to offer. A quote from the book that illustrates Tom Sawyer's attitude towards life is where the author reveals his philosophy, "that work consists of all that a body is obliged to do, and that play consists of all that that a body is not obliged to do. » The other characters in the story revolve around the character of Tom. Tom lives with his Aunt Polly due to the death of his mother. She tries to keep Tom in check, but she struggles because she has such a soft spot in her heart for Tom. When she disciplines Tom, she feels terrible and, in a way, she punishes herself. Sidney is Tom's half-brother who always seems to make Tom look bad. While Tom is the so-called bad boy who always gets into trouble, Sidney is the good boy who always does as he is told. However, Tom is presented in a compassionate manner, but Sidney is portrayed as a talker and deceiver. He is shown to be deceptive when he allows Tom to take the blame and punishment for the broken sugar bowl, even though he was the one who broke it..