《汤姆索亚历险记》读书报告

　　读《汤姆索亚历险记》有感
　　《汤姆索亚历险记》是美国十九世纪文学大师马克•吐温的代表作，是世界文学宝库中的一部经典名著。
　　书中的主人公汤姆是一个孤儿，从小就寄养在姨妈家，在姨妈眼里，他是个捣蛋鬼，可他又总是情不自禁的喜欢这个孩子。汤姆本人则是一个天真活泼又调皮的典型美国少年，在他的身上我们看到了自己理想的品质：聪明、勇敢、正直、乐观。在那个年代，汤姆算得上是个叛逆的孩子，他的梦想就是去当“海盗”，于是，他叫上了自己的伙伴乔和哈克，三人一起来到了一座荒岛上。接下来就是文章最精彩的一章：汤姆、乔和哈克几个“小海盗”在岛上快乐的过着无忧无虑的生活。这些升活场景的描写，充分表现了三个少年摆脱社会禁锢的酣畅心境。再现实生活中，每个人都渴望拥有自由自在的生活，可是每个人都有自己的责任，因此每个人都不能享受绝对的自由。
　　在我看来，学生是最没有自由的。刚上小学时，我觉得好高兴，因为那时没有压力，没有“堆积如山”的作业，除了玩还是玩。可到了六年级，我才体会到真正的小学生活。
　　这与汤姆的生活似乎是相似的，尽管汤姆不喜欢学校里枯燥无味的生活，讨厌牧师们骗人的鬼话……可是，迫于社会的种种压力，汤姆不得不接受事实。所以汤姆才会向往那种“海盗生活”。虽然我也想自由自在，但我还是像海绵一样吸收知识，因为我现在的小放弃，现在的自我约束，才能换来以后的幸福。
　　现在社会上，有许多自我放纵的人，他们只知纵情享乐，却不知应像蜜蜂那样辛勤地工作，不知道生活不会永远这样轻松闲趣，谁不靠自己的双手创造自己的幸福自由，谁就无法主宰自己的命运，他就永远只能是命运的奴隶，当命运来临时，他眼前所谓的短暂的自由就立即会消散，会成为牵绊他真正获得主宰自己命运的枷锁。
　　读了《汤姆索亚历险记》，我想了很多，其实在忙碌紧张的六年纪生活中，我更多得到的是一种充实感，这让我对以后的学习、生活更充满信心，我既然是社会一员，也就应履行好社会赋予我的责任和使命，为获取主宰命运的自由而努力奋斗下去。

英文的，要么？

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer tells the story of Tom, an imaginative and mischievous young boy who never passes up a chance for an adventure in mid-nineteenth century St. Petersburg, Missouri. The novel has several themes, among which are love, imagination, rebellion and superstition.

One of the major themes that the author portrays in the book is childhood love. We can clearly see the associated emotions overcoming the boy when he first notices Becky Thatcher, as stated: "He worshiped this new angel with furtive eye, till he saw that she had discovered him; then he pretended he did not know she was present, and began to "show-off" in all sorts of absurd boyish ways, in order to win her admiration." (p.17) Soon after, he proposes to Becky with a doorknob and out of excitement, accidentally mentions his former love, Amy Lawrence, causing the engagement to fall apart. To illustrate the pain of a broken heart, the author chooses carefully his words in order to show us the power of love. The statement: "So she (Becky) sat down to cry again and upbraid herself; and by this time the scholars began to gather again, and she had to hide her grief and still her broken heart and take up the cross of a long, dreary, aching afternoon, with none among the strangers about her to exchange sorrows with." (p.52) explains the previous fact. As an end of the year celebration, Tom's whole class goes on a cave exploration outside of town. When Tom and Becky realize that they are lost in the caves, he constantly tires to comfort her and ignite some hope for their escape. The passage on page 187, "He sat down by her and put his arms around her; she buried her face in his bosom, she clung to him, she poured out her terrors, her unavailing regrets, and the far echoes turned them all to jeering laughter." reminds us of an existing love between the two children. Apart from his love for Becky, Tom experiences a type of motherly love for his aunt Polly, a simple, kind-hearted women, who becomes a substitute parental figure. Even though Tom uses every trick in his book to manipulate or deceive his aunt, he doesn't mean to cause any harm. When aunt Polly accuses Tom of lying about his dream, he agrees but states that he kissed her before parting. She doubts his words and wonders why he kissed her. He replies: "Because I loved you so, and you laid there moaning and I was so sorry." (p.121). This passage demonstrates the love expressed for his aunt/stepmother throughout the novel.

