This novel is written by Mark Twain.Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. "Mark Twain" was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835 to a Tennessee country merchant. He was the sixth of seven children.When Twain was four, his family moved to Hannibal, a port town on the Mississippi River that served as the inspiration for the fictional town of St. Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At that time, Missouri was a slave state in the Union, and young Twain became familiar with the institution of slavery, a theme he later explored in his writing. Twain's next major publication was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which drew on his youth in Hannibal. The character of Tom Sawyer was modeled on Twain as a child, with traces of two schoolmates, John Briggs and Will Bowen. The book also introduced in a supporting role the character of Huckleberry Finn, based on Twain's boyhood friend Tom Blankenship.
Tom Sawyer is a riotous adventure shot through with humor, pathos and great spades full of excitement. What's more the pure joy for life that Tom, Huck and the other boys of Twain’s imagination go about their riotous business is a joy to behold. Uproarious fun, and never lacking in excitement, Tom Sawyer is both a wonderful children's book and a book perfect for those adults who still are children at heart. Never dull, always funny, and sometimes poignant, it is a classic novel from a truly great writer.Tom Sawyer is full of mischief. The main character, Tom, constantly searches for new adventures, new tricks to play, or new ways to break the rules without getting into trouble.
Tom Sawyer is a mischievous boy, brought up by Anti Polly with his half-brother Sid. He always played all kind of tricks, however, he can also find ways to escape from punishment .
One day, Tom meets and a new-coming girl, Becky, and falls in love with her at first sight.
Fortunately, she gives Tom an active response. There is another boy names Huckleberry Finn whose father is a guzzler and beats his mother and him frequently. Thereby, Huck lives alone outside like a waif without any chance to receive education. Poor-education as he is, Huck gets on very well with each other. One day, they make an appointment to go to the burrial ground at night and accidently find Indian Joe kill Doctor Robinson and frame Potter. The two boys are scares and make a pledge to keep the secret. Afterwards, Potter is arrested as a murderer. After that incident, Tom is unlucky in all walks of life. So Tom, Huck and Joe Harper ship to a small island without telling their families. The villagers thought they were drowned and search them at their command. But, finally, they come back. As for poor Potter, Tomovercomes hes terror and tells the truth to the judge. Unfortunately, the true killer Indian Joe runs away. Later, Tom gets another idea: seeking for the hidden treasure .They know Indian Joe hides a lot of illicit money. To find where that money is, the two boys trace Indian Joe for several days but without any clue. Once, during a picnic, Becky and Tom go into a cave while they lose their way there and are trapped for a few days. During their trying to find the exit, Tom tells the villagers that the killer Joe is in the cave. However, Joe is found dead because of starvation. At the very end, Tom and Huck go back to the cave and get the treasure.Meanwhile Huck is adopted by Widow Douglas.
This book is the symbol of the spirit to create new life, the attempt to protest the obsolete and conservative tradition, the endeavour to open up new situation. Tom Sawyer was published in 1876 when Monopolization is coming into existence in America, colonial expansion is reaching the zenith. Modernized machines and factories improve the proceedureof industrialization. The old social system is out of date. High pace of life and intense rivalry call for changes from leisure to tense, from slow to fast, from conservation to creativity. Tom Sawyer is born right on this time.Tom and Huck are on bealf of the spirit of creativity and anti-conservation: As for Tom, countless new ideas emergesd in his mind continueously which make his life more colourful and special than others: shipping to the small island to live an independent life, seeking for the hidden treasure,saving Vacky and himself with perseverance and courage…; As for Huck : going to the burrial ground at mid-night, tracing Indian Joe and his accomplices.Via the vivid depiction, Mark Twain delivers his own anti-tradition thought and longing for adventures. According to the introduction of the author: his boyhood experiences enbowed him vigour , creativety, boldness, etc. Just like Tom.
The hero Tom’s experiences looks weird but virtually natural. It’s mainly two boys that Marl Twain makes the stories happen to. By introducing Injun Joe into the mix, Twain manages to heighten the boys adventures by adding real danger, real intrigue (and a little bit of real life). All of those improve the credibility of this novel. To realize their dreams, they need to break the traditional rules and open up a brand-new world. Tom, as well as his two friends, ships to the isolated island to live an independent life, playing fight and piracy. He, companied with Huck, seeks for hidden treasure in a deserted house… Tom and his friends do everything that other boys not. Mark Twain puts all his up-date thoughts into the little hero. Tom Sawyer is Twain’s early work when Mark is still optimistic and keeping advanced thoughts.
On Whitewashing a Fence
One of the most famous scenes in Tom Sawyer is the whitewashing of the fence. After Tom gets into trouble, Aunt Polly punishes him by making him whitewash the fence. Of course, Tom manipulates other boys into completing the job for him. By the time the fence is finished, Tom has become a wealthy boy as each boy was manipulated into buying a turn at the fence with their treasures: marbles, firecrackers, bits of glass, and other objects.
The whitewashing scene is famous for a several reasons. First of all, the scene demonstrates an interesting observation: "that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do." The scene is also memorable because this classic manipulation is exactly the sort of thing that a rascal like Tom would do. The interaction between him and the other boys paints a vivid picture of Tom's character.
on Playing Dead
In a more tragic slant to his prankster personality, Tom's bought with being lovesick and brokenhearted leads him to another "brilliant scheme." He decides to run away to become a pirate, and he recruits two of his friends: Joe, a friend from school, and Huck, the homeless son of the town drunk. They steal a raft and run away together. They camp out on an island in the middle of the river for several days, playing a game of pirates.
But their absence leads the townspeople to fear that the boys had drowned in the river. By that time homesickness had begun to set in, and the boys decide to return home. The subsequent scene--where Tom, Joe, and Huck arrive at the church for their own funerals--is classic and unforgettable.
The language of this novel obuiously shows Twain’s rting style: full of rhetonic: such as personification, metaphor and hyperbole, mingling with collopuial speech, the general standard speech of uneducated Americans which makes the story humorous and fanscinating. Here some examples:
①＂She (Anti Polly) could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well＂
What a marvellous metaphor it is ! As if the readers could see a fat, old woman wearing two dirty, black stove-lids on her face and looking over the lids---a half, savage, tender, god-worshipping believing lady.
②＂Then arose a slime, melanchony girl whose face had the interesting paleness that comes of pills and indigestion.＂
This paragraph unfolds us a picture of a pitiful but funny girl with unhealthy complextion.
③＂The boys lay there counting the dragging moments till it seemed to them that time must be done and enternity growing grey＂
Ａn exaggeration illustrate children’s feeling accutately.
④＂Huck’s hearts shot into his throat, but he swallowed it again, and the he stood there shaking as if a dozen agues had taken charge of him at once.＂
The readers could understand how neverous and scared the little guy is, as if he is trembling in the bush with fiercely beating heart!
Twain writes and thinks from an children angle as much as possible. The rhetonic he introduced the novel gives great help to depict children’s inner world.
To draw conclusion, Twain is an affirmative writer, he puts his vigour into this novel and makes it full of vitality, satire and humor. Whether you are children or adults, it’s a stimulating and fanscinating book.下载本文
