A Comparative Study of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Wizard of OZ

1、汤姆索亚历险记与绿野仙踪的比较研究a comparative study of the adventures of tom sawyer and wizard of ozabstract: mark twains the adventures of tom sawyer and lyman frank baums wizard of oz are both popular childrens literature all over the world of adventures themes. this thesis tries to compare the two novels from t

2、he developing models, language styles，expressing methods and so on basd on the theory of comparative literature and analyses the reasons that cause those differences. the thesis is expected to provide a new angle for readers to appreciate the two novels.key words: comparability; developing model; ad

3、ventures story; comparison 摘 要：马克吐温的汤姆索亚历险记和莱曼弗兰克鲍姆的绿野仙踪同为世界范围内备受欢迎的儿童文学。两者同为历险题材的成长小说，本文试图以比较文学中的可比性及比较文学基本问题理论为依据，从成长模式、语言风格、表现手法等方面对两部小说进行比较并对造成这些不同点的原因进行分析，并希望藉此为读者提供一个了解两部作品的新角度。关 键 词：可比性 ；成长模式；历险故事；对比contentsintroduction to the two novels and their writers1a. introduction to the writers1 b. br

4、ief introduction to the two stories.1analyses of comparability between the two novels2a. theoretical bases of comparative literature for the comparability between the literatures.2b. expounding on the similarities between the two novels.21. similarity of the theme.22. similarity of the statues of th

5、e two novels.23. other similarities between the two novels.2a. the accidental and dramatic mistakes caused by the written purposes.2b. the use of comparison to reflect the theme. .3c. the animals as the minor roles in the two novels.3c. the significance of the comparative study in this thesis.4expou

6、nding on the differences between the two novels and analyzing the reasons .4a. the differences caused by the different writing settings.41. the differences of the styles of the language. .42. the differences of the method to reveal the subject .53. the differences of the function of the writers.7b.

7、the differences on subject matter and the analysis for the reasons.81. the differences of the costs for getting mature .82. the differences of the motives for adventures .93. the differences between the adventure models .94. the differences between reasons for returning from adventures.9c .other dif

8、ferences.101. characteristics differences.102. sexual discrimination.113. the functions of their aunts.11. conclusion .11works cited.12introductions to the two novels and their writersa. introduction to the writers1. mark twain mark twain is the pen name for samuel langhorne clemens (1835-1910). he

9、is a world famous american writer. he was born in florida missouri, raised in hannibal. he was first trained as a printer, and then an apprentice pilot on the mississippi river. he also experienced many other jobs. he was referred as “the lincoln of american literature” by william dean howells and “

10、the father of american literature” by william faulkner. he was an eminent realistic writer. his famous works are innocent abroad (1869), the gilded age (1873), the adventures of tom sawyer (1876), the prince and the pauper (1882), the adventures of huckleberry finn (1884) and so on. he is a local co

11、lorism author and famous for the use of colloquialism. he is also a satirist, and good at humor and satire.2lyman frank baumlyman frank baum (1856-1919)is an american writer who was honored with “the father of american childrens literature”. his famous works are a series of fairy tales about oz, an

12、imaginary land. and wizard of oz is ranked as the most famous one. b. brief introduction to the two novels1. the adventures of tom sawyer, its theme is the adventures of children. the story happened in a town in south of america during the civil war. it mainly tells how the hero tom and his fellows

13、pursue excitement and adventures while getting bored with the dull, insipid life in the town. the main plot is about how tom and finn find the treasure. they went to a tomb one evening but witness a murder case. the true murder is inn joe, but potter was accused and nearly was put to death. but tom

14、and huck finn told what they saw, and saved the poor guy. finn also saved the widow douglas after he heard inn joe want to hurt widow douglas. in the haunted house they heard inn joe and his conspirator had found the buried treasure .they searched the treasure in the hotel. at last found them in the

15、 cave where tom and becky got lost. and the true murder inn joe was starved to death.2. a little girl named dorothy with her pet toto was carried by a hurricane to a strange and magical land-oz. to go back home, she went along the yellow brick road to the emerald city to ask the wizard of oz to help

16、 her. in her way to that city, she got acquaint with a scarecrow who wanted a brain, a tin wood man who wanted a heart and a lion who wanted to become brave. their dreams all came true after hundreds of difficulties. with their help and her wisdom and persistence, dorothy went back home at last. ana

17、lysis of comparability between the two novels a. theoretical bases of comparative literature for the comparabilitythe similarities between two novels are the precondition of a comparative study between two literature works. the comparative study based on similarities is meaningful. the differences a

