How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Now as to this girl. What had he done? Nothing. He had meant the best in the world, and been treated like a dog -- like a very dog. She would be sorry some day -- maybe when it was too late. Ah, if he could only die temporarily! (8.1)
Though Tom generally sticks to the usual fantasies – pirates, robbers – he occasionally has stranger, more serious thoughts. In this case, he articulates a dream that most human beings have had, albeit it in a childish way.
Quote #2
What if he turned his back, now, and disappeared mysteriously? What if he went away -- ever so far away, into unknown countries beyond the seas -- and never came back any more! How would she feel then! […] No, he would be a soldier, and return after long years, all war-worn and illustrious. No -- better still, he would join the Indians, and hunt buffaloes and go on the warpath […] and away in the future come back a great chief, bristling with feathers, hideous with paint, and prance into Sunday-school, some drowsy summer morning, with a blood-curdling war-whoop, and sear the eyeballs of all his companions with unappeasable envy. But no, there was something gaudier even than this. He would be a pirate! That was it! (8.5)
Though Tom's ideas are pretty standard-issue schoolboy stuff, the speed with which he cycles through them suggests he has a very active imagination.
Quote #3
The boys dressed themselves, hid their accoutrements, and went off grieving that there were no outlaws any more, and wondering what modern civilization could claim to have done to compensate for their loss. They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than President of the United States forever. (8.35)
Twain perfectly captures the tone and form of a child's wish. The "I'd rather be X for a year than Y forever" is classic.
Quote #4
He no longer took an interest in war, nor even in piracy. The charm of life was gone; there was nothing but dreariness left. He put his hoop away, and his bat; there was no joy in them any more. (12.1)
Even Tom's imagination is not unquenchable, however, and – as can and does happen all too often – life's sadness dampens his creativity.
Quote #5
As the two boys walked sorrowing along, they made a new compact to stand by each other and be brothers and never separate till death relieved them of their troubles. Then they began to lay their plans. Joe was for being a hermit, and living on crusts in a remote cave, and dying, some time, of cold and want and grief; but after listening to Tom, he conceded that there were some conspicuous advantages about a life of crime, and so he consented to be a pirate. (13.5)
Joe's desire to become a child-hermit, like Tom's earlier one to die "temporarily," feels oddly profound and adult.
Quote #6
"Boys, I know who's drownded -- it's us!"
They felt like heroes in an instant. Here was a gorgeous triumph; they were missed; they were mourned; hearts were breaking on their account; tears were being shed; accusing memories of unkindness to these poor lost lads were rising up, and unavailing regrets and remorse were being indulged; and best of all, the departed were the talk of the whole town, and the envy of all the boys, as far as this dazzling notoriety was concerned. (14.25-26)
Here, we see Tom's desire to die temporarily actually come true – or, well, begin to come true. When he finally returns to town the cycle is complete.
Quote #7
There comes a time in every rightly-constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure. This desire suddenly came upon Tom one day. […] Presently he stumbled upon Huck Finn the Red-Handed. Huck would answer. Tom took him to a private place and opened the matter to him confidentially. Huck was willing. (1.1)
Here, again, we see that Tom has the same fantasies that most any boy of his age would have. Thing is, he ends up fulfilling this one.
Quote #8
"Say, Huck, if we find a treasure here, what you going to do with your share?"
"Well, I'll have pie and a glass of soda every day, and I'll go to every circus that comes along. I bet I'll have a gay time."
"What you going to do with yourn, Tom?"
"I'm going to buy a new drum, and a sure-'nough sword, and a red necktie and a bull pup, and get married." (25.48-9; 53-4)
The childishness of Tom's dream is only emphasized by his inclusion of marriage in what is otherwise a rather silly list of desires.
Quote #9
Judge Thatcher hoped to see Tom a great lawyer or a great soldier some day. He said he meant to look to it that Tom should be admitted to the National Military Academy and afterward trained in the best law school in the country, in order that he might be ready for either career or both. (35.4)
Judge Thatcher's hopes for Tom are rather childish and unreasonable in their own way; he wants Tom to have the best of everything, regardless of what Tom wants.
Quote #10
"Tom, I wouldn't ever got into all this trouble if it hadn't 'a' ben for that money; now you just take my sheer of it along with your'n, and gimme a ten-center sometimes -- not many times, becuz I don't give a dern for a thing 'thout it's tollable hard to git -- and you go and beg off for me with the widder." (35.9)
Huck finds out that, sometimes, getting just what you had hoped for is actually the last thing you ever want.