What Does The Setting Of St. Petersburg Symbolize

One of the most unique literary techniques used in this novel is the setting. Twain takes the reader on a detailed journey through the small town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, and the reader can view this small town effortlessly. This small town is based on the town Twain grew up in which was Hannibal, Missouri. Despite this, St. Petersburg is a small and poor town along the Mississippi River which includes a church, a cemetery, a Temperance Tavern, a schoolhouse, a courthouse, and an island right next to it which contains many caves. St. Petersburg is a small town, so, all these places within the city are very close to each other around the Mississippi River. St. Petersburg is also described in the quotation: “A newcomer of any age or either …show more content…
The setting of St. Petersburg helps the theme of moral and social maturation through the character of Tom. Since it is a small town, everybody knows everybody in the area, and news spreads fast throughout the people. In the beginning, the constant talk about how immature Tom is through his actions. His actions include lying and sneaking out, it’s as if Tom does whatever he wants. Tom becomes in trouble no matter where he is because he always does something that isn’t right from being in school, church, and at home. But, this changes as the novel progresses. As the novel progresses, Tom’s actions become more and more noticed throughout the community because they start to put others lives in danger as well as his. The town frowns upon this and starts to look at him differently for it. Soon after that, Tom doesn’t like to always be judged in a bad way, so his actions change. At the beginning of this, his actions don’t change all the way just a small amount because he still makes some of the same deccisions he did where he was immature. But, once Tom starts to do well in the community and the community notices it, they have a different appreciation for him. They all admire him because of how far he has come from being an immature boy into a mature boy at the end. The setting of St. Petersburg, a small town, helps influence the theme of maturation in the character of Tom in the novel. Since St. Petersburg …show more content…
St. Petersburg as described by Twain, is a small and very poor town which helps contribute to the this theme. The town is poor and has many houses that are abandoned because people have passed away in them. Tom and Huck believe that the abandoned houses that people have passed away in are haunted by their ghosts. This causes superstitions within the boys because they believe ghosts in the supernatural world haunt their town wherever people have died. This also occurs in the cemetery and the Jackson’s Islands caves where Injun Joe dies. This theme can be seen through the quotation: “O’ course he does. Least his spirit does” (Twain 71). This quotation illustrates the theme of superstitions and supernatural within the world because Tom and Huck believe that ghosts exist and their spirits stay around where that person died. They have superstitions about the supernatural world of ghosts, that wherever the person dies, their spirit in ghost form haunts the people whom are around that area. The setting can help the theme of superstitions and supernatural within the world because of the small and poor town St. Petersburg is. The small and poor town has many abandoned places which causes the minds of Huck and Tom to believe that the abandoned places are haunted by ghosts and their spirits. If this were a bigger town and not poor, the boys would not believe this because they wouldn’t