Автор: Пользователь скрыл имя, 04 Марта 2013 в 01:43, курсовая работа
Throughout the course of human events, men have adopted various literary styles and have advocated extensive literary beliefs and movements, striving to satisfy the desire to become better than before in effectively expressing ideas through writing. Since the Classicism movement, literature used to be logical, orderly, fact-based, and objective. As the flow of ideas lead people to follow, a new age of literature called as Romanticism had dawned and had stressed the freedom to be highly imaginative, emotional, and spontaneous, declaring the worth, goodness, and beauty of the ideal society. Roughly seventy years had elapsed and a new literary style had developed.
Introduction………………………………………………………………………..2
Chapter 1. The theme of maturity in Mark Twain`s and Washington Irwing`s literary legacy
1.1. Mark Twain`s and Washington Irwing`s literary legacy ……………………..4
1.2. The general characteristic of an “eternal child” ……………………………..15
1.3.The childhood as the special period in human life …………………………...16
1.4. “The theme of maturity “ in Washington Irwing`s novel “ Rip van Winkle” .21
1.5..“The theme of maturity “ in Mark Twain`s novel “ Tom Sowyer”
2. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………..32
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………34
"His fences were continually falling to pieces...weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields than anywhere else."
Rip would rather go out hunting or drinking with his fellow villagers at the tavern than work on his own farm. He always found some excuse not to work
"The rain always made a point of setting in just as he had some outdoor work to do so that though his patrimonial estate had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre."
He did not care about what is happening on his farm. This description of Rip's home clearly shows that while Rip was out bettering his community and giving back to everyone else he was letting his own home fall apart to pieces. While Rip's hardworking and giving characteristics are always good in a person, his laziness isn't. He should be more proficient and think about improving his own home instead of always giving to others.
Rip Van Winkle is an interesting and creative story which covers different time periods from history. The tale depicts America during English rule and America after the Revolutionary War. The author's play of using characters to represent different societies creates a descriptive and informative story that not only teaches us about the past but about the present, and how hard work and giving back to your community is always important, but giving to oneself is essential as well.
1.5.The theme of maturity
in Mark Twain`s novel “ Tom Sowyer”
Tom
Sawyer, Twain’s second extended effort in fiction and his first masterpiece,
he began as a play in 1872 and published in its present form in 1876.
The long incubation contributed to its unsurpassed unity of tone. But
the decisive fact is that his irresponsible and frequently extravagant
fancy is here held in check by a serious artistic purpose, namely, to
make an essentially faithful representation of the life of a real boy
intimately known to him by memory and by introspection and by those
deductions of the imaginative faculty which start from a solid basis
of actuality.
His own boyhood, we may believe, and that of his companions in Hannibal, lives in this intensely vital narrative. It is significant of his unwonted austerity in the composition that he wrote to Howells on its completion: “It is not a boy’s book at all. It will only be read by adults. It is only written for adults.” He had some justification for feeling that his newly finished manuscript broke a long taboo.[27; 239]
He had taken a hero who was neither a model of youthful virtues nor a horrible example but was distinguished chiefly by pluck, imagination, and vanity, and had made him leader of a group of average little Missouri rascals running loose in an ordinary small river town and displaying, among other spontaneous impulses, all the “natural cussedness” of boyhood.
Furthermore he had made a central incident of a rather horrid murder. Remembering the juvenile fiction of the Sunday-school library, 10 he suspected that the story of these fighting, fibbing, pilfering, smoking, swearing scapegraces was not for young people. But Howells, after reading about Aunt Polly, the whitewashing of the fenee, Tom’s schoolboy love, Huck and the wart-cure, and the pirates’ island, ordered the profanity deleted, and declared it the best boy story ever written; and that was near the truth. In the two sequels Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894) and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896), the plots are rather flimsy contrivances of the humorous fancy, but the stories are partly redeemed by the established reality of the actors and the raciness of the narrative which comes from the mouth of Huck Finn.
