学位论文-—汤姆索亚的性格分析英语专业.doc

本科生毕业论文设计

题目：汤姆索亚的人物性格分析

作者姓名： 洛可可
指导教师： 苏文妙
所在学院： 外国语学院
专业（系）： 英语教育
班级（届）： 2013届

完成日期 2013 年 5 月 6 日

An Analysis on the Character of Tom Sawyer

BY
Yu Haixia
Su Wenmiao, Tutor

A Thesis Submitted to Department of English
Language and Literature in Partial
Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of B.A. in English
At Hebei Normal University

May 6th, 2013

Abstract

As one of Mark Twain’s representative works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is an 1876 novel about a young boy, Tom Sawyer, growing up along the Mississippi River. Since the book was published, it is greatly reviewed by thousands of Americans, both children and grown-ups, as this novel is not solely a description of children, but also a symbol of the author’s ironic attitude to the hypocritical of the adult world. Undoubtedly, Tom is a clever, playful, and adventurous child. He dares to fight with the social rules, the adult’s authority and hypocrisy. He never stops making efforts to get free and live in his own way . The reason why people worship Tom Sawyer from generation to generation is that people’s dream for freedom and goodness never die easily. His character has a unique charm. But based on precious research ,this paper probes into the analysis of Tom Sawyer’s character in three aspects, namely, innocence and romance, wit and leadership, rebellion and heroism, all of which shapes Tom Sawyer’s unique charm.

Key words: child; character; analysis; charm

摘要

作为马克吐温的代表作品之一，汤姆索亚历险记是一部关于一个生长在密西西比河畔的小男孩，汤姆索亚的小说。这部作品一问世，就受到成千上万美国读者的关注，不光孩子们喜欢，成年人也不例外。因为这不仅仅是一部儿童读本，更是作者从一个孩子的角度，对虚伪的大人世界的讽刺。无疑，汤姆是一个聪明淘气敢于冒险的孩子。他敢于和现有的社会规则，大人世界的权威和伪善作斗争。他从来没有停止过对自由的追求的努力。之所以汤姆索亚受到许多人的佩服在于人们对于自由和善良的渴望没有消失。他的性格有着独特的魅力。基于之前学者的研究，本文从性格方面着手，分三个章节来分析出汤姆·索亚的性格，分别是天真浪漫、聪明机智、叛逆勇敢，这三方面的性格特点使得汤姆·索亚极具个人魅力。

关键词：儿童 性格 分析 魅力

Table of Contents

Introduction...........................................................................................................1
Chapter1Tom Sawyer’s Innocence and Romance.............................................5
A. Tom Sawyer’s Innocence............................................................................5
B. Tom Sawyer’s Romance............................................................................8
Chapter 2 Tom Sawyer’s Wit and Leadership...................................................10
A. Tom Sawyer’s Wit......................................................................................10
B. Tom Sawyer’s Leadership.........................................................................12
Chapter 3 Tom Sawyer’s Rebellion and Heroism............................................ 14
A. Tom Sawyer’s Rebellion............................................................................14
B. Tom Sawyer’s Heroism.............................................................................17
Conclusion.............................................................................................................19
Notes......................................................................................................................21
Bibliography ........................................................................................................22

