Help Revising an RTL essay? Need a response soon please!

So I need to make the background info in the 1st paragraph shorter, im stuck on the concluding paragraph, and if possible, plz check 4 grammer mistakes and punctuation. I rlly appreciate it!
**** *****
Mr. ***********
English 8 Honors, Period 6
19 October 2012
Character Traits of Tom Sawyer in His Many Adventures
“If he hadn’t run out of whitewash, he would have bankrupted every boy in the village,” (22) says the narrator in the famous historical fiction novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, written by Mark Twain, which is mainly about a boy named Thomas Sawyer and his friends Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper, who lived in St. Petersburg, Missouri. Tom, who is very adventurous, is constantly getting into trouble and going on various different adventures with his friends. The main antagonist in the novel is Joe, who kills Doctor Robinson and frames Muff Potter for the crime. Tom and Huck witness the crime, but promise to “keep mum”, or stay silent. Tom later testifies in court and tells the jury about Joe’s crime, and for the rest of the book, is in constant fear of Joe, for he is afraid he may want to seek revenge on him. Later when he is searching for treasure, Tom sees find treasure and from that point on tries to follow him to steal his gold. Tom is noble, sneaky, and is constantly looking for trouble.
Tom has a very noble disposition, which is mostly shown towards the end of the novel. For example, when the narrator exclaims, “ A thought shot like lightning through Tom’s brain. He sprang to his feet and shouted- ‘ I done it!” (134), Tom is being noble and taking Becky’s punishment for her by confessing to her crime. This shows how much Tom cares for Becky and that he will do what is right. This will make Becky like him. In addition, the narrator states that “ He [Tom] seized Becky’s hand and hurried her into the first corridor that offered; and none too soon, for a bat struck Becky’s light…” (191). When the bats were attacking them, Tom took Becky into the first corridor he could find to keep her out of harm’s way; if he had not done it sooner, Becky could be hurt, for a bat had come close enough to put out her light. Tom Sawyer is a very noble character.
Tom is also very sneaky, and is always finding a way out of troublesome situations. For example, when Tom is caught eating a bottle of jam in the closet, he states, “My! Look behind you, aunt!’ The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The lad fled…” (12) In order to get away, Tom distracted and frightened his aunt by saying there was something behind her, and as soon as she turned around, he fled. This currently got Tom out of the punishment he would have received for consuming jelly that his aunt had told him not to eat. In addition, when Tom’s peer Ben Rodgers approached him Tom said, “Well, here - No, Ben, now don’t. I’m afeard--’ ‘I’ll give you all of it!’ Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart.” (21) Tom had persuaded Ben that whitewashing the fence was hard, and an honor. He claimed that his Aunt chose him specifically, and that he shouldn’t give the job to anybody else. He not only persuaded Ben to do the job for him, but he also earned a lot of valuables in the deal, and hence, Ben had said, “I’ll give you all of it!”(from quote above) Tom repeated this scam with many other victims, and by the end of the day, he was “…literally rolling in wealth.” (22) As one can now see, Tom Sawyer is a very sneaky being.
Tom is always looking for trouble, and is constantly getting in fights. For example, the narrator states that Tom, “…proceeded to his seat and started a quarrel with the first boy that came handy.” (32) As soon as Tom sat down, he started fighting with the first person he saw that had done something worthy to quarrel about. This shows how easily Tom can get into trouble and how much of a troublemaker he is. In addition, when Tom first meets Alfred Temple, the new kid in town, he says, “…I could lick [fight] you with one hand tied behind me, if I wanted to.” (15) Tom does not like Alfred and thinks he is weird and fancy. Tom threatens to lick, or fight Alfred with one hand tied behind his back. Tom later got scolded by Alfred’s mother for causing trouble when he stood by Alfred’s house and taunted him. Tom Sawyer was a major troublemaker.
Throughout the novel, the book hints at Tom being noble, sneaky, and a troublemaker. If Tom had not taken Becky’s punishment, Becky would have been punished for it. If he had not saved her from the bats, she could have been seriously injured. Tom sneaked around Aunt Polly to escape his fate for eating the jam; he had scammed most of the boys he knew into painting the fence for him and owing him for doing it. Tom had started a quarrel with a child at his church and fought his enemy Alfred Temple. Mark Twain’s underlying message is that one can change from being tricky and silly to brave and noble because of different events that they encounter.