《汤姆.索亚历险记》中汤姆.索亚的魅力 --毕业论文

《汤姆.索亚历险记》中汤姆.索亚的魅力 --毕业 论文 政研论文下载论文大学下载论文大学下载关于长拳的论文浙大论文封面下载 【标题】《汤姆.索亚历险记》中汤姆.索亚的魅力 【作者】刘 红 【关键词】汤姆.索亚;迷人;天真;顽皮;英雄主义 【指导老师】唐 玲 【专业】英语 【正文】 I. Introduction The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is Mark Twain’s first novel about children. It has become an American classic, and it remains perhaps the best novel of all his books among most readers. It owes its greatness to the fact that it can be read and admired not only at ten, twelve, or fourteen years of age, but forever after. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer takes Mark Twain’s youth as the main subject to write. In the novel Tom Sawyer and his best friend, Huck, tell stories, fish, and pretend to be pirates along the banks of the Mississippi River. Tom Sawyer is a charming boy. He is mischievous, adventure seeking, and fascinated with bugs. Since The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is regarded as a masterpiece in the children’s literature, the real key to its success must be sought in its popularity among young readers. This paper aims to expose the charming of the hero in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer in the following aspects. II. Tom’s Naivety and Innocence A. Tom’s Love Affair “Love affairs are extensively in children’s discussions and appears central to their worldview. They are unaware of some of the complexities of love, and would value opportunities to discuss it further, they didn’t know much about life.”1 Furthermore, they are unlikely to understand adequately either how love affairs develop or how people variously create, change and learn. After discussing rats, chewing gum, and circuses, Tom asks Becky if she would like to be engaged to him; his definition of engagement is simply telling “a boy you won’t ever have anybody but him”2 and then sealing it with a kiss. After whispering, “I love you” in each other’s ears, the bashful Becky and Tom kiss. Inadvertently in his giddiness, Tom blunders that he was previously engaged to Amy Lawrence. After learning this, Becky rejects Tom and breaks into tears despite Tom’s pleading. Tom attempts to win her over again by giving her his most prized possession brass drawer-knob but she throws it at the ground in anger. Heartbroken and enraged, Tom marches out of the schoolhouse. After realizing that Tom has left, Becky calls after him but is too late. Twain describes the first “courtship” between Tom and Becky. “Their flirtatious behavior can be seen as comical, for both Tom and Becky are not much older than ten years old”3. Funny enough, their conversation turns from the discussion of chewing gum and circuses to marriage and love. In the entire novel, Tom backlashes against authoritative figures, yet in this scene, he is eager to act “adult-like” by becoming engaged. Twain also seems to imply that adult relationships are more child-like than most think. Tom and Becky feel jealousy and anger; their trivial feuds are commonplace in most adult relationships. Just as the two children in love seem to act like adults, adults in a relationship sometimes seem to behave like children. Twain’s commentary proposes that Tom’s love-affairs are childish-like and charming. B. Tom’s Childish Imitation “Children always start doing a lot of similar things together when they meet; it was enjoyable to them and seemed to enable them to coordinate what they were doing.”4 By simply imitating each other, they are finding ways to coordinate their behavior across sustained periods of time. They are more engaging in behaviors that intrigue them. “Tom asks Becky for a kiss only because that is ritual he has read about in books when people get engaged.”5 Tom’s childish imitation according to his reading may seem absurd to adults but also to young readers. Not having much social experience, they look upon books and adults as “authorities” which help them portray all aspects of life. After Huck hears from an adult that his warts can be cured with dead cats, Huck and Tom carry a dead cat and visit the cemetery at night. Being boys, they think they can control the occult forces of darkness, dread and violence by lying spells on such things. They are superstitious about many things in a way that shows their dread of the unknown powers behind nature as well as their childish ignorance. Both Tom and Huck are believers of the mystery. They believe in witches’ spells, bad luck, and try to cure everyday ailments like warts by performing strange incantations. 6 No matter how far-fetched their ideas sound, Tom and Huck discuss their secret rituals and chants with the utmost seriousness. In one sense, their belief in the unbelievable reflects their impressionability and naiveté. The two boys still think and act with a kind of immaturity, and this scene seems to remind the reader that Tom and Huck are, after all, just children. C. Episode in Graveyard After Sid has fallen asleep, Tom waits for Huck’s “meow” as the signal. About time to slumber, Huck finally arrives and gives the signal and Tom becomes wide-awake, climbs out the window, off the roof, and runs off to the town graveyard. The two boys hide themselves among a cluster of elm trees, just a few feet away from Williams who had just been buried, and waiting for the spirits to come at midnight. After