Impossible Alternatives to Tom Sawyer's Delusions in Twain and Adorno

Theodor Adorno's adaptation of Tom Sawyer depicts it as a precursor to his negative dialectic, which Derrida saw as resembling deconstruction in attempting to articulate the 'possibility of the impossible.' The lack of any authentic alternative to Tom, the epitome of America's delusion, is allegorized when Joe is first posited as 'wholly other,' then contained by the hegemonic, referential discourses of St Petersburg. Adorno similarly makes clear that Huck, like Joe, can't resist such assimilation. This reading of Tom Sawyer is consistent with Twain's tall tales and travel writings. Unsuccessful efforts to imagine an alternative to Tom's world also characterize the collusive voice of Twain the narrator of Tom Sawyer.