Adventures of Tom Sawyer description of the main characters. Characterization of Tom Sawyer

1. Mark Twain as the creator of a unique image.
2. Advantages and disadvantages of the hero.
3. Tom Sawyer is one of the most beloved characters in world literature.

Perhaps there is no more or less literate person in the world who would not read the novel of the famous American prose writer M. Twain. He created many wonderful works, such as The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, Joan of Arc and others. But it is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer that is best known and loved by adults and young readers around the world. What is the secret of such great and long-term popularity? It seems to me that it lies in the great charm with which the author's talented pen endowed the image of this restless, restless boy.

In world literature, there are a great many images of boys - adventurers, but Twain's hero is unique and original. At first glance, this is a completely ordinary boy from a small provincial American town. Like thousands and millions of his neighbors, Tom does not like to do household chores, hates going to school, prefers shabby clothes to a smart suit, and as for shoes, he tries to do without them at all. Church attendance and especially Sunday school are real torture for him. Tom has a lot of friends - the same fools as he is. His intelligent head is constantly crammed with all sorts of fantasies and inventions. Most likely, if the boy's parents were alive, he would grow up more obedient and less wayward. The old maid - Aunt Polly - with all her efforts could not manage to cope with the restless nephew entrusted to her care. But it was precisely this freedom that allowed Tom to remain a sincere, spontaneous, organic being. Of course, cunning is inherent in him, he can lie without any remorse, “pull off” a delicacy without permission, but with all this, it is almost impossible to get angry with him.

At first glance, Tom Sawyer is the same ordinary boy as most of his peers. And yet - a special hero, because Twain endowed him with all the most wonderful qualities that can only be inherent in a teenager.

Tom dearly loves Aunt Polly. Not knowing how to pacify his inclinations, the boy nevertheless worries if he sees that he is causing anxiety and grief to his aunt. It has a sense of justice. From does not tolerate pretense, hypocrisy, insincerity. That is why the obedient brother Sid often becomes the object of Tom's dislike. Sometimes the boy finds a desire to become a good, “correct” child, not his fault that he most often fails to curb his irrepressible temper. With all the boys in the world, Tom Sawyer has in common that he does not tolerate boredom, routine, monotony. He will always prefer spanking or other physical punishment to cramming, dull being in church service. This is a lively, impressionable nature with a rich imagination.

Not every adult is able to admit that he was wrong, but this is also possible for him. Remorseful for his escape from home, the boy convinces his friends to return to the city.

Tom Sawyer has many outstanding character traits. One of them is his entrepreneurial spirit. It was not for nothing that the episode with the fence became a textbook. Here the boy shows remarkable abilities of a psychologist and an organizer. Leadership skills generally belong to Tom. He easily manages to inspire his less inventive and brave friends to take risks. Tom is able from the bottom of his heart to sympathize with those who undeservedly suffer resentment, injustice. Despite his fear of Injun Joe, Tom, along with his bosom friend Huckleberry Finn, risking their lives to help out the hapless Muff Potter by testifying in court. Not every adult is capable of such a bold act, committed by a sympathetic boy. This, in my opinion, is real heroism.

Another episode showing us Tom with better side, pages about how he got lost in a cave with Becky Thatcher. The boy managed to keep his cool, find a way out, while still constantly supporting, comforting and encouraging the girl. In the finale, Tom helps to neutralize a gang of bandits, save the life of a respectable townswoman.

The author rewards his hero - Tom becomes a rich man, a heroic personality, deserves the respect of the most prominent citizens. However, even this, the last test, the boy passes with brilliance. He does not become arrogant, does not boast of his heroism and wealth. This is still a direct, full of charm teenager.

Saying goodbye to him, the reader is convinced that Tom Sawyer will keep all his best qualities, will become a wonderful person and, turning into an adult man, will do many more wonderful deeds.

Tom Sawyer is the owner of a rebellious character, a fidget, a prankster and a great adventurer who settled in four books of the writer. The former journalist went through a path of creative torment before he found the right form for the work and, in fact, the hero, who was destined to become a favorite of young readers. Merry adventures created the author's reputation as a great humorist and master of intrigue. Unbridled fantasy, enthusiasm and mischievous acts - any child will envy the life of a boy from the town of St. Petersburg.

History of creation

Mark Twain gave children four novels with exciting events: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer Abroad and the detective story Tom Sawyer the Detective. Another work called "The Conspiracy of Tom Sawyer" the author did not have time to finish.