Another important theme developed in the novel is imagination. The story describes mostly a boy, whose life is composed of fantasies of heroic adventures and narrow escapes. A large part of Tom's behavior is due to his inexhaustible imagination, which is sometimes used to escape the difficulties of his world. We can notice his ability of persuasion at the beginning of the book, where he is punished for playing hooky, by being made to whitewash a fence, but ingeniously leads his friends to do the job for him by pretending it is a privilege. After applying his 'reverse psychology' method to a couple of boys, "He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it-namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain." (p.13) His vivid imagination repeats itself when he decides to become a pirate, robber or soldier. An example of this can be found on page 16 in an extract from the "military" conflict: "Tom's army won a great victory, after a long and hard-fought battle. Then the dead were counted, prisoners exchanged, the terms of the next disagreement agreed upon, and the day for the necessary battle appointed; after which the armies fell into line and marched away, and Tom turned homeward alone." As Tom, Huck and Joe hide on nearby Jackson's Island, imagination strikes again as they associate their names with those of fictional characters from various literature. They liked to be known as Tom Sawyer, The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main, Huck Finn the Red-Handed and Joe Harper the Terror of the Seas.

At the very beginning of the novel, Twain emphasizes on Tom's rebellious character. In a town where almost all adults possess the power of authority over the youngsters, it is considered "normal" for kids to rebel against their superiors. Therefore, rebellion is believed to be another significant theme in the book. We can observe this, every time Tom and Huck sneak out of their windows at night to meet. An example supporting the previous fact appears on page 58 as following: "A cry...and a single minute later he was dressed and out of the window and creeping along the roof...floors." Not only did Tom refuse to obey the rules, but he despised the idea of having to go to church and school. The passage used to demonstrate his disapproval are mentioned as stated: "Mary was soon ready, and the three children set out for Sunday school-a place that Tom hated with his whole heart...of it." (p. 23); "Monday morning always found his so (miserable)-because it began another week's slow suffering in school." (p. 36) The fact that every boy in town envied Huck was because he had no one to rebel against. A paragraph found on page 30 reveals this resentment: "Huckleberry came and went, at his own free will. He slept...he did not have to go to school or to church, or call any being master or obey anybody, he could go fishing to swimming when and where he chose, and stay as long as it suited him; nobody forbade him to fight, he could sit up as late as he pleased...wonderfully."

The remarkable importance of superstition in the novel leads us to display it as a theme. A belief resulting from trust in ancient ways can be seen as Tom and Huck go to the graveyard at midnight to swing a dead cat, an advice by old Mother Hopkins to cure warts. In this scene, Huck explains to Tom how the practice works: "Why, you take your cat and go and get in the graveyard 'long about midnight when somebody that was wicked has been buried; and when it's midnight a devil will come, or maybe two or three, but you can't see'em, you can only hear something like the wind, or maybe hear'em talk; and when they're taking that feller away, you heave your cat after'em and say, Devil follow corpse, cat follow devil, warts follow cat, I'm done with ye!" When Tom and Huck witness a murder, they have to decide how to handle the fact that they were not supposed to be there and their fear of retribution from the murderer, Injun Joe. The boys swear never to speak of it again by writing their initials in blood close to the wall. Their shingle stated: "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer swears they will keep mum about this and they wish they may drop down dead in their tracks if they ever tell and rot." (p. 66) This oath holds proof of superstition between the boys. Apart from the town's youngsters, many adults, such as aunt Polly, acted superstitiously at certain times. For instance, the narrator describes aunt Polly's tendency to trust "patent medicines and all new fangled methods of producing health and mending it." (p. 76) After Tom kept to himself Muff Potter's innocence and became indifferent to persecution, his aunt heard of "painkillers" and decides to try it. As mentioned on page 77, "She ordered a lot at once." we can clearly observe the presence of superstition.

To conclude, after closer analysis of the themes, I learned to appreciate the novel. When first reading the book, I viewed the plot as a story where young boys and girls engaged in adventure. However, during my second reading, I got reminded of my childhood undertakings and came to reveal early memories. The way the novel is written, mainly through the eyes of a child, makes it easier to get lost in the vivid imagination of the characters. Twain sets up a rewarding novel that makes us rethink the advantages of both freedom and civilization.