The plot structured of the story of Tom Sawyer helps readers understand further about the theme for it gives evidences of man's inherent imperfection. The story started with a catchy exposition as the writer uses diction within Tom and Aunt Polly's conversation. After tiring herself of looking for Tom for a long time, Aunt Polly finally found Tom hiding in her closet:
“ Tom? Tom?'... a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize the boy... 'What you been doin' in there?'...'Nothing'...' Look at your hands and your mouth. What is that truck?'... ' I don't know Aunt'... 'Well, I know it's jam. Forty times I've said leave that jam alone...'"
This is successful for it clearly introduces the main characters right away, as well as what's going on, and in addition, it already introduces the theme of the story. The first words that Tom speaks in this story already show the evil nature of man, that he will do anything just to get away from trouble. In Tom's situation, he lied by saying "nothing" and "I don't know" when there is actually something and he obviously knows what he's been doing. With the theme, the characters, and the past already introduced during the exposition by using a contrived dialogue, the writer provided himself with the convenience and ease of setting the story on track.
In connection to the exposition, the theme is also illustrated in several ways in the story's rising action as it moves along a series of conflicts built into one big conflict. The major conflict of the story is Tom's struggle to become free from his Aunt, who acts as a parent, and to satisfy his desire for adventure and fame. Multiple minor conflicts are presented in the story, each with its own climax and falling action.
The theme is further clarified by the writer through Tom's experiences. In the minor conflicts when he fought for Becky's heart and risked his life for the treasure, he portrayed one of the good natures of man which is fighting for a dream and overlooking all the problems and trials to achieve it. In the minor conflict when he saved Mr. Potter from being hanged without committing the murder crime, he portrayed another good nature of man in helping other people by doing the right thing and facing his fears even if it meant possible death for him. However, he also portrayed man's evil nature when he went to Jackson's Island without informing his Aunt.
As a child, he showed his thoughtlessness and inconsideration to his Aunt, that even though he knew his Aunt was suffering for supposing he was killed, he didn't inform her of where he went and how he was. He showed his selfishness, not thinking of how he affects other people. The plot structure of the story of the life of Tom displays Mark Twain's realistic idea of humans' weakness in the midst of fear and materialism.
Furthermore, the characters of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer all have their own characteristics that demonstrate the general theme. For instance, Aunt Polly depicts the natural goodness in a human since she decided to take care of his nephew Tom and to endure all the difficulties in dealing with his stubbornness because she loved him like his own child. The following quotations from Aunt Polly's soliloquy show this:
" He 'pears to know just how long he can torment me before I get my dander up, and he knows if he can make out to put me off for a minute... poor thing... I ain't got the heart to lash him somehow... I've got to do some of my duty, or I'll be the ruination of the child."
On the other hand, the adults of the small village show a perfect example of an evil nature of man, which is treating other people based on their social ranking. Huckleberry Finn is a child who didn't have anybody to treat him as a parent or to provide him with his needs.
Although his dad is alive, he acts and lives like he doesn't have a son. Thus, Huck learned to live by himself. Since he, being the son of a town drunk, is poor, filthy, squalid, foul-mouthed, and uneducated, he was easily hated and dreaded by the mothers who didn't want the children to ever talk or approach him. The following quotations show this:
" Shortly, Tom came upon a juvenile pariah of the village, Huckleberry Finn... cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town because he was idle, and lawless, and vulgar, and bad- and because all their children admired him so..."
Many more characters display the natural goodness of man, such as Widow Douglas' voluntarism in rearing up Huck to become a decent individual, and the evil nature of man, such as when Becky Thatcher allowed the teacher to whip Tom for a sin she committed. Growing up in a small town, working at different jobs, and meeting different kinds of people from various walks of life made Mark Twain discover the society's good, evil, and imperfect natures and convinced him to write about them by touching each of the characters of this story with his realistic views about men.
The style of Mark Twain's writing expands the general idea through figurative languages, imagery, diction, and tone. Twain used figurative language and imagery to show the atmosphere, or the surrounding of a character to give the readers an idea of the characters' feelings and emotions. One example is when he used figurative languages such as:
terrific storm,
awful claps of thunder,
blinding sheets of lightning,
suspense for his doom,
shadow of a doubt,
expensive thunderstorm.
