In this lesson, you will examine the central idea of chapter 2 in the adventures of tom sawyer. in this chapter, tom uses ingenuity and his knowledge of human nature to convince others to do his assigned chore of painting the fence.

once you have read the chapter, write a journal entry discussing tom’s theory about work versus play. how does he convince jim and the other boys to do his work for him? how does his technique with jim differ from that of the other boys? why do you think this is? think about your first impressions of tom from chapter 1. has your opinion of him changed based on the events in this chapter?