remaining in the same spot for quite some time, the boys finally hear the sound of muffled voices from the other end of the graveyard, confident that devils are approaching them. But to their surprise, they recognize the voices as the figures come closer and closer! By the light of their lantern, Tom and Huck make out what appears to be a grave robbery. The murder that Tom and Huck witness shows the sense of innocence. Twain places a special emphasis on the stillness of the night, both in the house and at the graveyard. The stillness is described both before and after the murder. It increased the narration of innocence of the two children. One can draw meaning out of Tom’s and Huck’s mistaken assumption that the figures approaching them in the graveyard were devils. But, the grown men become more frightening than any devil or witch in that they haunt Tom’s conscience and thoughts. Even young Dr. Robinson, who was the victim of Injun Joe, was guilty of grave robbery. Twain effectively portrays human nature as fully capable of evil, a pessimism that is present in this episode. Naivety and innocence are typical characteristics of children, many events of the story give expression to them. 5 If we consider the whole story comprises four lines of action--the story of “Tom and Becky”, the story of “Tom and Muff Potter”, the “Jackson’s Island” episode and the series of happenings leading to the discovery of the treasure, each one of these is initiated by a characteristic and typically boyish action. The love story begins with Tom’s childishly fickle desertion of Amy, the Potter narrative with the superstitious trip to the graveyard, Jackson’s island episode with the adolescent revolt of the boy against Aunt Polly, and Injun Joe story with the juvenile search for buried treasure. D. Tom’s Reaction to the Murder Tom and Huck flee from the graveyard in horror at the scene they had witnessed: the murder of Dr. Robinson by Injun Joe. Out of breath and always looking over their shoulder, Tom and Huck manage to run all the way to the deserted tannery where they find shelter. Once they gain their breath, the boys rationalize as to what they should do. Not knowing that Injun Joe is attempting to frame Muff Potter for the murder, the boys decide not to tell a soul about what they had seen for fear that Injun Joe would seek revenge upon them as well. They sign a contract to keep their secret “mum” (an image of the contract in Tom’s handwriting is placed within the text) and sign their initials in blood after pricking their fingers with needles. After they bury the contract, Huck and Tom hear a dog howling a sign that death is coming, according to black slaves’ tales. Still afraid for their lives, the boys let out a sigh when they realize the stray dog is howling directly at Muff Potter. After Tom and Huck say good-bye, Tom sneaks back into his bed through the window, unaware that Sid is wide awake. It seems to happened in our real life. The next morning after breakfast, Tom finds out that Sid has told on him once more when Aunt Polly takes him aside. But instead of “flogging him,” Polly simply weeps and asks Tom “how he could go and break her old heart so.”7 Guilt and shame rise in Tom, forcing him into a miserable mood for the rest of the day. At school, his mood is none the better when both he and Joe Harper take a flogging for playing hooky the day before. Tom’s mood sinks even further when, in his desk, he finds his brass knob wrapped in paper. The readers’ mood sink further then, and are controlled by Tom’s mood. After witnessing the murder of Dr. Robinson, Tom and Huck promise to “keep mum” by signing a contract in blood. Their silence shows that they have not yet realized the gravity of their situation. They sign the contract in blood, half mimicking the actions of pirates or robbers. They don’t realize the gravity, or reality, of their situation or the situation that Muff Potter will soon be in. It met the naivety and innocence of the children. Above, we see that Tom truly cares for Aunt Polly. Despite the trouble he may get himself into, Tom never means to hurt the old woman. “This was worse than a thousand whippings,”8 thinks Tom as Aunt Polly cries over him. When he cries and pleads for his forgiveness, the reader is given no doubt of Tom’s sincerity. Similarly, we see that neither Aunt Polly nor Sid is able to realize Tom’s sincerity and his better qualities. Like most other young boys, Tom is attracted to mischief but he is still a good boy at heart. III. Tom’s Fantasy World and His Ideas of Heroism “A fantasy world is a type of imaginary world. The sense in such a world, paradoxically, brings us closer to the real nature of things in our own world.”9 This sort of narrative gives us distance and perspective. It takes us by surprise. The stories aren’t just a normal part of a child’s fantasy world; it can be used in a way that totally leaves out references to the occult. But this is not what happens in this novel; instead, fantasy feeds on the occult and is fueled by it. Once Tom has crossed the Mississippi River, he is no longer a troubled little boy, but a fearless pirate Tom Sawyer, the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main. By running away to Jackson Island, Tom attempts to run away from reality. A. Tom’s Fantasy