The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Twain Revealing His Own Childhood Mark Twain uses The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to reveal his own childhood; thus, many specifics in the book, such as the characters and the setting are very dear to his heart. It is the story about life in a boy’s world, and it discloses the feelings of Mark Twain concerning his boyhood, his town, and the people there. The time period is about two decades before the Civil War, and the setting is in St. Petersburg, Missouri, a small village on the Mississippi River. The main character in the book is Tom Sawyer, of course. Throughout the book, the author compares h