Discipline and punishment in 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.'
Article Abstract:
The disciplinary methods used on Tom Sawyer in 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' by Mark Twain, and Tom's response to them, illustrate changing attitudes towards disciplining children which were evident in the US in the 1830s and 1940s. Tom suffers frequent beatings at the hands of his guardian Aunt Polly and his teacher Mr Dobbins. He is, however, able to escape these socialization controls through movement beyond the spatial boundaries of his home and community. The end of the novel focuses on events through which the love of Aunt Polly for Tom is acknowledged.
Publication Name: Journal of American Studies
Subject: Regional focus/area studies
ISSN: 0021-8758
Year: 1998
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Life without father: the role of the paternal in the opening chapters of 'Huckleberry Finn.'
Article Abstract:
The apparent failure of the ending to 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' is actually Mark Twain's attempt to reclaim control over the text from his internal narrator Huckleberry Finn. The underlying story behind the novel is a father-son type conflict between Twain the creator and Finn the creation who has taken on a life of his own. Twain begins and ends the novel with the father, first through pap's supposed death and then through his reappearance to take control of Finn's life.
Publication Name: Journal of American Studies
Subject: Regional focus/area studies
ISSN: 0021-8758
Year: 1993
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Rewriting the gold rush: Twain, Harte and homosociality
Article Abstract:
Mark Twain and Bret Harte were 19th century American fiction writers who dealt with maleness and same-sex friendships. Twain, the famous author of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Harte described a Gold Rush society where adventurers from the east traveled to the west to mine gold and subsequently developed close friendships in the absence of family. Their novels are peopled with characters who are both masculine and homosocial, if not homosexual.
Publication Name: Journal of American Studies
Subject: Regional focus/area studies
ISSN: 0021-8758
Year: 1996
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