World Tom runs off into the dense woods, somewhere far away from the schoolhouse where Becky is. The woods are still, adding to Tom’s lonely and melancholy state. Tom sits and begins to consider what it would be like to die, and at this point, the only thing that makes him hesitate is his bad Sunday school record. Becky would be sorry, he thinks to himself, about the way she treated him if only he were dead. “Ah, if only he could die temporarily!”10 Instead, Tom decides he wants to run away from home and enter the pirate profession as “Tom Sawyer the Pirate the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main.”11 After daydreaming for a while and playing around with “incantations” and witch’s spells, Tom hears a trumpet blast in the distance. Flinging off his jacket and moving some brush to reveal a secret stash of toys, Tom is met by Joe Harper who is clad with the same toys: a bow and arrow, a tin trumpet, and a fake sword. The two boys reenact the story of Robin Hood with their gear, and then finish playing for the day swearing that “they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than President of the United States forever.”12 Asking one question, “What had he done?” Tom sinks into a melancholy mood. In this scene, Tom is heartbroken. When he contemplates death as an answer to his problems something that recurs throughout the novel and foreshadows later events, Tom does not center his thoughts on suicide so much as around revenge. When he imagines himself dead, he does so out of self-pity. He wishes to hurt the people who care about him the most, to make them feel guilty for their “wrong-doings.” In this manner, we see that Tom can be self-absorbed and selfish. His wish to “die temporarily” is a plan that serves only to elevate his own self-esteem. B. Tom’s Idea of Heroism “Children are keen on heroic conduct and thrilling adventures. The tendency to heroism and being fond of showing off his bravery are the characteristics in the period of a child’s life.”13 Like most children, Tom is eager to cause a stir in the community. He wishes to travel around the world, to be a soldier, a plain man, a pirate so as to stroll into the St. Petersburg church some Sunday morning and bask in the respect of the village. Tom does grow into a hero at the end of the story, disguised as a mischievous and disobedient boy. Tom can achieve that because whatever he has read of that world beyond the village, in which pirates, Robin Hood and medieval knights act out some gorgeous “code”, Tom himself must act out. Besides, Tom’s dominant trait, that is, his unquestioned sense of himself as guide and leader to every other boy in town, leads to the success of his heroic conduct. Other boys follow him for they can no more resist Tom’s wild fancy. “The tendency to heroism as part of the motivation leads Tom to win victory amazingly and finally becomes a great hero in the community.”14 Tom, Huck and Joe flee to the isolated island to act out pirates “gorgeous” code, leaving the whole village in chaos. In his stealthy visit to home, he keeps mum when Aunt Polly and Joe’s mother are lamenting the boys’ presumed death. Tom manages the shattering appearance of the boys at their own “funeral”. Among the envying boys around him, the “pirate” obtains “the proudest moment of his life”. Tom’s escape from society’s trammels has been only temporary, designed as the means of purchasing society’s applause. Tom appears cruel to kind-hearted Aunt Polly unless we understand his psyche. Tom, like children in general, “always hopes to be thought highly of. This expectation expresses in various forms the sense of self-esteem ,vanity, being conceited and demanding perfection.”15 Tom’s impelling desire for a place of honor in the community is a key to his initiating action. “Just as gallant knights in fantasies rescue beautiful ladies in distress and therefore win their love, Tom commits the similar heroic conduct to win Becky’s love” 16. Becky steals a glance at the schoolmaster’s anatomy book and tears one page off. When Becky is about to take the punishment, Tom springs to his feet and chivalrously bears the blame for her. Inspired by the splendor of his own act, he takes without any outcry the most merciless flaying that even Mr. Dobbins (the schoolmaster) has ever administered, and also receives with indifference the added cruelty of a command to remain two hours after school should be dismissed. His bravery brings him “the surprise, the gratitude, the adoration that shone upon him out of poor Becky’s eyes”17, and with her later words lingering in his ear: “Tom, how could you be so noble!” At the end of the story, after experiencing much terror, Tom, along with Huck, discovers the hidden treasure in the cave that makes Tom a rich and important person in the community. The significance is not in the treasure itself, but in its giving prominence to Tom’s heroism. To young readers especially, Tom’s heroic mettle has its natural appeal. Twain offers adventures that all boys, in their longing dreams, make believe they have. He makes extravagant, dramatic things happen to Tom. No boy can resist the temptation to escape for a while from his routine life into the heroic excitement of Tom’s world. VI. Tom’s Mischievous Behavior Mischievous is children’s instinct, “the