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My Qualms with “Why Are American’s Afraid of Dragons?”

I sit here looking to add substance to my blog about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by reading Ursula LeGuin’s “Why are American’s Afraid of Dragons”, but find myself basically snubbed by her assumptions within the essay and am now more inclined to talk about that than anything else. I took this class because by plan is to someday write for children’s television shows someday, so taking a children’s literature course was kind of obvious. However, I never developed my love for writing from books (in fact I really don’t like to read at all), instead it came from television. To this day I’d rather see the new episode of Once Upon a Time on ABC, rather than watch the Jets lost another game during the football season. I’ve read graphic novels and comics since I was a kid and was never into many sports, westerns or detective stories (unless it involved Batman). What I’m getting at here is that I basically live in my imagination, and for someone who is now working toward developing it further in hopes of making a living using it, I find myself somewhat perplexed and vexed by Ursula’s thinking.

She grounds our forsaking of imagination in our assimilated roles within our genders and uses bases like the needs and gains of our financial responsibilities and attainments as a way of supporting this. However, this was done in 1974, so I would hope that our development and use of technology in the genres of film and television have enabled the general American populace to embrace and strengthen both our own, and opinions about, imagination. Now thinking about it, I just read the entirety of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz online from a miniature tablet, which would not have even been imagined to exist 10 years ago, let alone 38 years ago! Our development of things such as C.G.I and digital libraries have allowed us to push and fulfill our imaginations passed the stars and into the beyond, with no current end in sight. This essay might have made some sense then, but it makes a lot less sense now.

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Tom Sawyer as an American ideal

As we discussed in class about how Mark Twain originally intended for Tom Sawyer to be an adult’s novel, the idea of Tom as a study of boyhood arose. Encapsulating, the discussion of Tom as a window through a layered window in which the society of the time viewed boyhood in the south. Tom Sawyer embodies many of the ideal that still persist today and can be credited in ways to what we believe to be the ideal stance of childhood. Tom is charming, and dangerously intelligent. Despite Tom’s tricks and adventures, he never strays too far to go as far as breaking breaks the law. This keeps the novel within that realm of childishness because as far as tom does not break any adult laws, there are no real consequences. Tom here can be seen as one who separates himself from the rest of society by choosing an unconventional method of improving himself. American have always loved the ideal of the outcast hero who breaks away from the stifling society to venture out on his own because it reminds us of our own independence from the British crown, how a few rogue members of society could inspire a nation to revolt against an empire.

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Tom sawyer

 

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer paints a picture of a young boy who is indeed adventurous. Despite his wild, reckless side he is also very calculating and manipulative. Another side that I found interesting is the very dramatic part of his persona. When his aunt Polly mistakenly  “belts” him for dropping the sugar bowl in Chapter 3, Tom takes great pleasure in the fact that his aunt is visibly remorseful. He starts to think about how it would be if he were “lying sick unto his death” and his aunt would be trying to seek forgiveness but he would turn his face away from her. Then he takes it a step further, envisioning himself dead and his aunt throwing herself on top of his lifeless body begging God for forgiveness for abusing him. I found this humorous because he has such an overactive imagination. I love this character because he is 100% authentic, there are no pretenses with Tom. He is everything that he wants to be without anything or anyone holding him back. It can be considered self-centered but it’s fun to read about since most people try to abide by rules. Tom is keenly perceptive and is a bit of a social scientist, conducting experiments on anyone he comes in contact with and trying to figure out how to get what he wants.

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“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and Gendered Mischievousness

In Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” little Tom is conniving and sinful, but is ultimately characterized as harmless and far from the trope of the evil or demonic child. Tom uses his cunning to avoid punishment from Aunt Polly and avoid doing work such as when he conned boys from St. Petersburg to whitewash his fence. Because Tom is just a mischievous child and not evil, his schemes are seen as playful, rambunctious and prompts the reader to shrug and say “boys will be boys.” This saying has and still does act as an excuse for boys to act rowdy and sometimes violent in accordance to how contemporary American society genders males. The classic adventure story for a boy requires physicality often in the forms of destructiveness, violence, and dominion over his environment. The classic adventure story for a girl could not be more different which means even from a young age, children are given expectations of what kind of adventures they should have and what is appropriate for the gender from literature.

Boys are allowed to be mischievous and troublesome and it is seen as an integral part of their character. Boys learn how to control their environment from an early age when they’re encouraged to go out and play outside. Since gender roles characterize men as dominant, industrious, and in control, literature fosters these ideas when they portray young boys like Tom Sawyer being dirty, active, and rowdy. However, young girls are given a PLETHORA of love stories and tales revolving around the home. This teaches girls from a young age that the most important thing in life is to find someone to love us so we can stay at home and be obedient and pleasant. Usually in literature, young girls are not portrayed as mischievous or at least, certainly not in the way that boys are. Male mischievous is healthy and good for them; female mischievous suggests sexual deviancy.

