Fantasy World of Childhood

You’re sitting on your beaten up couch with your clothes soaked, as you use your imagination to think of what your mother might have in store for you this time. Will you not be able to goof off with your buddies, or no more sweets for the rest of the week? Scoldings are nothing new, been there, done that. But maybe this is her last strand, maybe you have gone too far. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, written by Mark Twain, Tom is a boy that gets away with everything. He lives in a fantasy world where children are allowed to do almost anything and everything they please, without serious consequence.

Mark Twain wrote this book after Civil War, so everyone wanted romance, so it would lift their spirits when it seemed like nothing was going right. They would read these types of books, and imagine themselves in this exquisite world, where even in a time in need; you have fun without getting into major trouble. Tom Sawyer could skip school, runaway, and even witness a murder, and still be just an innocent small boy. Tom skips school one day to go swimming. He comes home, and his aunt suspects something is up. She questions him, and he does such a good job of lying to her, and convinces her that he was in school the whole day. I'm not sure how, but Aunt Polly believes him. Not until his brother, Sid, comes in, he is having a great time, knowing that he had yet again avoided punishment. Sid tells on Tom, but Tom has already left to go meet up with his friends.

Tom is a boy that lives in a small town, in a small house, with a small family. His family doesn’t have much money, and he doesn’t have many nice clothes, or much food. Still, he makes the best of things and has such a great time doing it. He has an adventurous mind that is always looking for something new to do. Although Tom has so many fantastic times, he does experience some horrific or sad. When Tom and Huck were hunting for treasure in the haunted house, they come to realize that Injun Joe, one of the scariest people in the area they live in, is trying to hide his treasure there. They sneak upstairs, hoping not to be seen. They sit and sit, waiting for these horrible people to leave, so they too, could leave. Injun Joe’s partner, some they call Spaniard, notices their tools lying on the ground. He tells Injun Joe, who thinks to go check upstairs, to make sure that the tools owners weren’t spying on them. Half way up the stairs, he decides to leave the people, saying that they can tell everyone about their plans; they would be long gone by then. In the real world, this probably wouldn’t happen; Tom and Huck would have gotten caught, and may have been goners. This scene just shows what kind of world Mark Twain was picturing while writing this.

Innocence: a word that describes Tom Sawyer. The theme in this book is innocence to innocence. Tom does learn from all of his mistakes, which would make him be more experienced, but he does nothing with what learns. Tom learns that when you run away, you are missed dearly, and it hurts everyone that cares for you. He learned this after coming back from his pirate adventure, but when he and Becky ran off in the cave, he didn’t once think about his aunt or siblings, and how much they would miss him. In our world, sometimes we forget things, and we usually don’t get away with it too easily. Tom forgets nearly everything, but still gets by smoothly.

Sitting in your room, not too thrilled to be there, think about how miserable this weekend will be. This world is harsh and full of predicaments, very much unlike Tom Sawyer’s world. He can go off on pirating adventures or skip school to go swimming, but every single kid and a lot of adults admire him. That is why, in this small town in Missouri, everything is unrealistic, and seems to be the perfect world.

Tom Sawyer Response

Tom Sawyer, a young, adventurous boy that lives in the 1800’s. He enjoys playing tricks on his ageing aunt and skipping school to go pirating with a few friends. He loathes his brother, Sid, who always seems to catch him, and get him into to trouble. Scoldings aren’t anything new to Tom, but somehow, he always makes the best of them. That just shows how innocent this growing boy really is. He may be bad, he may have mischievous thoughts, but everyone seems to look past that in the end, which makes us realize how much of a fantasy world Mark Twain has placed this story in.

When Tom and Joe go off with Huckleberry to become pirates, they didn’t realize what they were putting other people through. They went off for at least a week, and then realized that everyone had missed them. But did they go back? No, not for awhile anyway. They stayed because Tom had a idea, which they thought would be funny. So they stayed and played more of their pirate games, thinking that everything would work out. In the real world, no one would think it was funny, and no one would forgive them, but in the world that Mark Twain has created, it is completely possible.

The funeral was during church on a Sunday. Aunt Polly, Tom’s aunt, was depressed and her eyes were already swollen. The priest had already started the ceremony, when Tom, Joe, and Huck walked in, making everyone have a double take. You would expect that everyone would be shocked, and disappointed in these boys. People would have thoughts running through their head, such as, “How could these foolish boys possibly stay away when they know that they are missed? How could they possibly but these poor people into this type of misery?” But in this case, no such thoughts were going through their head. They were all filled with joy. Why though? Because this world is a fantasy, in which things happen that wouldn’t in our world.

Tom Sawyer, a boy who lives in a world where everything goes his way. He can sneak out of the house, run away with someone everyone else hates, get whipped infront of the whole class, and everyone still loves him. He is an all-American boy, who hasn't yet realized what conciquences are like, and how much of an impact they have when you are a grown-up. All in all, when reading this book, you but yourself in a world that you would love to live in, but you also know that this would never happen, because our world is harsh.