reader can take all Tom’s facts as truth，and they are allowed not only to see all the activities within the novel, but also they are allowed within the thoughts of Tom’s mischievous character”18. Tom Sawyer’s true intellect and understanding of the world around him draw the reader’s heart deeply. Further more, the readers also enjoy Tom’s selfish ways to elevate his own self-esteem by attending his own funeral. So, Tom’s mischievous characters appealing most to the readers, fascinate the readers, and make Mark Twain’s stories so magnetic, especially in the following events. A. Tom’s Mischievous Behavior in the class “Tom is willing to trade his worldly possessions for the glory of receiving a Sunday school Bible, and he loves to show off”19. This is probably the only value that he is keeping in his mind. But when he feels unloved, he falls into a kind of depression where he questions his own existence by imagining his funeral and disrupting the classroom. Will anybody care when he is gone? Despite encouragement from his cousin Mary and punishments from Aunt Polly, Tom will never be a “good boy” because he can only gain the attention he craves through bad behavior. One day, until dinner, Tom is restless at school and amuses himself by playing with the tick Huckleberry traded him. After a short time, Tom and “bosom friend” Joe Harper begin to fight over who is allowed to play with the tick, disrupting the classroom with a fistfight and attracting the attention of the schoolmaster. Finally noon comes, and Tom meets Becky in the empty schoolhouse after all the other pupils have gone home for dinner. As vacation approaches, Schoolmaster Dobbins grows more and more strict, his lashings grow more and more severe, and the smaller boys vow to seek revenge upon the fierce schoolmaster. Conspiring together with the sign-painters boy for the master had boarded in the sign-painter’s family, the group decides to act on the day of Examination Evening, knowing that before the event Dobbins would celebrate by drinking. In the geography class, Dobbins rises to the blackboard and begins to draw a map of the United States. The “tittering” in the classroom increases, but Dobbins remains confused as to what the snickering is about. Above his head is a cat suspended by her haunches with a rag tied around her mouth to prevent her from mewing. Clawing at the string, she is suspended lower and lower until in her clawing and moving about, she grasps the teacher’s wig in her claws. The boys have finally achieved retribution, for the sign-painter’s son has gilded the schoolmaster’s bald head! The antics of Tom, Joe, and the tick during their study time at school depict how useless Tom thinks education to be. The schoolhouse is the antithesis of adventure. Twain describes the air as “utterly dead” and uses a simile comparing the murmur of scholars to the drone of bees. School inhibits Tom from his mischief and is seen as a kind of jail. For Tom, “school represents the opposite of the “frontier ideal” the glorification of adventure and exploration -- presented in the novel.”20 He is typical, mischievous and brave boy in school, his thoughts of school attract the readers’ heart. B. Tom’s Mischievous Behavior of Playing Truant On Monday morning, Tom finds himself in bed and wanting to avoid school that morning. Eagerly, he attempts to avoid school by “playing” sick, groaning and moaning enough to wake Sid, who is sleeping by his side. Once Aunt Polly comes to check on Tom’s ailments, he tells her: “Oh Auntie, my sore toe’s mortified.” After Aunt Polly tells Tom to “shut up that nonsense,” Tom then proceeds to tell her about his sore, loose tooth, hoping that maybe it will provide him with an excuse to skip school. Aunt Polly simply pulls out his tooth and sends Tom off to school without another word. On his way to school, Tom stops to talk to Huckleberry Finn, the “juvenile pariah” of the town admired by all children for his aloofness and hated by all mothers for his bad manners. He comes and goes as he pleases, an orphan of-sorts who doesn’t have the duty of going to school or completing chores. Huckleberry is dressed in cast-off clothes: “a wide-brimmed hat, trousers with only one-suspender, baggy pants, and a worn coat.”21 Tom, who was forbidden to play with Huck, begins to discuss the correct way to cure warts; Huck, who holds a dead cat in a burlap sack, is planning on entering a cemetery at midnight to perform a witch’s ritual to cure warts. Both boys discuss the merits of various superstitions and strange chants before they agree to meet later that night to go to the cemetery together. After trading his tooth for a tick and saying goodbye to Huck, Tom races to school. Knowing that his punishment for tardiness will be to sit on the girls’ section of the schoolhouse, Tom explains his lateness by saying he stopped to talk with Huckleberry Finn, for the only vacant girls seat was next to the blonde, pig-tailed girl that Tom has fallen in love with: Becky Thatcher. After a period of flirtatious exhibition, Tom writes “I love you” on his slate, which is returned with Becky’s pleasure. The two agree to stay at school for dinner so that Tom can teach Becky how to draw. The remaining time spent in class is futile, for Tom has not studied and makes errors in