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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: What is it about that fence?

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Great art leaves lasting impressions and images that stay with us.

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Here we have murder, intrigue, robbery and … other stuff.

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And yet the first image that comes to mind is that fence. why?

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Quick review. Aunt Polly punishes Tom for doing typical

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Tom-ish things like lying, cutting school, and basically disregarding her rules.

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What could be better comeuppance for fun-loving Tom Sawyer than to make him whitewash a fence

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on a sunny weekend afternoon? And yeah, it’s a big fence.

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Tom tries to weasel his way out of the job by getting Jim to do it, even offering him

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a whole marble. When that doesn’t work, Tom devises a devious

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plan. He gives an Oscar-worthy performance as he

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pretends to thoroughly enjoy whitewashing the fence.

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Tom fakes a true love for whitewashing - so convincingly that others beg to join.

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He not only gets them to do the job for him… they pay him for it. He collects some serious

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booty. So, what is it about this part of the story

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that grabs us? Maybe it’s because we just love that All American Bad Boy.

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The rebel who just doesn’t care about your rules.

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They simply cannot be controlled. And we love them for it.

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Or maybe it’s because Norman Rockwell made the whitewashing image famous by serving it

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up to Americans everywhere. Rockwell was a guy who definitely got a lot

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of attention. And his images basically embody everything

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about America we want to embrace. So it’s a definite possibility that the

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fence has Norman and his handiwork to thank for its fame.

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Or… the scene could be memorable because it does such a perfect job expressing who

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Tom really is: That mischievous boy who is great at getting

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out of doing work. He is the ultimate scammer – a real pro.

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He weedles – but we still love and root for him… even admire him.

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He has that unique biochemical processing prowess – what scientists in Sweden call…

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cajones. Maybe it’s why Tom has outlived his author

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in the hearts and minds of the hordes who read him annually.

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A skill, perhaps, we all kinda wish we had. Or maybe it’s less devious. Maybe it’s

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our mirror moment. It’s the most relatable moment in the book.

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Surely all of us have finagled our way out of doing something we didn’t want to do.

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Chores, work,

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a visit to a boring relative’s house for bad food and horrible conversation.

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Yeah, it’s probably more relatable than the whole witnessing a murder thing.

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What do you think? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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