Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 40

blocks the entrance and soon they find the criminal dead. The
robber’s treasure is found and Tom becomes a rich man as he gets
his share of the treasure and is adopted by the widow-Douglas.
The passage of Tom ’s growth is thus mixed with play and
violence, but somehow even the violence is converted into a play.
In Swami and Friends, there is less violence, even though Swami
him self resorts to violence both at home, and in the school when he
breaks the window panes participating in a political movement. We
find him identifying himself with the role he plays, and because it
is done in a playful mood, even violence becomes comic. Just as
in Tom Sawyer, all terrors are converted into child’s play.
The theme of role-playing in childhood as a metaphor for
growth itself is treated more seriously in Lord o f the Flies. The
children, who are virtually thrown into being, discover themselves
by playing roles existentially. But in the process they discover