汤姆索亚历险记中的浪漫主义与现实主义(英文)

The Romanticism and Realism in
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Han Xu
Abstract: This paper mainly illustrates the realism and romanticism in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer written by Mark Twain through describing the background, plots, and the write r’s writing style. In the first part, the romanticism shown in this novel will be illustrated by three parts, outgoing characteristics and purely love, vivid language and sophisticated mind, interesting plot and uncommon life. In the second part, readers will see the realism reflected in this novel through the composing direction of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and three aspects that affect Mark Twain’s composition, which includes the influence of his childhood, culture and society progress. The novel is filled with realism as well as the emotional expression of romanticism. It perfectly combines his artistic styles of realism and ideal romanticism.
Key words: Mark Twain; the Adventures of Tom Sawyer; realism; ideal romanticism 1. Introduction:
This paper mainly illustrates the romanticism and realism in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain uses his humorous writing style to show us a living story of Tom Sawyer and his friends. In the novel, Mark Twain writes something about bourgeoisie’s vulgarity, conservatism and greed, taboos on bourgeois children’s education, and religion. And he also describes Tom and his friends’ pursuit of adventurous, romantic and happy life. The novel is filled with true life of realism as well as the emotional expression of romanticism. Realist authors opted for depictions of everyday and banal activities and experiences, instead of a romanticized or similarly stylized presentation. Romanticism found recurrent themes in the evocation or criticism of the past, the cult of "sensibility" with its emphasis on women and children, the heroic isolation of the artist or narrator, and respect for a new, wilder, untrammeled and "pure" nature. Romanticism also helps in the emergence of new ideas and in the process led to the emergence of positive voices that were beneficial for the marginalized sections of the society. In this novel, Mark Twain shows us the realism by illustrating the life people live in the small town, and satires bourgeoisie’s vulgarity and greed, the hypocrisy of the children’s education, the morality, and the religion. On the other hand, Mark Twain also states something about Tom and his fellows pursuing the legendary, adventurous, romantic, and happy life, to express the beautiful hope to life and dream. However, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain combines the realism and romanticism together, which contributes to the total
composition style of the book.
2. The romanticism in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1. Outgoing characteristics and pure love
At the beginning of the novel, Tom is a mischievous child. When Tom’s adventures goes on, however, critical moments show Tom moving away from his childhood concerns and behaving just like a matured adult, making responsible decisions. Fro example, Tom’s testimony at Muff Potter’s trial, he prevents Becky from punishment, and his calm navigation out of the cave. By the end of the novel, Tom is persuading Huck into staying at the Wi dow Douglas’s, urging his friend to accept tight collars, Sunday school, and good table manners. He is a disobedient character breaking the adult order, but a defender of respectability and responsibility. In the end, growing up for Tom means stepping into the social custom and sacrificing the freedoms of childhood.
Yet Tom’s development isn’t totally coherent. The novel jumps back and forth among several narrative lines: Tom’s general misbehaviors, which climaxes in the Jackson’s island adventure; his courtship of Becky, which culminates in his acceptance of blame of the book that she rips; and his struggle with Injun Joe, which ends with Tom and Huck’s discovery of treasure. Because of the picaresque, or episodic, nature of the plot, Tom’s character can be seen in consistent, as it varies depending upon his situation. Tom is a paradoxical figure in some respects, for example, he isn’t in the determinate age. Sometimes Tom shows the naïve of a smaller child, with his interests in make-believe and superstitions. On the other hand, Tom’s romantic interest s in Becky and his fascination with Huck’s smoking and drinking, which seems more like the concerns of an adult
Whether or not a single course of development characterizes Tom’s adventures, a single character trait --- Tom’s unflagging energy and thirst for adve nture --- propels the development of the novel. Disobedient though he may be, Tom ends up as St. Petersbur g’s hero.
2. Vivid language and sophisticated mind
As a writer, Twain starts with humorous style. While The Adventures of Tom Sawyer retains some of the fragmented, episodic qualities of Twain’s earlier working, the novel represents, in general, a significant literary departure for Twain. He tones down the large-scale social satire that characterized many of his early works, choosing instead to depict the sustained development of a single, central character.
Mark Twain uses a happy style to describe the naïve words and mind of young Tom, build an imaginary, brave, free and happy boy. Mark Twain based The Adventures of Tom Sawyer largely on his personal memories of growing up in Hannibal. In the novel, nearly every figure in the novel comes from the young Twain’s village experience. In the book, Twain uses a humorous writing displaying
the innocent behaviors and words, manners and mind of young Tom, shapes a brave, imaginative, free and happy boy to readers. He cheats the tickets from his fellows just like an experienced businessman; he tries his best to get the admiration of Becky, and so forth. The author compares the innocence and freedom of the child to the vulgarity and conservation of the citizens, sharply expresses the boring and oppression of that time, satires the bourgeoisie’s greed and vacuity, exposes the stagnancy and backward of the American urban life.
3. Interesting plot and uncommon life
Tom Sawyer, a plain American boy, lives with his younger brother Sid and Aunt Polly in St. Petersburg, a little town on the bank of the Mississippi River. Tom is not a obedient, demure, and sneaky boy. He dissatisfied with his school and the monotony of the little town. He is always on the alert to do some mischief. At school he disobeys the cruel and unjust teacher and busies himself with outside matters at the lessons. Tom’s best friend is Huck Finn, a boy cherished by his drunkard father, and looked upon as an outcast in the town. But Tom is not only engaged in mischief and tomfooleries. He has read many books and wants to make his life just as bright as it is depicted in the stories. He devises games in which the boys play the role of brave outlaws and warlike Red Indians who are the terror of the rich and the oppressors.
