Mark Twain uses “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” to reveal his own childhood; thus, many specifics in the book, such as the characters and the setting are very dear to his heart. It is the story about life in a boy’s world, and it discloses the feelings of Mark Twain concerning his boyhood, his town, and the people there. The time period is about two decades before the Civil War, and the setting is in St. Petersburg, Missouri, a small village on the Mississippi River.
The main character in the book is Tom Sawyer, of course. Throughout the book, the author compares himself to Tom and his adventures. Tom is all boy, meaning that he is about as rambunctious and mischievous as a little boy can be. He despises anything that places restrictions on his boyhood freedom including school, church, and chores. Not only does he despise these restrictions, but he also will do anything to get out of them. For example, he skips school, and he cons friends into doing his chores for him. While he detests the restraints of life, he loves the liberating parts of life. He longs to take advantage of nature and all it has to offer. A quote from the book that exemplifies Tom Sawyer’s attitude toward life is when the author reveals his philosophy, “that work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.”
The other characters in the story revolve around Tom’s character. Tom lives with his Aunt Polly because of the death of his mother. She tries to keep Tom in line, but she struggles because she has such a soft spot in her heart for Tom. When she does discipline Tom, she feels terrible, and in a way, she punishes herself. Sidney is Tom’s half brother who seems to always be making Tom look bad. While Tom is the so-called bad boy who is always getting into trouble, Sidney is the good boy who always does what he is told. However, Tom is presented in a compassionate way, but Sidney is portrayed as a tattler and a deceiver. He is shown to be deceitful when he allows Tom to take the blame and punishment for the broken sugar bowl even though he is the one who broke it.
Theme of Isolation in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily
The Theme of Isolation in A Rose for Emily
As an author establishes the characters he simultaneously attempts to develop the theme of the story. An author uses various elements such as point of view, the setting, and symbols to work toward the expression of one central idea. In looking at “A Rose for Emily.” a short story by William Faulkner, it is evident that Faulkner successfully carries one main idea throughout the piece, the idea of being isolated from society.
One of the most effective elements that Faulkner uses in his development of this main idea is the use of imagery. He portrays the father of Emily as “a looming possessive figure, a figure of total control and dominance”(Gwin 31). Emily has no say about what goes on in her life. The narrator describes the image of the two.
We had long thought of them as tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the backflung front door. So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.
The description in this quotation leaves to conjure up the image of the father keeping Emily down and at home with him. Through his selfishness he isolates her from the rest of “normal” society, separating Emily from other girls her age, denying her of the joy and pleasures experienced by most of her peers.
Faulkner uses the death of her father as a symbol to bring to the forefront a harsh realization for Emily, the fact that she was now truly alone. This has come about through no…
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…ere was a constant conflict within her between the duty of obeying and honoring her father’s will that she remain isolated from society and her longing to live life on her own terms and to play a part in normal society no matter how small that part may have been. Unfortunately for Emily, that conflict was never resolved. Even in death her father was pleased that Emily died a lonely and withdrawn frail woman, just as he taught her to be.
Works Cited and Consulted
Backman, Melvin. Faulkner: The Major Years, A Critical Study. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy. New York: Harpers Collins, 1991. Pp. 24-31
Gwin, Minrose c. The Femenine and Faulkner: Reading (Beyond) Sexual Difference. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1990