Mark Twain’s famous novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer illustrates the Romanticism tradition in depicting the characters. Even though the romantic literature was in a state of collapse at the time of the novel’s writing, Twain preserved the inherent image for this movement. The dreams and desires of the main character of the novel are truly romantic. Implementing Tom, Twain emphasized the childish striving for the ideal world intrinsic to Romanticism tradition. Even though the author also implemented some features of Realism, Romanticism takes the prevalent position in his novel. The contradiction of the real-life and Tom’s dreams perfectly illustrates the romantic approach to the narration.
Annotated Bibliography
Some critiques believe that Twain implemented the romantic image in order to satirize the typical adventurer and claim the new age of Realism (Montenegro 115). However, another point of view shows the idea that Twain aimed to reflect the combination of Realism and Romanticism (Montenegro 116). Thus, the author of the novel managed to implement the features of both movements in the image of Tom Sawyer. Generally, Twain depicted the lives of ordinary people emphasizing the tremendous role of their morals, dignities thereby romanticizing the whole story. The features of Romanticism can also be found in Tom’s sufferings when being rejected (Montenegro 117). During childhood, everyone compares themselves with the characters from the adventure story. Therefore, the author analyzed the children’s psychology through the romantic image. Another feature of the Romantic tradition is the elevated role of nature supporting characters during emotionally challenging periods (Montenegro 117). Therefore, Mark Twain implemented the Romanticism features in the adventures of Tom Sawyer, reflecting the image of the suffering character bewildered by the injustice who desires to change the whole world.
Work Cited
Montenegro, Joe. “The American Past and Present: A New Historicist Approach to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” LETRAS, vol. 64, 2018, pp. 109-129. doi:10.15359/rl.2-64.6