every area of his studies: geography, spelling, and reading. This kind of ending expressed Tom’s wisdom, and it was admired by readers, especially in young students. C. Tom’s Mischievous Behavior of White-washing On Saturday morning, Tom is forced to whitewash the fence outside the house as punishment for his behavior the night before. The day is beautiful, making the chore seem even more dreadful; in fact, Tom would rather do Jim’s - the black servant’s - chores than whitewash the fence. Tom begins the job and imagines how all the “free boys” who come skipping by will make fun of him for having to do work on a Saturday. It perhaps one of the most famous scenes of the novel, Tom tricks the neighborhood boys into completing his entire chore. Tom pretends to love whitewashing, putting fake enthusiasm into his work. “Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”22 Tom asks. Soon, all the neighborhood boys beg Tom for the chance to whitewash in exchange for small trinkets. In conclusion, Tom contends, “that Work consists of whatever a boy is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a boy is not obliged to do.”23 In this episode, Tom not only loves to fight and play in the dirt, but also has a profound knowledge of human nature that is astounding for his young age. Using his “smarts,” he is able to fool his peers as well as outsmart Aunt Polly and other authority figures. Tom may behave like a little boy, but he is able to think greater than perhaps any adult. Especially Tom pretends to refuse one of his friend’s requests of having a try. Thus the hard work appears so fascinating that it lures all the children in the village. All of them try to be the first to enjoy the privilege of whitewashing. 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 mischievous character. D. Tom’s Mischievous Behavior of Attending His Own Funeral On Saturday afternoon, everyone in the town of St. Petersburg is in a somber mood. Even Becky Thatcher wishes that she had Tom’s brass knob to remember him by. Regretting her harsh words from the days before Tom’s disappearance, she breaks down into tears. Meanwhile, playmates of both Tom and Joe gather around the schoolyard, recalling memories of Tom. Disputes broke out over who saw the departed boys last, who had spoken with them last, who had played with them last. Tom and Joe were like heroes. The next morning, the church bell begins to toll and the villagers begin to gather for the funeral. Aunt Polly, Mary, Sid, and the Harper family are dressed in black and reverently sit in the front pew. After hymns and prayers, nothing but praise is sung of the boys. The clergyman “drew such pictures of the graces, the winning ways, and the rare promise”24 of the boys while even the minister “illustrated their sweet, generous natures?”25 As the mourners, congregation, and even the preacher begin to cry with such movement, the church door creaks open, unnoticed. Standing in the door are Tom, Huck, and Joe who had been hiding in the unused gallery listening to their own funeral sermon! The families throw themselves over the “restored” boys, and even Huck is lavished with kisses from Aunt Polly. The event is almost miraculous, and Tom confesses in his heart that this was the proudest moment of his life. At last, Tom has achieved exactly what he has always wished for: every adult in town mourns his death and every child at school vies to be connected to him in some way, one even claiming that “Tom Sawyer he licked me once.”26 And the minister and clergymen that used to punish Tom in Sunday school now only relate “many a touching incident and the boys’ sweet and generous natures.”27 Even the church bell at the start of the funeral service begins to “toll, instead of ringing in the usual way.”28 When the three boys enter the Church, to the surprise and stares of all those in the congregation, even Huckleberry (at the insistence of Tom) is showered with hugs and kisses. Huck, once the town pariah, is now standing in church and being lavished upon with Aunt Polly’s “loving attentions,” making him uncomfortable. To the congregation, it is a miracle that the boys are alive. There is even more charms in Twain’s use of the biblical text: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”29 To young readers especially, Tom’s mischief mettle has its natural appeal. Twain offers adventures that all boys, in their longing dreams, make believe they have. He makes extravagant, dramatic things happen to Tom. No boy can resist the temptation to escape for a while from his routine life into the heroic excitement of Tom’s world. V. Conclusion In this paper, the writer analyzes the charming characters of Tom, and points out that Tom’s charming lies in his na?ve, innocent and mischievous characters. To those who have read this novel, it makes a profound effect on their thoughts of youth because Tom’s unique character stimulates people to think greatly of their past. To those who are still young, it serves as a guide to their actions in study and work. Tom sets an example for children and offers them the power to reach their goals in their daily life. Every boy and girl longs to experience the joy and fun of this classic tale. It is the charm of Tom that makes The Adventures of Tom Sawyer achieves such a great success.