Super-Short Essay: Effortless Success is Possible

Most of us want to have more than we already do. To achieve more. Gain more power. Live better lives. At the same time, few want to work more or harder to get it. Yet some seem able to get more than their fair share out of the work that they put in.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the protagonist, Tom, likes nothing more than to play with his friends, avoid work and go on adventures. In one of the most iconic scenes in American literature, Tom’s aunt punishes him for his laziness and mischief by tasking him on a wonderful sunny Saturday with painting a fence. Tom proceeds to use his charms and wits, convincing his friends to paint the fence for him. They even pay him for the pleasure! The scene delights us on a primal level—it shows us something that we all know, deep down, to be true—if we can just conjure forth the right kind of ingenuity, then effortless success is possible.