Games of Death as an Idealized Dream World of Youth in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Games of Death as an Idealized Dream World of Youth in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Mohammadshahi, Soolmaz

The world of Tom Sawyer--Mark Twain's remembered and reinvented world of childhood--seems to be piquant and pleasant mainly because it is seen in a bright world set off by the shadowy terrors of danger, death and conformity. Young Tom--and indirectly through him the self-recreated young Sam Clemens--appears to exist on the manic edge beyond which lurks the menace of destruction and the unknown. Tom is a manchild continually living at risk in this child's world where the adults often appear to be custom-bound conformists with whom Tom has no quarrel provided they do not threaten him or interfere too much with the hijinks he shares with his juvenile companions. Inevitably, however, he is nourished by the values of this adult world. This paper is an attempt to show that The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is constructed on a loose framework whose major elements include games of death and games of resurrection. (Both meanings of resurrection apply here: resurrection as grave robbing and resurrection as return to life from apparent death.) The novel reflects Twain's idealized dream world of youth in which the games of death may still be played as an innocent form of pure adventure.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05

1008