They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than President of the United States forever. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer our fun-loving protagonist goes on multiple adventures getting into all kinds of trouble as he navigates the messiness of boyhood. Sawyer is now so emblematic of a particular time and place in American history that it boosted the tourist industry of Hannibal St. Louis - where the novel is set and where Mark Twain himself grew up.