Tag Archives: mischief

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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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Tom Sawyer’s Mischief

In Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the story opens with Tom Sawyer’s Aunt Polly yelling his name “TOM!” over and over again. Aunt Polly threatens Tom “Well, I lay if I get hold of you I’ll-.” This opening to the story lets the audience know that Tom is a troublemaker and that Aunt Polly is the disciplinary figure in his life. However, I think that despite Aunt Polly’s threats, she does not feel happy about having to punish Tom. Tom’s aunt, I can tell is actually really fond of her nephew, for example she says “my old heart most breaks,” in reference to having to hit him. This quote shows the audience that Aunt Polly does not really want to hurt Tom at all, but has to in order to assert her authority and show Tom that he can not keep misbehaving. She even “broke into a gentle laugh” when she witnessed Tom trying to escape from her. This shows even further how much Aunt Polly seems to adore her nephew.

Since Aunt Polly seems to be softhearted in her treatment of Tom, it can explain why Tom has such a large degree of autonomy. Tom seems to not be too worried by the threats of his aunt. This is shown when despite getting discipled by Aunt Polly, Tom still resorts to more mischief soon enough. For example, he engages in a verbal banter of insults with another neighborhood boy and even starts wrestling with him. When Tom returns home and Aunt Polly notices his appearance, she punishes him by ordering him to whitewash the fence. Tom then convinces any boy that passes by his fence, to do the whitewashing for him, in turn leading him to not have to do any work at all. Tom does this by convincing the boys that whitewashing is something enjoyable. Tom is so convincing to the boys that they even end up giving Tom one of their belongings, in turn for him letting them whitewash his fence for him. Tom’s ability to convince other boys to do his work for him establishes him as a leader and mastermind. He has a knack for talking his way through his problems and finding ways to escape his punishment.

I found it very relatable when Aunt Polly was trying to discipline Tom, but admitting that it broke her heart to have to do so. For example, when my younger cousin was small, I had to scold her for doing something bad, but I felt bad for having to do so. Tom’s continuous misbehavior is probably encouraged by the fact that he is usually successful in his endeavors. When he is punished by his aunt, he still finds ways to escape her wrath and lie his way through. Even when he is caught in his lies, he still manages to find a way to escape his punishment, such as convincing others to do his work for him.