These words are intended to give the reader the intensity of Tom's feeling during that part of the story, wherein he felt alone, wicked and conscience-smitten for he is the only child in the village who didn't go to the spiritual revival. In connection to the theme, Tom felt conscience for he knew he has done a wrong thing.
Another style Twain used to effectively deliver the general idea about man's 'imperfection' is by making some parts of the story appealing through the use of tone shift as seen through diction. One example of this is when a student of Tom's school reads his composition to a group of people. In the first half, Twain chose the words:
delightful,
festivity,
joy,
fancy,
voluptuous,
graceful, snowy,
dance brightness,
lightest,
gay,
delicious,
bright dreams,
charming,
goodly
These words all creates a positive and fun atmosphere, but then a negative feeling comes toward the next half through the diction of such words as vanity, harshly, wasted, embittered and conviction.
The positive words used by the speaker appeals positively to the readers because in it, they can reflect themselves in a way that they too desire and persevere through endeavors to become happy in life.
As the speaker shifted to a negative tone, readers may question themselves in the words used if they too feel vanity, wasted and embittered by all their efforts, knowing that nothing can really satisfy the soul. These can be marked as another extension of the theme about human follies and weaknesses.
Since the birth of realistic ideas and movements, the literary style had changed from artistic, spontaneous, intellectual, and conventional that depicts the ideal society to a literary style which prefers the preference of characters who are no more idealized but have normal human flaws and virtues, and often from the lower class, the preference of objective narrator or a realistic first person narrator, the preference of a story wherein the point is not directly mentioned to the reader but instead, must be inferred from the reading, and the preference of a society often shown as corrupt due to human nature.
Realistic writers and their works, such as Mark Twain and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, paved the way for people to realize and to distinguish the ideal from what's real. During the 1870s, the great surge of realistic beliefs of the good, evil and imperfect nature of man that Twain furthered through his compositions had evolved American's outlook in life and humans.
Twain's influences to American writing and values, such as the equality between human beings, are gradually manifested in the society. Through his influence to many American writers who also seek to tell the truth and the nature of the society, until now, realistic ideas continued to expand not only in America, but also around the world.
Tom Sawyer represents far more than an American icon, far more than a unique character created by a classic author. Tom Sawyer represents the classical manner in which all everlasting art is created – by some rugged individual holding the higher ideals above the bottom line and setting out for that treasure all alone.
Conclusion
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were."
In the spirit of general "realism" Realist authors opted for depictions of everyday and banal activities and experiences, instead of a romanticized or similarly stylized presentation. Jorge Luis Borges, in an essay entitled "The Scandinavian Destiny", attributed the earliest discovery of realism in literature to the Northmen in the Icelandic Sagas, although it was soon lost by them along with the continent of North America.
Realism in American Literature spanned the years from 1865-1900. It was a time of great turmoil in American history, with the Civil War just ended and the inevitable aftermath of so much devastation: Reconstruction and urbanization. Industrialization and technological advances were also making their marks on the American psyche.
Since the birth of realistic ideas and movements, the literary style had changed from artistic, spontaneous, intellectual, and conventional that depicts the ideal society to a literary style which prefers the preference of characters who are no more idealized but have normal human flaws and virtues, and often from the lower class, the preference of objective narrator or a realistic first person narrator, the preference of a story wherein the point is not directly mentioned to the reader but instead, must be inferred from the reading, and the preference of a society often shown as corrupt due to human nature.
Realistic writers and their works, such as Mark Twain and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, paved the way for people to realize and to distinguish the ideal from what's real. During the 1870s, the great surge of realistic beliefs of the good, evil and imperfect nature of man that Twain furthered through his compositions had evolved American's outlook in life and humans.
Twain's influences to American writing and values, such as the equality between human beings, are gradually manifested in the society. Through his influence to many American writers who also seek to tell the truth and the nature of the society, until now, realistic ideas continued to expand not only in America, but also around the world.
Tom Sawyer represents far more than an American icon, far more than a unique character created by a classic author. Tom Sawyer represents the classical manner in which all everlasting art is created – by some rugged individual holding the higher ideals above the bottom line and setting out for that treasure all alone.
Bibliography