汤姆索亚历险记人物分析
Analysis of Major Characters
Tom Sawyer
When the novel begins, Tom is a mischievous child who envies Huck Finn’s lazy lifestyle and
freedom. As Tom’s adventures proceed, however, critical moments show Tom moving away from his childhood concerns and making mature, responsible decisions. The moments include Tom’s
testimony at Muff Potter’s trial, his saving of Becky from punishment, and his heroic navigation out of the cave. By the end of the novel, Tom is coaxing Huck into staying at the Widow Douglas’s, urging his friend to accept tight collars, Sunday school, and good table manners. He is no longer a disobedient character undermining the adult order, but a defender of respectability and responsibility. In the end, growing up for Tom means embraci
座机转手机ng social custom and sacrificing the freedoms of childhood.
语态
Yet Tom’s development isn’t totally coherent. The novel jumps back and forth among veral narrative strands: Tom’s general misbehavior, which climaxes in the Jackson’s Island adventure; his courtship of Becky, which culminates in his acceptance of blame for the book that she rips; and his struggle with Injun Joe, which ends with Tom and Huck’s discovery of the treasure. Becau of the picaresque, or episodic, nature of the plot, Tom’s character can em inconsistent, as it varies
depending upon his situation. Tom is a paradoxical figure in some respects—for example, he has
函件结尾no determinate age. Sometimes Tom shows the naïveté of a smaller child, with his interest in make-believe and superstitions. On the other hand, Tom’s romantic interest in Becky and his
fascination with Huck’s smoking and drinking em more the concerns of an adolescent.
Whether or not a single cour of development characterizes Tom’s adventures, a single character trait—Tom’s unflagging energy and thirst for adventure—propels the novel from episode to
episode. Disobedient though he may be, Tom ends up as St. Petersburg’s hero. As the town gossips say, “[Tom] would be President, yet, if he escaped hanging.” 跑完步拉伸
Huckleberry Finn
In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain created a character who exemplifies freedom within, and from,
American society. Huck lives on the margins of society becau, as the son of the town drunk, he is pretty much an orphan. He sleeps where he pleas, provided that nobody chas him off, and he eats when he pleas, provided that he can find a morl. No one requires him to attend school or church, bathe, or dress respectably. It is understandable, if not expected, that Huck smokes and swears. Years of having to fend for himlf have in
vested Huck with a solid common n and a practical competence that complement Tom’s dreamy idealism and fantastical approach to reality (Tom creates worlds for himlf that are bad on tho in stories he has read). But Huck does have two traits in common with Tom: a zest for adventure and a belief in superstition. Through Huck, Twain weighs the costs and benefits of living in a society against tho of living independently of society. For most of the novel, adult society disapproves of Huck, but becau Twain renders Huck such a likable boy, the adults’ disapproval of Huck generally alienates us from them and not from Huck himlf. After Huck saves the Widow Douglas and gets rich, the scale tips in the direction of living in society. But Huck, unlike Tom, isn’t convinced that the
香港回归是哪年exchange of freedom for stability is worth it. He has little u for the money he has found and is quite devoted to his rough, independent lifestyle. When the novel ends, Huck, like Tom, is still a work in progress, and we aren’t sure whether the Widow Douglas’s attempts to civilize him will succeed (Twain rerves the conclusion of Huck’s story for his later novel, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn). 智障
Injun Joe
Injun Joe is Tom Sawyer’s villain. His actions are motivated, from beginning to end, by
派车单模板unadulterated malevolence. When Injun Joe explains his motivation for revenge against Dr. Robinson and later against the Widow Douglas, we e that his personal history involves others mistreating and excluding him. Yet the disproportion between the wrongs Injun Joe has suffered—at least as he enumerates them—and the level of vengeance he hopes to exact is so
extreme that we aren’t tempted to excu his behavior. In contrast, Muff Potter’s misdeeds are inconquential compared to the punishment he stands to receive. One might also compare Injun Joe to Sid: both are motivated by malice, which they paper over with a convincing performance of innocence.
Though his appearance changes when he disguis himlf as a deaf and mute Spaniar云南省建筑市场监管与诚信信息网
d, Injun Joe undergoes no real character development over the cour of the novel. He never ems to repent for his crimes or change his spiteful outlook. His reappearances in different parts of the novel help to provide a thread of continuity, as they bring the murder-ca plot, the treasure-hunt plot, and the adventures-in-the-cave plots together into a single narrative. Injun Joe’s prence also adds suspen to the novel, becau we have very little n of whether Tom and Huck’s constant fear that Injun Joe will hurt them has any basis in reality.
