Childlike Resistance, Adult Longing (Week 5)

At the conclusion of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, readers experience a curious shift within the experiences and trajectory of the mischievous Tom and uncivilized Huck as their adventures come to a close. Throughout this piece, there are strong ties to the idea of childhood being portrayed as a condition rather than being a time in one’s life. The style of the story, such as the fact that the novel is written in the third person perspective rather than from Tom’s point of view, cultivates an audience reminiscence of the period of childhood which allows readers to both recognize the childlike experiences of Tom and Huck as well as form a space of nostalgic humor. Readers are especially able to grapple with these themes through The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Curiously enough, a character that perfectly portrays this condition is not Tom, but Huckleberry Finn. At the conclusion of the work, Huck is adopted by the Widow Douglass for a brief time, but then runs away when he learns that civilization is not for him. Tom tracks Huck down in the forest, and Huck confides “I’ve tried it, and it don’t work; it don’t work, Tom. The widder’s good to me, and friendly’ but I just can’t stand them ways. She makes me get up just at the same time every morning; she makes me wash, they comb me all to thunder; she won’t let me sleep in the woodshed; I got to wear them blamed clothes that just smothers me, Tom; they don’t seem to any air git through ‘em, somehow; and they’re so rotten nice that I can’t set down, or lay down, nor roll around anywhere; I ain’t slid on a cellar door for – well, it ‘pears to be years; I got to go to church, and sweat and sweat – I hate them ornery sermons! I can’t ketch a fly in there, I can’t chaw, I got to wear shoes all Sunday. The wider eats by a bell; she goes to bed by a bell; she gets up by a bell – everything’s so awful reg’lar a body can’t stand it” (Twain 317).

Huck’s soliloquy in this moment is brilliantly written – the use of dialect and nostalgia play off one another in such a way that even though Huck is miserable, and adult readers can recognize that what Huck wants is decidedly unsuitable for both himself and for older people, readers are still captivated in a way that transports them back to a childhood state and renders a desire for the simpler time of childhood. This ability to transport readers into such a state plays perfectly into the idea of childhood as a condition rather than being a set, finite time in one’s life. The condition of childhood here becomes transient through Huck’s fears and whining. By so clearly articulating his childhood desires, and by placing it in such a disarming dialect, nostalgia takes over and allows for Twain’s success in creating a childhood space for readers to coexist in.

Image found on: http://www.mad-doctor-mcdowell.com/marktwain.html

Outside information taken from Dr. Beringer's ENG 405 class powerpoints.