Group 4

The American Republic and The Contemporary Periods

Brief History of the Period

The American Contemporary period (1945 - present) questions the goodness of

humanity, explores human consciousness, and upends social norms. Discover the
period's divergence from Modernism, the effects of World War II on the American
literary landscape, and the pressures of conformity in the post-war consciousness.

After World War II, American literature has become broad and varied in terms of
theme, mode, and purpose. Currently, there is little consensus as to how to go about
classifying the last 80 years into periods or movements—more time must pass,
perhaps, before scholars can make these determinations. That being said, there are a
number of important writers since 1939 whose works may already be considered
“classic” and who are likely to become canonized.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by M. Twain

I. Objectives

At the end of the lesson the learner should be able to:

 Know the sentiments of childhood in idealized manner

 Understand Tom’s personal growth and quest for identity;
 Apply the importance of intuitive understanding on human nature

II. Authors Background

Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, and
grew up in nearby Hannibal, a small Mississippi River town. Hannibal would become the
model for St. Petersburg, the fictionalized setting of Twain’s two most popular
novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The
young Clemens grew up in a prosperous family his father owned a grocery store as well
 as a number of slaves but he was sent out to work at the age of twelve after his father’s
death. As a young man, he traveled frequently, working as a printer’s typesetter and as
a steamboat pilot. In this latter profession he gained familiarity with the river life that
would furnish much material for his writing. He also gained his pen name, Mark Twain,
which is a measure of depth in steamboat navigation.

Twain enlisted in the Confederate militia in 1861, early in the Civil War, but he soon
left to pursue a career in writing and journalism in Nevada and San Francisco. His
articles and stories became immensely popular in the decades that followed. On the
strength of this growing literary celebrity and financial success, he moved east in the
late 1860s and married Olivia Langdon, the daughter of a prominent Elmira, New York,
family. Twain and Langdon settled in Hartford, Connecticut; there Twain wrote The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which he published in 1876. Twain proceeded to write,
among other things, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and two sequels to The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894) and Tom Sawyer,
Detective (1896). He died in 1910, one of America’s most beloved humorists and
storytellers.

III. Unlocking of Difficulty

1.  Constitute

 form or compose
 She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato
vines and "jimpson" weeds that constituted the garden.

2.  Conscience

 motivation deriving from ethical or moral principles

 Every time I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so, and every time I hit him
my old heart most breaks.

3.  Guile
  shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception
 While Tom was eating his supper, and stealing sugar as opportunity offered,
Aunt Polly asked him questions that were full of guile, and very deep — for she
wanted to trap him into damaging revealments.

4.  Vex

 disturb, especially by minor irritations

 Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that bit of circumstantial
evidence, and missed a trick.

5.  Circumstantial

 suggesting that something is true without proving it

 Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that bit
of circumstantial evidence, and missed a trick.

6.  Sagacity

 the trait of having wisdom and good judgment

 She was half sorry her sagacity had miscarried, and half glad that Tom had
stumbled into obedient conduct for once.

7.  Natty

 marked by up-to-datedness in dress and manners

 His cap was a dainty thing, his close-buttoned blue cloth roundabout was new
and natty, and so were his pantaloons.

8.  Citified

 having the customs or manners of someone urban

 He had a citified air about him that ate into Tom’s vitals.

9.  Sidle
  move sideways
 Another pause, and more eying and sidling around each other.

10.  Glower

 look angry or sullen as if to signal disapproval

 So they stood, each with a foot placed at an angle as a brace, and both shoving
with might and main, and glowering at each other with hate.

11.  Derision

 the act of treating with contempt

 The new boy took two broad coppers out of his pocket and held them out
with derision.

12.  Melancholy

 a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed

 He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled
down upon his spirit.

13.  Ponderous

 slow and laborious because of weight

 As he drew near, he slackened speed, took the middle of the street, leaned far
over to starboard and rounded to ponderously and with laborious pomp and
circumstance—for he was personating the Big Missouri, and considered himself
to be drawing nine feet of water.

14.  Execute

 put in effect
  He was boat and captain and engine-bells combined, so he had to imagine
himself standing on his own hurricane-deck giving the orders
and executing them:

15.  Alacrity

 liveliness and eagerness

 Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart.

16.  Idle

 not in action or at work

 He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while — plenty of company — and the
fence had three coats of whitewash on it!

17.  Wend

 direct one's course or way

 The boy mused awhile over the substantial change which had taken place in his
worldly circumstances, and then wended toward headquarters to report.

18.  Condescend

 behave in a patronizing manner

 These two great commanders did not condescend to fight in person — that
being better suited to the still smaller fry — but sat together on an eminence and
conducted the field operations by orders delivered through aides-de-camp.

19.  Evanescent

 short-lived; tending to vanish or disappear

 He had thought he loved her to distraction; he had regarded his passion as
adoration; and behold it was only a poor little evanescent partiality.

