Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 38

Hall.” (56)
This kind o f freshness o f perception peculiar to the child’s
vision brought him into conflict with the adult’s craving for abstract
things. Tom Sawyer also has similar problems with the school, and
he trades Bible reading tickets with his classmates, mainly to
impress Jeff Thatcher’s niece, and claims the prize given to
students who have memorized 2000 verses. But when the judge
puts some questions, he is simply exposed.
The sense of self-importance and a craving for self-expression
through unconventional channels seem to impel the activities of
both Tom and Swami, and in this process both use play-acting and
also depend upon their friends. Tom, after leaving the school,
dreams o f being a pirate and when his friend Joe Harper arrives,
they play at being Robin Hood together. Swami finds relief not
only in narrating die story o f Harischandra but he finds pleasure in
miming. He is also anxious to go with his father to the club to watch
his father play. “Swaminathan fell into a pleasant state o f mind.
The very fact that he was allowed to be present there and watch the
play gave him a sense of importance. He would have something to
say to his friends tomorrow.” (90)
In fact, play becomes the central image as well as the action of
the two novels. Tom converts in the beginning all work into play
as in his white-wash triumph, but soon playing itself becomes a
reality. Leavis Leary’s analysis of the novel reinforces this idea:
The first ten chapters reveal boys engaged in char
acteristic play, stealing jam, playing hooky, swap
ping treasured belongings, until finally they visit a
graveyard at midnight and there inadvertently wit
ness a murder... the second part, chapters twelve
through twenty-one, is divided into two major epi
sodes, the Jack-son Island adventure and the last

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