A Probe into the Profile of Tom Sawyer in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Abstract

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is one of the Mark Twain’s magnum opuses, who was an outstanding representative of critical realism literature in the late 19th century in America. From the perspective of a naughty child Tom Sawyer, he ruthlessly castigated and ridiculed the boring life, the ridiculous hypocrisy and the backward and deformed education system in the south area of America in the 1850s and 1860s. The rebellious image of Tom Sawyer achieved something in common with the critical tendency in this work. This paper firstly expounds the relationship between the changes of the outlooks on children and the historical development of the image of naughty children from the angle of outlooks on children. Then some theoretical issues concerned with naughty children are discussed from the perspective of naughty children and playing spirit. Finally, the significance of Tom Sawyer who was created as a naughty child is explored.