Israeli and Palestinian Postcards: Presentations of National Self

Conclusion: Tom Sawyer, Visual Methodologist, and the Presentation of National Self

conclusion Tom Sawyer, Visual Methodologist, and the Presentation of National Self W hen Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Jim happened upon the coast of Africa in their runaway balloon, Tom was able to assess their geographical position. Without a chronometer as a navigating tool and with no control over their direction, he located their whereabouts through the resourcefulness of his visual methodologies. The protagonist of Mark Twain’s 1894 novel, Tom Sawyer Abroad, became, in a sense, ‘‘Tom Sawyer, Visual Methodologist.’’ And as such, he regained an idea of location and a sense of control. Lions and sand used as icons told him that below their wandering airship lay the African continent and the Great Sahara Desert. By organizing the Oriental icons of camels, caravans, massacre, kidnapping, rescued treasure, and palm trees, he felt certain enough to declare that they were right in the midst of the Arabian Nights. Tom’s announcement of their arrival in Egypt came after he assembled the sights of three little, sharp roofs like 199 Tseng 2003.12.9 08:24 6951 Semmerling / ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN POSTCARDS / sheet 221 of 255 tents, the bright green land with a snaky strip through it, and a large rock statue of a face with battered nose and the body of a tiger. Tom connected signifiers with signifieds in order to recognize things and places that he had never seen before. In many cases he audaciously created his own signs by stereotypically assigning signifiers to signifieds. In the process , he contextualized what they saw below with his intertextual application of stories, history, traditions, proportions, and perspectives. He was able to bring a world that might otherwise have been confusing, bizarre, and uncontrollable into a disciplined system objectified and arranged by signs and discourses. At times, he drew Huck and Jim into deep admiration and contemplation with his performance of visual methodologies. Huck thought that Tom had a certain ‘‘instink’’ more than knowledge.1 Huck also pointed out that a sight when supported by textual reference is more compelling than a sight without such support ‘‘because there ain’t anything that is so interesting to look at as a place that a book has talked about.’’2 Twain is not only showing the human proclivity to read, to reason, and to create visually, but he is also showing the inherent power of the visual. Creating the visual can make Others and theworld understandable, accessible, knowable, appreciable, and controllable. Moreover, visual virtuosity, even Tom’s ostensible virtuosity, can wield power over others. Often, however, some of Tom’s uses of signs and discourse to create a meaningful understanding caused confusion for Huck and Jim, resulting in less than truthful readings. Huck tried to do this himself, but his misapplications were grave mistakes of interpretation. Huck thought that they were still in Illinois because he had not yet seen the pink-colored state of Indiana , as marked on the map. Huck also mistook the black line in the distance, really a caravan, for the black longitude line found on the map. And Tom, himself, believed that the old home in Egypt must be Moses’ home. He believed the brick he put into his pocket, which Huck secretly exchanged for a more common brick, was an authentic brick of the prophet’s abode. In these alternative cases, Twain pokes fun at the folly of human visual knowledge, particularly the visual knowledge of the tourist, when applied to recognize and to judge foreign lands, people, and places. Regardless of whether Tom’s application of his visual methods saved the day or led him astray, or whether Huck and Jim could not seem to display such visual virtuosity,Tom did so from a position of power. From high above 200 : : Israeli and Palestinian Postcards Tseng 2003.12.9 08:24 6951 Semmerling / ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN POSTCARDS / sheet 222 of 255 the land he was reading, Tom looked down upon the signs and discourses about them in a rather superior, Western-centric manner. From high above, he determined that the people in the befriended caravan, who were later killed in a sandstorm, would never make it to heaven because they were Muslims . His superior position from on high was also a superior position from afar. Only from far away could he imagine the ease and the righteousness of creating a new crusade to the Middle East in order to...