Tom Sawyer is choc’ full of beautiful poetic descriptions of pastoral nature.  But, the presence of the sublime in nature seems to stay pretty absent in the book so far.  The one clear instance of sublime nature is the storm on Pirate Island.  The tempest wrecks havoc upon the island, splitting trees and blowing away the boy’s shelter.  I believe that Twain incorporates this storm to demonstrate to Tom, Joe, and Huck the reality of nature, that it isn’t just a magic land of escape and freedom.  Up until this point, the world has been sunny and verdant, a perfect refuge for Tom and his cohorts from the “extreme pressures” of society.  The storm represents the other side of nature, the “dark side of the moon.”  The storm is unknown and unpredictable, a dangerous force that is not a refuge whatsoever.

In Tom’s perception as nature as a world of play, the sublime comes and goes.  But this isn’t always the case.  In the perception of Aunt Polly and other townsfolk, it can be argued that ALL nature is sublime.  The people of the town see nature as a threat, a menace that must be kept out with fences, buildings, and roads.  One situation that proves this is Aunt Polly’s instinct to always wash Tom when he is dirty.  She does not want any of the alien outside world getting into her pristine house, a spot of mud on the rug could just lead to the apocalypse.  Even though  Tom was just running around in the perfectly pastoral setting of the woods, Polly sees the remains of this expedition as disgusting and unacceptable, a blemish that must be scrubbed away.   This constant fear of nature is a perception that nature is sublime.  Although this topic really relates back to my last post, I think this difference of perception is extremely important.  Nature that is pastoral to Tom is sublime to Aunt Polly.  So in Aunt Polly’s view, nature is always sublime, and one must be constantly wary of its dangers.   This is very different with Tom, where nature switches between pastoral and sublime.  Nature is pastoral to Tom when it is of some use to him, mostly that of an escape or a place to play and have fun.  It is sublime when he is not in control and actually a victim to nature, like he was in the case of the storm.