 

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Boys & Bugs

Tom and the boys in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer covet bugs as the possibly the best play thing. Tom’s pinch bug reeks minor wreaks havoc during a Sunday sermon. He and his best friend Joe conceive of a game around a wood tick and a slate board. Tom calls upon a doodle bug in a boyish incantation for missing marbles. I thought of these three pretty quickly off the top of my head. Tom has many boyish treasures, but bugs do seem to offer him the most entertainment.

Tom uses bugs to pass the time when quiet reflection is expected during church and school. Tom is clearly not wired for quiet reflection, so a bug-friend offers him distraction that is engaging, easy to hide, and as an added bonus likely repelling to girls. Bugs are also a valuable commodity in Tom’s trades. The little wood tick is worth enough for him to trade his recently lost tooth. Twain offers the reader an authentic trait of young boys and they’re attraction to little creepy-crawly things.

 

 

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The Power of Perception & Tom Sawyer

Illustration from Tom Sawyer.

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear Tom Sawyer is the white washed fence. It stands in my mind as a representation of the imagination that children are very much connected with, as well as the skill of being a con artist. Tom is very cunning and isn’t much for hard work, and he’s smart enough to know that everything is on based perception. Tom changes the perception of the boy walking past, who perceives  that Tom is working extremely hard.

What do you call work?”

“Why, ain’t that work?”

Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:

“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”

“Oh come, now, you don’t mean to let on that you like it?”

The brush continued to move.

“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth – stepped back to note the effect – added a touch here and there – criticised the effect again – Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:

“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”

Tom saw an opening to free himself simply by changing the boys perception of what he saw. This power lies in all children as well as adults, and it’s alarmingly simple to use. What really matters is what you allow your self to see. If one takes the same idea and applies to other readings, something surprising might occur  in how you view things that once seemed very black or white.

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

I was looking forward to reading “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” in this class. I have read “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” before. While that book is about Tom’s friend Huckleberry, Tom still plays a role in the beginning and the end of the story. I knew Tom was the protagonist in the original story, but I didn’t know much about him, other than what I learned from Huckleberry Finn. Already having a basic idea about his character will make it very interesting to get to learn even more about him.

I knew that Tom was a troublemaker and as soon as the book started, it confirmed my beliefs. The book starts with Aunt Polly searching for him, while he is eating the jam. When she catches him he plays a trick on her to get away. Tom is a mischievous young boy in both books. I was also excited to see characters I met in the second book show up right away. Tom speaks to Jim about his stories, and Jim is a main character in Huck’s adventures. Also, we meet Sid, Tom’s half-brother who Huck pretends to be. Being able to make these connections as I read has made the story much more enjoyable.

 

 

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Tom Sawyer

First time reading this story and the language is difficult to read at some points, but still readable. In the first chapter Tom Sawyer is seen as a troublemaker. He was caught by his Aunt Polly when he was hiding from her and quickly escapes by fooling her. Later he is suspected of playing hooky from school and went swimming instead. He almost got away with it until his half-brother Sid calls him out about the color of the thread used for his collar. It was white when it was sewn by Aunt Polly, but it was now black. Despite his trouble-making habits he is depicted to be more mature than the other kids his age. First in chapter 2, he is able to get other kids to d his work in exchange for something material that the other kids had. He does this by declaring his work was not actually work and made the other kids think it was work only he could be trusted with.

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Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is a book that can be interpreted in many different ways. Just as it has been translated into many different languages, it carries different meanings for different people. Some feel it is just a children’s book, nothing to pay much attention to. It is filled with “nonsensical things” such as talking animals and absurd ideas. I think this is the beauty of this book. The fact that it can be interpreted in so many ways. There are so many abstract ideas and hidden themes in this book that I would have probably never seen had I not done such a close reading.  I think in many ways “Children’s Literature’ isn’t just for children. In the case of Alice I feel that this is clear. The themes and the underlying messages make this story very appealing. Reading this closely I feel as though I’m actually reading it as a child is. The deeper I read the less I see these things as nonsense, (although very unlikely), it’s a lot deeper than that. I honestly don’t know if this was Caroll’s intention but it really had me thinking. And also after reading this book, I’m tempted to watch the Disney version again, and pick out the differences and see if I can still pick up on these hidden themes.