v

Introduction

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), well known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author, humorist and outstanding representative of realism.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was finished in 1876 when the United States ended the Civil War. The nation had thousands of things to do to rebuild their country; people were inspired to try their best to create a new country. At the same time, President Lincoln issued Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Emancipation Proclamation made the Negro slaves free from the oppression of Capitalists. The traditional economic model was corrupting, and doomed to be replaced by Capitalism coming from the North. People in this country all lived with new hopes.
Tom Sawyer, a naughty and brave boy, soon become one of the well-known characters through American literary history. In writing about childhood experiences, Mark Twain shows the trustworthiness of the heart as seen in children, the pleasure of rural American as seen through children’s eyes, the moral decline that could accompany growing up and the sense of loss when childhood is gone. If Mark Twain does not criticize the social directly as a theorist, the fact more effective in that he shows a genuine hatred for social maturation, society’s hypocrisy, authority, and illiberality in the big society background through his skilled use of humor. He is relentless with his humor in exposing the importance of religious teaching in the face of temptation and the iniquity of slavery. In sum, Mark Twain’s assault of the hypocrisy in the adult world shows that he always keeps children’s Innocence and goodness in his heart.
However, Mark Twain is not a good romanticist because he knows that child-like innocence and goodness is not exists in the real world. The innocent character built by Mark Twain always aims to irony the hypocrisy in the adult world. As an ironist, Mark Twain allows us to see the adult through the eyes of a child, and to see the child through the adult’s perspective. His greatest gift is therefore his multidimensional understanding of innocence. This understanding of innocence in Mark Twain has been deeply extended to Americans encountering Europe. In much encounters, the irony of “innocence” mocks both the American naivety and the European pretentiousness. America and Europe take on the same ironic dynamisms that involve a child and an adult.
So far, there have been many writers or literary lovers studied Mark Twain's The adventures of Tom Sawyer. Either writers, literary enthusiasts, or the ordinary readers, are impressed by Tom. On Tom's personality everyone has different interpretation and analysis. No matter what kind of interpretation and analysis, undoubtedly, Tom is a clever, playful, adventurous child. The adventures of Tom Sawyer is so welcome, because Tom's character has a unique charm. Liu Xiaodan said that Tom is full of fantasy and adventure, not willing to endure the individuality, boring life, hope to do a heroic career, give readers a deep impression. He overcomes fear to save the innocent people. Therefore, he became a little hero in people’ heart. Tom is a collection of multiple roles. He epitomized the wisdom, strategy, justice, courage and leadership. The story of Tom, fold Author Mark Twin from childhood personality -- rebellious, lively, active, machine Spirit. This is not just a description of a child, the child can see the agency Will defects -- backward in education system, education method to the extreme and pedantic, on the children caused harm to the soul. But Tom's move, it reflects the social Background, with a new generation of or the man with a new idea to the social system challenges the positive significance, it makes the society full of hope. Wang Disheng said that He is not a good child in adults' heart. He knows what the real good children like, and hate the real good children. In the novel, he made a lot of mistakes those good children are not willing to make. He stole, lie, truancy and even fight. All behavior shows that he is a bad boy in adults’ heart. But readers like him very much. Tom played a bad boy, but he is not really a bad boy. After he went missing, his aunt who is usually very strict with him said he is not really bad, he just was too naughty. He is only a child, he was not to blame. Indeed, he did not do real bad things, his behavior was completely normal . He also did some good, and became a hero in people’ heart. Wu Juan said that under the pen of Mark Twin,Tom Soya is so lively and lovely. He is not only in the minds of the people of the United States, and across the border, across the ocean, as the world’s children's partner, the world's people’s love son. Almost everyone can find the same with your dream picture from Tom's story. Tom Soya is not only a multifaceted character, but also a fairy in people’s dream of childhood. Tom is one of American literature history the most mischievous child image. He is innocent and lively, clever and sensible, mischievous, and full of fantasy. He stole, lie, truancy and even fight. Aunt Polly said I have never seen more naughty children than him. After The adventures of Tom Sawyer published, Tom was known as one of the most famous urchin image in the literature history. Lu Huiping said that Tom Soya is a very attractive young boy, not simply as a good boy or a bad boy. He was "good and evil" image. He is naughty, but also has developed into normal adults’ heart. Not everyone will like Tom so naughty, but read the book, everyone hopes that he is Tom sawyer. This is the nature of human beings: desire romance, adventure and freedom life. For practical reasons, people hide their nature. When reading the novel, human nature is recovered. So, Tom has caught the world's sympathy. Tom longed for freedom, his desire for hoping to climb the fence is very lovely, in fact, the fence itself represents the shackles, the fetters of his spiritual shackles. Even if Tom did not want to go out, but when he saw the fence, he had the idea to over it. Everyone longs for freedom, Tom's desire for liberty reflects the human instinct .Shi Lanhua said that He is an ordinary boy, have a unique personality. Tom's first experience is to fight with his aunt battle of wits, he always made mistakes to let aunt poly angry. Even though he always makes troubles, fortunately, he always can escape punishment. This behavior also shows his mature. Tom is a romantic person, at the same time is also a thoughtful young man. In order not to let the girl be punished, He is willing to replace her. His care of Becky also proved this point. In general, Tom is not a bad child, instead, he became a hero in the hearts of the people. His smart, honest passionate and have some superstitious all represent the typical American children’ Personality characteristics. His rebellion is the inevitable result of the civil war .His rebellion is the general children dare not do. So his image has eternal charm in the history of American Literature.
Based on the above research scholars, we found that Tom has a multiple personality. However, previous studies was not very good for the Tom‘s character classification. His character has many characteristics, such as innocent ,romance, clever rebellion and so on. Therefore, if we want to know the deep meaning of Tom's character, we still need more effort.
This paper dedicates to analyze Tom Sawyer’s character in three aspects, namely, innocence and romance, wit and leadership, and rebellion and heroism. Among those characters, no matter innocence or rebellion, Mark Twain aims at nothing but describing Tom’s eagerness for freedom. To Mark Twain, rebellion is not to blame, because everyone has a rebellious side, especially adolescent children. The hypocrisy and dark of adult world, forced children became more rebellious Tom is a fighter, and his enemy is the complicated adult world. Tom is restrained by the social rules; he is tired and even feels hard to breathe. He performs impolitely in the Sunday school, he dislikes the teacher, and never has been able to recite a few lines of The Bible, he seldom listen to what Aunt Polly asks him to do, and always walks on the road with his feet naked. In adults’ eyes, he is not a good boy.
Tom Sawyer’s individuality is interesting. He wants to do everything in his own way, which is quite different from what is supposed to be, but somewhat similar to the knight novel. He admires pirate very much. This is understandable if we pay attention to the difference between the life of a pirate and a child, especially when the child has little freedom in choosing his lifestyle.
Anyhow, Tom Sawyer is a tough and persistent boy. He dares to fight with the social rules, the adult’s authority and hypocrisy. He never stops making efforts to get free and live in his own way .The reason why people worship Tom Sawyer from generation to generation is that people’s dream for freedom and goodness never die easily.

