Most people read Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
as a child. I was not one of them. Having grown up in Missouri, I visited
Hannibal several times and was aware of the basics of the story. However, it
was somewhat disconcerting in this day and age of “politically-correct”
language to read through a 19th Century children’s classic filled with
superstitious obsessions, schoolroom corporal punishment, and sporadic racial
slurs. Many people tend to think of Tom Sawyer as a mischievous, lazy boy
always leading others into trouble. I saw him as an incredibly imaginative and
creative social leader who could entertain himself for days on end with bits
and scraps that would mostly be considered trash. I wonder how many of my students
could be as creative these days, especially in the absence of an electrical
outlet or a Wi-Fi connection.
My favorite quote from the book came near the end, when Tom Sawyer
and Becky Thatcher are trying to find their way out of the cave after becoming
lost during a weekend picnic:
“So they moved on
again – aimlessly – simply at random – all they could do was move, keep moving.
For a little while, hope made a show of reviving – not with any reason to back
it, but only because it is its nature to revive when the spring has not been
taken out of it by age and familiarity with failure.”
We tend to think of children as fearless and willing to try
anything, whereas we become more reluctant to put ourselves out there as we
become adults. Movies, TV, newspapers, and our own experiences tend to
constantly show us all the things that can go wrong. I read this book for the
Back to the Classics reading challenge. I’ve noticed that other reviewers
consider Huckleberry Finn the better
book of the two, but I think The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer manages
to satisfy my curiosity and flesh out the story from those childhood visits I made
to Hannibal, Missouri.