One night, while testing their pluck in a grave-yard, the boys in voluntaries witness the murder of Dr. Robinson. An innocent man is charged with the crime. But on the day of trail Tom fearlessly exposes the criminal the Indian Joe who escape through an open window of the court-room. Fearing revenge and pursuit, the boys go through a lot of scares, but are lucky in all their enterprises. They sally out several times at night to dig for hidden treasures near a dilapidated house three miles from town. There they almost fall into the hand of the murderer who accidentally finds a box filled with gold coins. Shortly after the incident Tom goes to a picnic with a party of schoolmates. Exploring a cave, he gets lost with Becky. Tom behaves like a brave boy, clams Becky’s fears and finds the way out of the cave. In a few days’ time Tom and Huck return to the cave. They find the dead body of their pursuer, the Indian Joe, and the hidden treasures. Although the boys become rich, they still possessed with the idea of piracy.
3. The realism in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1. The composing direction of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain has plenty of social experiences, in the process of embracing the society, he is good at looking into people’s mind and thoughts, observing the society, and tasting his own life. In his composition, he is asked by himself to write with the tendency of realism, describe the real life and reality. He is a realist author at the beginning of his composition. While writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain integrates his own childhood experiences, merges his observation about the
world, attitude, cognition, ideality into the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. And Twain satires the social superstition and school rules, criticizes the bourgeoisie children’s education, mocks the vulgarity, greed and conservation of the citizens, expresses the yearning for the happy, free, beautiful life of the common people in 1930s and 1940s.
2. Two aspects which influence Mark Twain’s composition
2.1. The influence of his childhood
Mark Twain has a special childhood, which makes him step into the real life so early. Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835，in Florida, Missouri in the United States. He is the sixth of seven children of his father, a country merchant John Marshall Clemens and mother Jane Lampton Clemens and only three of his siblings could survive into their adulthood. At age four, Mark along with his family, moves to a port town Hannibal, situated on the bank of world’s second largest river Mississippi.
He spends his boyhood in nearby Hannibal, observing its busy life, fascinated by its romance, but chilled by the violence and bloodshed it bred. Twain is eleven years old when his lawyer father died. In order to help the family earn money, the young Twain begins working as a store clerk and a delivery boy. He also begins working as an apprentice working to learn a trade, then a compositor, a person who sets type, with local printers, contributing occasional small pieces to local newspapers. In 1853 Twain begins wandering as a journeyman printer to St. Louis, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; settling briefly with his brother, Orion, in Iowa before setting out at twenty-two years old to make his fortune, he hopes, beside the lush banks of the Amazon River in South America. Instead, traveling down the Mississippi River, he becomes a steamboat river pilot until the outbreak of the Civil War, when Northern forces clashed with those of the South over slavery and secession.
As a child, Mark Twain receives no formal schooling, but a keen learner, he widens his circle of knowledge by finding information in public libraries. It is his traveling to New Orleans in 1857, that he grew immensely fascinated with the steamboats and became an apprentice cub river pilot, earning his license in 1858. While working as a successful river pilot, he develops a huge attachment for the river, which would become a subject of his books in later life. He losses his brother named Henry in 1858 who is also working with him on the boat.
2.2. The influence of culture
In his childhood, Mark Twain is attracted by the humorous writing stories written by the commons. Mark Twain gets the fanny story from his mother, father, brothers his schoolmates, even the story teller meet on the street by accident. In his teen age, in the southwest of the country there are lots of famous humorous writers,
Mark Twain learns so many skills to write humorous stories. Mark Twain has read many books, which makes his full of knowledge, and he is interested in the realism works. He learns along with his life and reads lots of jokes and jestings, in the area of culture, he is a diligent student. Because of reading so many books and learning other scholars’knowledge, he eventually builds Tom Sawyer, the typical image in the typical environment.
2.3. The influence of society progress
Mark Twain experiences the revolution, which make him have the faith to face any difficulties. And he experiences the development of the western US. In his childhood, his family moves from the east of America to the west. He goes through his memorable childhood in Hannibal, and his teen life on the broad Mississippi river, and developing California. Based on his experiences, he could write a book named The Adventures of Mark Twain. The young Twain in his autobiography we see is the counterpart of Tom Sawyer in his book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, who is innocent, naughty, pursuing freedom and justice. Or we can say that we can find Twain’s shadow in his childhood from Tom Sawyer, and the steadfast, just, adventurous, affirmative, and imaginative colonized spirit is combined with the social, economical life and the special history of the United States. Twain is a common person, and observes the beautiful hope of the common people with his alert perception, lively and truly shows us the spirit of that time by describing the behaviors and words.
4. Conclusion:
Mark Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is traditionally regarded as a great work to criticize the stale social conventions. However, readers are liable to neglect the importance and necessity of social conventions. A deep analysis shows that they can be a criterion to establish and distinguish identities, an essential requirement for the social acceptance and an importance means to retain and arouse desires. And Mark Twain uses his own writing style to show us an interested and surprised child world .Everyone has an amazing childhood, and Mark Twain gives us a fantasy story with a child’s sigh t. In this book, we can see the innocence of the children. In The Adventures of Tom Sawye r, Mark Twain sharply satirizes urban petty bourgeoisie’s vulgarity, conservatism and greed, taboos on bourgeois children’s education, hypocrisy of bourgeois ethics and religion. And he also describes Tom and his fellows’ pursuit of legendary, adventurous, romantic and happy life. The novel is filled with true portrayal of realism as well as the emotional expression of romanticism. It perfectly combines his artistic styles of realism and ideal romanticism.
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