Chapter 1 Tom Sawyer’s Innocence and Romance

Like every child, Tom Sawyer is innocent and carefree. Also like every child, He has a good, pure, and clean world in his heart. Mark Twain puts emphasize on describing his innocence and romance. He did is innocence, even he can do nothing but to play in adults’ eyes. However, his innocence is full of romance.
A. Tom Sawyer’s Innocence
The world in children’s eyes is pure and simple. They always explain the things happened around them with their innocent mind, and they think with their unique simplicity. In this novel, Mark Twain has skillfully shaped Tom Sawyer as a standard bad boy, one who owns the traits that can be seen in the other average kids. Whatever situation Tom meets, he can successfully solve them by his own means.
Generally, children indulge themselves in playing games, which is true for both boys and girls. In their opinion, there is nothing in the world that is more attractive and exciting than being allowed to play as long as they possibly can. Tom Sawyer owns various kinds of toys, and he takes much pride in showing his wealth in front of his pals. He prepares for exchange whenever he finds there is something better than he has on hand. One Saturday morning，Aunt Polly orders Tom to whitewash the board fence which stretches for almost thirty yards. This is a hard punishment for Tom’s naughty behavior happened the day before. He thought the task almost impossible for him. Moreover, his friends would be crazy to make fun of him, and this thought of it burnt him like fire. “He got out his worldly wealth and examined it—bits of toys,marbles,and trash; enough to buy an exchange of work, maybe ,but not half enough to buy so much as half an hour of pure freedom.” [1] He signs to Jim, a little slave, with a tin pail. Jim knows that Tom’s most hateful work is to bring water from the town pump before. However, at this time, he would like to try to make a deal with him. He says that he will fetch the water if Jim will whitewash some. However, Jim refuses Tom’s proposal, because Aunt Poly has already told him that he must do his job by his own and leave Tom away. Tom fails in this exchange, after he wants to try to persuade Jim again .Then he begins to tempt Jim with his toy, which would be a big lure to Jim. He tells Jim his bargaining chip is a white alley, what’s more, he will show Jim his sore toe, which is truly a powerful attraction for Jim. The deal is done, only if Aunt Polly does not notice.