The first book was born with difficulty: Twain began it in 1872, and finished it only by the summer of 1875. A curious fact is that this work is the author for the first time in his creative biography wrote on a typewriter. The autobiographical novel is based on the writer's childhood, when the worries of adult life had not yet burst into a serene world filled with dreams of exploits and accomplishments. Mark Twain admitted that, like the heroes of novels, being a boy, he wanted to find a treasure, build a raft, and settle on a desert island.

The author borrowed the name of the character from an acquaintance, Thomas Sawyer, with whom fate brought him together in California. However, three boy friends from distant childhood served as prototypes, as Twain says in the preface. That's why main character turned out to be so contradictory.

The prose writer wrote not so much for children as for their parents, trying to convey to moms and dads that children do not have enough shelter and clothes. It is necessary to try to understand the magical world of the child, not to evaluate his actions only negatively - behind every act there is a "great" idea. Indeed, simple language, a huge number of curiosities and sparkling humor made the novels an excellent reading material for adults.

The dates for writing subsequent books are 1884, 1894 and 1896. No less than a dozen writers tried to translate novels into Russian, however best job accepted translation . The writer presented the work to Soviet children in 1929.

Biography and plot

Tom Sawyer lives in the small town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River in the family of his aunt - after the death of her mother, she took the boy to raise. Days pass by studying at school, fighting and playing on the street, and Tom also befriends a homeless child and falls in love with a beautiful peer, Becky. In general, everything is like a normal teenager.

Incredibly optimistic Tom is able to turn every problem into a profitable event. So, the whitewashing of the fence, which the aunt entrusted to the boy as a punishment, becomes profitable business. Tom works with a brush with such rapture and pleasure that young acquaintances also want to try it. In this case, Sawyer made a fortune, replenishing his boyish treasures with glass marbles, a one-eyed kitten and a dead rat.

Once the protagonist of the novel met Finn on the street, and a controversy erupted between the boys on the topic of the effectiveness of treating warts. Huckleberry told new way, which requires a dead cat and a trip to the cemetery at night. From that moment, the exciting adventures of friends started.

The boys witness a murder in a cemetery, decide to become pirates, build a fleet with their school friend Joe and set off on a journey to a nearby island. Friends even managed to find a chest of gold and turn into the richest boys in town.

The adventures of friends continue in the next book, where Huckleberry Finn comes to the fore. Tom helps a friend rescue slave Jim by pulling off a whole scam. And in the third novel, the friends do find themselves on hot-air balloon- a series of trials awaits them on their journey through America, over the Sahara and the Atlantic Ocean.

In the future, Tom Sawyer was to visit Arkansas, where, again with Finn, the boy got involved in the investigation of the murder and theft of diamonds.

Screen adaptations

The works of Mark Twain were several times in the work of eminent directors. For the first time, the adventures of the young prankster were transferred to film by William Taylor in 1917. However, the picture was not successful. But the next film, shot by John Cromwell in 1930, became the leader of the box office. 40 years later, the Americans repeated their success - the musical picture directed by Don Taylor was nominated three times for an Oscar and twice for a Golden Globe. the main role went to Johnny Whitaker.

The French decided to approach the adventures of an American boy on a grand scale, revealing the series The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1968), however, in a mini format. Roland Demongeo transformed into restless Tom.

In the country of the Soviets, directors of Mark Twain's novel also did not ignore. Based on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the black-and-white tape was created by Lazar Frenkel and Gleb Zatvornitsky in 1936. However, the film "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn", which appeared on Soviet movie screens in 1981, won great fame. He tried on the image of Tom, and his friend Huckleberry is a future celebrity, for whom the role became a debut.

Govorukhin gathered actors with a name on the set. The characters of the American book were played by (Aunt Polly Sawyer), (Meff Potter). The role of Tom's beloved - Becky - was played by her daughter. The film crew moved around the world: the geography of the film's creation included Ukraine, the Caucasus, Abkhazia, and the Dnieper convincingly appeared in the image of the Mississippi River.

A new directorial reading of Twain's books was presented to the audience by Hermine Huntgeburt. In Tom Sawyer (2011), the roles are played by Louis Hoffman (Tom) and Leon Seidel (Huckleberry).

Producer Boris Shenfelder said in an interview:

“The idea to make a movie about Sawyer came to me after watching Hands Off the Mississippi and Swindlers of Genius. Thinking about these two films, I decided to make a film for children and young adults that will not blindly cater to children's tastes and will be out of our time.

The idea turned out to be realized quite successfully.

The last film adaptation of the literary brainchild of Mark Twain happened in 2014. The film "Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn" co-production of Germany and the United States was directed by Joe Kastner. Joel Courtney played the restless boy-inventor.

