Tom’s plan

Response to chapter 2

            In chapter 2 of Tom Sawyer we see the first glimpse of romance in the novel.  It’s Saturday morning and everybody is off of school and Tom has to whitewash a fence when he could be playing.  We are in his fantasy of tricking the other boys into whitewashing for him and on top of that, them paying him to do that.  It is a childish fantasy and would never work in real life.

            When Tom has to whitewash he comes up with a plot to trick other people into whitewashing for him, which he works to perfection and by the end of the day he is rich in the kid world of business (which means marbles and knobs and especially great, a dead cat) and the fence has multiple coats of whitewash on it and Tom gets to enjoy the rest of his Saturday.  This is every child’s fantasy, fantasies that I still enjoy having, the vision of when you’re mad at your parents for making you work and you envision ways to get out of the horrid torture you will have to endure.  Tom puts his fantasy into action and gets out of his share of work.

            It is very common for a child to have fantasy moments and imagine what it would be like to get out of work.  Twain chose a perfect place to start the fantasy of what it’s like to be young by launching the reader into a common child fantasy.  Just the feeling of the bright lush Saturday morning is enough to make the reader feel like they are in a fantasy, and usually the idea of having to work on a day where there was nothing to do except play is horror for a child, but for Tom it’s a game to see how many people he can trick.  Twain also chose the perfect scene to introduce all the new characters because they walk by the fence where Tom is.  Twain created a warm environment that the people of the 18^th century living in America would love in their time of civil war.