20.  Furtive
  secret and sly
 He worshipped 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.

IV. Summary of the Story

An imaginative and mischievous boy named Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly
and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. After
playing hooky from school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to
whitewash the fence as punishment on Saturday. At first, Tom is disappointed by having
to forfeit his day off. However, he soon cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small
treasures for the privilege of doing his work. He trades these treasures for tickets given
out in Sunday school for memorizing Bible verses and uses the tickets to claim a Bible
as a prize. He loses much of his glory, however, when, in response to a question to
show off his knowledge, he incorrectly answers that the first two disciples were David
and Goliath.

Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get
“engaged” to him. Their romance collapses when she learns that Tom has been
“engaged” before—to a girl named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by
Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard
at night to try out a “cure” for warts. At the graveyard, they witness the murder of young
Dr. Robinson by the Native-American “half-breed” Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run
away and swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they have seen. Injun Joe blames
his companion, Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Potter is wrongfully arrested,
and Tom’s anxiety and guilt begin to grow.

Tom, Huck, and Tom’s friend Joe Harper run away to an island to become pirates.
While frolicking around and enjoying their newfound freedom, the boys become aware
that the community is sounding the river for their bodies. Tom sneaks back home one
night to observe the commotion. After a brief moment of remorse at the suffering of his
loved ones, Tom is struck by the idea of appearing at his funeral and surprising
everyone. He persuades Joe and Huck to do the same. Their return is met with great
rejoicing, and they become the envy and admiration of all their friends. Back in school,
Tom gets himself back in Becky’s favor after he nobly accepts the blame for a book that
she has ripped. Soon Muff Potter’s trial begins, and Tom, overcome by guilt, testifies
against Injun Joe. Potter is acquitted, but Injun Joe flees the courtroom through a
window.

Summer arrives, and Tom and Huck go hunting for buried treasure in a haunted
house. After venturing upstairs they hear a noise below. Peering through holes in the
floor, they see Injun Joe enter the house disguised as a deaf and mute Spaniard. He
and his companion, an unkempt man, plan to bury some stolen treasure of their own.
From their hiding spot, Tom and Huck wriggle with delight at the prospect of digging it
up. By an amazing coincidence, Injun Joe and his partner find a buried box of gold
themselves. When they see Tom and Huck’s tools, they become suspicious that
someone is sharing their hiding place and carry the gold off instead of reburying it.

Huck begins to shadow Injun Joe every night, watching for an opportunity to nab the
gold. Meanwhile, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal’s Cave with Becky and their
classmates. That same night, Huck sees Injun Joe and his partner making off with a
box. He follows and overhears their plans to attack the Widow Douglas, a kind resident
of St. Petersburg. By running to fetch help, Huck forestalls the violence and becomes an
anonymous hero. Tom and Becky get lost in the cave, and their absence is not
discovered until the following morning. The men of the town begin to search for them,
but to no avail. Tom and Becky run out of food and candles and begin to weaken.

The horror of the situation increases when Tom, looking for a way out of the cave,
happens upon Injun Joe, who is using the cave as a hideout. Eventually, just as the
searchers are giving up, Tom finds a way out. The town celebrates, and Becky’s father,
Judge Thatcher, locks up the cave. Injun Joe, trapped inside, starves to death. A week
later, Tom takes Huck to the cave and they find the box of gold, the proceeds of which
are invested for them. The Widow Douglas adopts Huck, and, when Huck attempts to
escape civilized life, Tom promises him that if he returns to the widow, he can join
Tom’s robber band. Reluctantly, Huck agrees.

V. Illustration of the Story

VI. Activity

1. What is the name of the town where Tom Sawyer lives?

 St. Petersburg, Missouri

 Plattsburg, Missouri
 St. Peters, Missouri
 St. Paul, Missouri

2. What is Tom's punishment for playing hooky from school and dirtying his
clothes in a fight?

 Whitewashing his house

 Repairing a fence
 Whitewashing a fence
 Repairing his house
3. What are Tom and Huckleberry Finn trying to cure when they visit the
graveyard at night?

 Pimples
 Boils
 Warts
 Ricketts

4. What do Injun Joe and his partner find at Tom and Huckleberry Finn's
haunted house?

 A dead body
 A box of gold
 A treasure map
 A cave entrance

5. Huckleberry Finn overhears Injun Joe's plans. Who does Injun Joe plan to
attack?

 Tom Sawyer
 Judge Thatcher
 Muff Potter
 Widow Douglas

6. What does Tom do at the end of the novel that signifies his newfound
maturity?

 Embraces freedom
 Commits a crime
 Remains mischievous
 Embraces social customs

7. Because of the episodic nature of the plot, Tom's character can seem ___.

 Consistent
 Oversized
 Inconsistent
 Unpleasant

8. What aspect of Tom's character propels the narrative forward?

 His thirst for adventure
 His thirst for alcohol
 His hunger for recognition
 His desire for love

9. How can Huckleberry Finn be described at the end of the novel?

 A model of decency
 A work in progress
 A figure of civility
 A sacrificial figure

10. Which two characters are motivated by malice?

 Injun Joe and Muff Potter

 Injun Joe and Sid
 Injun Joe and Tom Sawyer
 Sid and Muff Potter