• Under the name of St. Petersburg hides the hometown of Hannibal, where Mark Twain was born and raised. Tom Sawyer's environment has real prototypes. For example, Aunt Polly is "copied" from the writer's mother, and Becky is from the neighbor's girl, Laura Hawkins.
• In 2005, the Children's Musical Theater of the Young Spectator staged the sparkling musical Tom Sawyer. The music and lyrics for the performance were written by the composer Viktor Semenov, especially the audience likes the composition "Star River".

• Two-storey house The Hawkins family still adorns the street of the writer's hometown. The Hannibal authorities are going to renovate the building and open the Becky Thatcher Museum. Nearby, according to Twain's fans, stands the "same" fence that Tom had to whitewash, and Cardiff Hill rises a block from the street, where the children described in the novel played games. The caves in which Tom once got lost with Becky are also located in the vicinity of the village.
• Different artists undertook to illustrate the books of Mark Twain, but the pictures of Robert Ingpen are considered the best work.

Quotes

“It often happens that the less justification there is for some ingrained custom, the more difficult it is to get rid of it.”

“There is no worse fool than an old fool. No wonder they say: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."

“What are you going to do with your share, Tom?
- I will buy a drum, a real saber, a red tie, a bulldog puppy and get married.
- Are you getting married?
- Well, yes.
"Tom, you... you're out of your mind!"

"The only thing that's nice is that it's hard to get."

“The main thing is to believe. If you believe, then everything will definitely be fine - even better than you yourself can arrange.

“Fame, of course, is an important and valuable thing, but for real pleasure, a secret is still better.

"In the Middle Ages, the difference between a man and a locust was that the locust was not stupid."

“You can recognize everything in girls by their faces - they have no self-control.”

Tom Sawyer is a restless, funny boy who does not like to obey adults and dreams of becoming as free as his familiar homeless Huckleberry Finn. Consider briefly the characteristics of Tom Sawyer - the hero from the book of Mark Twain.

Tom Sawyer has more than enough energy. He always comes up with something interesting, his wit and enterprise seem like genius for the age of twelve. Tom is an orphan, and Aunt Polly is raising the boy. She cannot be called evil, she is generally good and kind, but she is guided by the principle from the Bible, which speaks of proper punishment for a child. Therefore, Aunt Polly considers it her duty to punish the pupil.

Although we are talking about the characterization of Tom Sawyer, it is worth mentioning that in the upbringing of Aunt Polly, the good boy and terrible sneak Siddy is Tom Sawyer's half-brother, and the sweet and patient girl Mary, who was Tom's cousin, lives with them. It is clear that Siddi is the opposite of Tom, they are so different in their characters and views on how to live. Therefore, Siddy likes to talk, and Tom is not averse to hacking.

What is told in the book about Tom Sawyer

For example, once Tom accidentally acted as a witness to a murder and even managed to expose the criminal. Then he got engaged to a girl from his class, ran away from home with the goal of starting to live on a distant island where there is no one. Tom Sawyer attended his funeral, and once he got lost, got into a cave, but was able to find a way out in time. He also found a treasure. All these adventures show what a characteristic of Tom Sawyer is.

If you look at the purpose of the book, you can see that the image of Tom Sawyer represents the carefree and wonderful childhood of the guys in the middle of the 19th century.

A bright episode characterizing Tom

The characterization of Tom Sawyer is revealed very well at the very beginning of the story. Consider one episode from his life.

One day, instead of going to school, Tom decided to take a swim. Aunt Polly found out about these tricks and roughly punished her pupil - Tom should have whitewashed the long fence. But this is half the trouble. I had to do whitewashing in the midst of Saturday - a day off! The guys were playing merrily at that time, and Tom already imagined how they would laugh at him, seeing their friend at a tedious job.

Tom Sawyer did not lose his head, he made a cunning plan. There were many useful things in his pockets, for example, a dead rat with a rope (for greater convenience, unwind it in the air) or a key that could not open anything. But is it possible to buy at least a little bit of freedom for these "jewels"? The boy Ben came up to Tom, obviously with the aim of getting behind. And then the characterization of Tom Sawyer was revealed in all its glory. What did Tom think?

Our sly one told Ben that painting the fence is his favorite thing, and therefore he is happy to do it. Ben at first began to tease, but Tom asked in surprise what kind of work Ben thought was good, and then announced to him that Aunt Polly had barely agreed to entrust this responsibility of whitewashing the fence to Tom. Tom's idea and his plan turned out to be correct, because soon not only the rogue Ben, but also others begged Tom to let them work on the whitewash...

