SOURCE: "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Play Theory, and the Critic's Job of Work," in The Midwest Quarterly, Vol. XXIX, No. 3, Spring, 1988, pp. 357-65.

Pinsker is an American educator and critic. In the following essay, he explores the concept of play in Tom Sawyer.

Critics shy away from belabored readings of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer for several understandable reasons: the denser, richer textures of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn loom ahead; scholarship about Twain's sources has dominated discussion of the novel; and perhaps most important of all, there is a legitimate fear that a work celebrating Play will be forever spoiled by too much heavy-handed critical "work."

Skeptical students are not the only ones who worry about these matters more than they should, who wonder if critics are not creeping up on this innocent text like net-wielders after a lovely butterfly. Perhaps it is time to admit freely...