TOM SAWYER: THE IMAGE OF CHILDHOOD

HOW GOOD IS TO BE A CHILD

     In the story of Tom Sawyer, children are presented as a true interepretation of what they really are. Children are described with the same typical behaviors that a child could have some years ago when smart phones were not yet part of our lives , and staying with friends to live new experiences was the only thing available to do. Throughout this story, children are described as adventurous, sociable, brave, carefree, careless, enthusiastic, energetic, mischievous, intelligent, but indisputably happy; all those features that are part of a healthful childhood that most of people used to live. It makes me remember a small part of my childhood.

     When I was like 8 years old, I remember I had the typical kind of friends that children, borned in the latest years of the 1900s, could have. One day, I was outside of my house playing with my friends. Due to the street was being repaired, there were several tubes made of cement wide enough to have inside  a child of that age and to allow him/her sit down inside it for being pushed by the others. The first person to enter was the biggest girl between us, she was higher and fatter than us. All of us started to push the tube in order to make it crash with the others and push it back again.

     When my turn arrived, I entered to the tube, I sat down on it, so I could see the big holes that were in each side of myself. Immediately, when my friends started pulling the tube, this one crashed into the others so strongly that it broke into two pieces and one of them fell down perfectly over my back. The weight of the tube was all over me in such a way that my face was touching my knees and I could not breath. Then, my friends take the big peace from me and, with the little energy I had and without saying a word,  I stood up and went to my house. I am sure I was not so afraid for the hit, but for the reprimand I could receive from my mother. However, everything was good and I survived without problem.

     This kind of stories maybe are not told anymore, our generation of children live in a society pretty different that if a book were created to tell their stories, they would change in several aspects. Nevertheless, the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer brings to the present the model of childhood that took place some generations before and that brought joy to the ones who lived it.