The Adventures Tom Sawyer, A Book of Cycles

Everything goes in cycles. Life and death constantly go around and around in their endless dance on the edge of human understanding. One of the oldest cycles for humanity is the cycle of innocence to experience but Tom, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, goes in cycles of innocence to the point of idiocy and never reaches experience but instead is stuck in his innocence for the entirety of the novel.

Tom doesn't know anything but how to be innocent. In the novel Tom never does anything that seriously bad even though he is always causing little troubles. When Tom isn't innocent, he is busy being a bumbling idiot. He gets himself and Becky lost in a cave, but after awhile his innocence returns and he stumbles across the hole to freedom of the darkness. After escaping the cave Tom's innocence once again drives him to search for the chest of gold. Eventually when Tom and Huck finally have the gold, they can't just make it plain and simple. Their idea of funny is idiotic so they must make it a huge surprise at an important dinner, which is very childish.

The cycle of innocence to the point of idiocy is very common in small children. This cycle applied itself to my little cousin. She loved to play with her toys and she was very cute, but one day she was running around the pit where the fire was the night before with her brothers and sister when she fell in. She had third degree burns on her hands. She was innocent when she played with her toys and an idiot when she started playing around the fire. She recovered and soon her innocence was back and full-fledged.

Mark Twain wrote this novel to teach small children not to fall into the cycle of innocence and idiocy. The author needs a unique writing style for this age group so he makes it strongly smell of romance which is perfect to the developing mind. Romance is perfect to little girls but for young boys it's Tom's adventurous spirit that makes them bite and hold on for the ride. Sadly, for older and more mature children this childish story is vigorously repelling.

The the entire idea behind this novel is to teach a lesson about cycles. Especially the cycle that is most dangerous for children, which happens to be the one Mark Twain writes about, but sadly this cycle applies itself to Tom and many of the people. Innocence and idiocy are total opposites and yet they work together on a daily basis. This novel should only be read by children for an escape from reality.