Tom Sawyer Empathy

Tom crawls through the secret passageway into the dark and mysterious cave. He walks through the dark with only the slight golden glow of the candle and the desire for treasure. Although he came for treasure when he left he became a wiser and a greater young man. Through the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Tom Sawyer grows through all his challenges he faces and learning how to be a true young man, the cave was the last step of childhood. He has grown up in multiple ways, by being responsible, having empathy, and being thoughtful; he has a growing compassion for many people and is growing more aware of his surroundings.

In the beginning, Tom Sawyer was growing at an extraordinary rate for his age, this is due to him being

He is able to to feel not only feel sorrow, but he can also put himself into other people’s shoes and help them feel better by using his own knowledge and supporting them through empathy. Through Toms adventures of growing up he has faced having responsibility and with that comes with a sense of empathy also. In the beginning Tom shows pity that resembled sorrow, but later that common pity quickly grew to strong empathy. Before showing he can take responsibility he showed some sympathy that then lead to him doing his mature action. “ ...considering all things, he did not want to pity her, and yet that was all that he could do” (188). Here Tom started to reflect on what he happened when he took Becky into the drama but he did not fully realize that he was the one that made her feel sad but he still felt how she was feeling. So he felt pity for her but then later he learned to make a action to show awareness and support her. Although this moment was the true first time he did an action to make Becky feel better by giving her his empathy, he has had some moments were he almost did a noble action but he's childish ways practically prevented him from doing it. For a great example, the moment when Tom was feeling sorrow for Aunt Polly and felt really bad for him running away. With this he decided to make a great action by writing a note

Some of his most thoughtful actions started after a big event when gets Tom in trouble. Like the time after the great pirating adventure, Tom started to reflect on his actions by thinking about how he affected him and his peers. This started from when Tom got in trouble and felt sorrow. He did not want to be the cause of the pain people have to feel. So with this he used all his skills of being responsible and having empathy and took the time to learn how to slow down reflect and decide if a decision would be right. Although Tom was learning this skill it still was very weak and he did not show action until later in the book. For example Tom was very thoughtful with his emotions and his actions in the cave with Becky because he knew that one bad thing can spark more agony and stress what will then affect Tom. If this pain would have spread to Tom he would be useless and they would never get out. To prevent this he let Becky rest and not bring her down or bring her hopes up but still staying strong. If Tom did not have the strength of being thoughtful then he could have killed Becky or both of them and he would have that guilt, so he used up all his mental power help him self and Becky.