Tom made an important conclusion, and so did we: when a job, even if it is difficult and tedious, is not paid, it becomes not a job, but a hobby, and it is interesting to do it. But as soon as they start paying for it, the hobby turns into work, and this is already boring.

You have learned what the characteristic of Tom Sawyer is, what kind of character he is and what we can learn from him. Be sure to read about his adventures.

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

TOM SAWYER AND Hucklberry Finn (eng. Tom Sawyer, Hucklberry Finn) are the characters of Mark Twain's novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Twelve-year-old boys, residents of a small provincial American town of St. Petersburg, comrades in games and fun, which every now and then gives birth to their irrepressible imagination. T.S. - orphan. He is raised by his late mother's sister, the pious Aunt Polly. The boy is completely uninterested in the life that flows around, but he is forced to follow the generally accepted rules: go to school, attend church services on Sundays, dress neatly, behave well at the table, go to bed early - although he breaks them every now and then, causing the indignation of his aunt . Enterprise and resourcefulness Tom does not hold. Well, who else, having received the task of whitewashing a long fence as a punishment, could turn things around so that other boys would paint the fence, and besides, paying for the right to take part in such an exciting event with “treasures”: some with a dead rat, and some with a fragment of a tooth buzzer. Yes, and not everyone will be able to receive the Bible as a reward for the excellent title of its content, in fact, without knowing a single line. But Tom did! To play a trick, to fool, to come up with something unusual - this is Tom's element. Reading a lot, he strives and own life make it as bright as the one in which the heroes of the novels act. He embarks on "love adventures", arranges games of Indians, pirates, robbers. Tom gets into whatever situations thanks to his bubbling energy: either at night in the cemetery he becomes a witness to a murder, or he is present at his own funeral. Sometimes Tom is capable of almost heroic deeds in life. For example, when he takes the blame for Becky Thatcher - a girl who is awkwardly trying to woo - and endures a teacher's spanking. He is a charming fellow, that Tom Sawyer, but he is a child of his time, of his city, accustomed to leading double life. When necessary, he is quite capable of taking on the image of a boy from a decent family, realizing that everyone does this. The situation is quite different with Tom's closest friend, Huck Finn. He is the son of a local drunk who does not care about the child. No one forces Huck to go to school. He is completely on his own. The boy is alien to pretense, and all the conventions of civilized life are simply unbearable. For Huck, the main thing is to be free, always and in everything. “He didn’t have to wash or put on a clean dress, and he knew how to swear amazingly. In a word, he had everything that makes life beautiful, ”the writer concludes. Huck is undeniably attracted entertaining games, invented by Tom, but the most precious thing to Huck is personal freedom and independence. Having lost them, he feels out of place, and it is precisely in order to regain them that Huck in the second novel is already undertaking a dangerous journey alone, leaving his hometown forever. In gratitude for saving Injun Joe from revenge, the widow Douglas took Huck to be raised. The widow's servants washed him, combed his hair with a comb and brush, laid him down every night on disgustingly clean sheets. He had to eat with a knife and fork and attend church. The unfortunate Huck survived only three weeks and disappeared. They were looking for him, but without Tom's help they would hardly have been able to find him. Tom manages to outwit the ingenuous Huck and return him to the widow for a while. Then Huck mystifies his own death. He himself sits in a shuttle and goes with the flow. During the trip, Huck also experiences many adventures, shows resourcefulness and ingenuity, but not out of boredom and a desire to have fun, as before, but out of vital necessity, primarily for the sake of saving the runaway Negro Jim. It is the ability of Huck to think about others that makes him especially attractive. Perhaps that is why Mark Twain himself saw him as a hero of the 20th century, when, from the point of view of the writer, there would no longer be racial prejudice, poverty and injustice.

Lit.: Mendelssohn M. Mark Twain. M., 1958; Romm A. Mark Twain and his books about children. L., 1958; Foner F. Mark Twain is a social critic. M., 1961.

All characteristics in alphabetical order:

Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" describes the adventures of two friends, Tom and Huck. The boys cannot sit still, they are attracted by a thirst for adventure, the main characters of "Adventures" get into various troubles, participate in all the incidents that happen in their town. In the story, the characters face different people, good and bad, but the heroes of the story always come out victorious, because they Good friends and always help each other out. The publication date of the book is 1876. The adventure tales of Mark Twain teach children what is reasonable, kind, and eternal.

Characteristics of the heroes of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

main characters

Minor characters

it a brief description of characters from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which can be used for a reader's diary.

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