18、re the objects of comparative study. of course there is no complete same works. similarities exist along with differences. there are many similarities between the adventures of tom sawyer and wizard of oz, so a comparative study can be dealt with.b. expounding on the similarities between the two nov

19、els1similarity of the themealthough the two novels are written by different writers based on different backgrounds (the adventures of tom sawyer tells a story happened during the civil war, it is a realistic novel. wizard of oz is based on the decades of recession before 1900s, and it is a magical o

20、ne), they are both about how a child develops through adventures. they are just different in details, for example, the adventure models, motives.2. similarity of the statues of the two novelsthe two novels are both popular juveniles works all around the world. there are both films adopted from them

21、and translation versions of many languages. the adventures of tom sawyer is the work of “the father of american literature” but not his best work while wizard of oz is the representative work of “the father of american childrens literature”- lyman frank baum. so it is not an unfair thing to compare

22、between them.3. other similarities between the two novelsa. the accidental and dramatic mistakes caused by the written purposes.the adventures of tom sawyer is a novel based on realistic world, but because of the authors written purposes, he tried to make his story seem light and relaxing. he intend

23、ed to weaken the cruelty of the realistic world but the novel satires and exposes the reality unavoidably for it is the realistic topic.rubins(260) says the author was obviously pretty happy to review his childhood and he liked tom, so he wouldnt allow us to take those things so terrible that they b

24、egan to seem sorrowful and miserable. he (author) plays an active and alert role in the book so that so much violence tom experiences relaxes and becomes mild.wizard of oz is a fable created from imagination. the writers aim is to provide children a fairy tale without miseries and evil，without moral

25、 education.“baum wrote fairy tales which are different from greens and andersens tales .his writings were for childrens feeling happy . in his stories, there is excitement and happiness, but no the miseries and evil.”（wang and ji,1）so you read the story in a happy mood, but all stories bears relatio

26、n to realistic world, to our daily life. there are also teachings of moralities, for example, truth, kindness, beauty. but these teachings just act in a hidden, mild, indirect way. the teachings to childrens education is what proper wind and rain to plants growth.b. the use of comparison to reflect

27、the theme.in the adventures of tom sawyer, the dull, tedious life in the town is compared to the exciting, funny adventure life of tom. “the novel reflects the tedious, vulgar, rigid, closed reality in south american in 1850s and 1860s and expresses the good will of the hero to pursue freedom and ju

28、stice.”(mao 120) in wizard of oz, at the beginning of the story, the writer describes the dull, colorless, gloomy prairies around dorothys home. but several places of oz land described in the later part of the story are all colorful, for example, the green emerald city, the blue munchkin buildings,

29、and the dainty china country. this is a kind of comparison. this comparison is to emphasize the terrible reality. this kind of explanation is based on the following understanding of this novel.-we regard the hurricane as the decades of recession before 1900s,then the prairies symbol the kansas prair

30、ies in the slump in 1890s when tens of thousands of farms were closed.“in1894,there were nearly 11000 farms closed and it was the debt that conquered them”(shi 35).and dorothy and her fellows symbol the defeated citizens in the recession.c. the animals as the minor roles in the two novelsin the adve

31、ntures of tom sawyer, there is a poor cat that is fed painkiller by tom. its function is to promote the development of the story and reflect naughtiness and smartness of tom.in wizard of oz, there is a dog toto that always follows dorothy, it symbolizes honesty. and it also can state that dorothy is

32、 a girl who is full of love to animals. (this explanation is proper if we understand the novel like this: the novel is a bildungsroman, the adventure is a process to enable dorothy to develop from a little child to a more mature, braver and wiser girl. duan fengli （223）said” wizard of oz can be rega

33、rd as a bildungsroman. the narration model is “defective child-the journey for dream- mature mind” but pay attention here, the scarecrow, the tin wood man, and the coward lion, can not be considered as the minor role of animals here. they play an important role in revealing the theme in this novel.

34、c. the significance of the comparative study in this thesisbecause no one has done this project before, this project may provide a new angle for readers to comprehend the two novels. and readers may understand the two novels deeply and completely born in similar ages (the adventures of tom sawyer te

35、lls a story happened during the civil war; wizard of oz is based on the decades of recession before 1900s just after the civil war). meanwhile they also can have a painstaking understanding of the society in america from 1850s to 1890s. expounding on the differences between the two novels and analyz

36、ing the reasons a the differences caused by the different writing settings1. the differences of the styles of the language.the adventures of tom sawyer is based on the realistic world, and is a half biography novel. so these enable the using of colloquialism and slang in this novel. and his writing

37、purpose is not for children, “he was adamant about the genre of his first novel: it is not a boys book, at all. it will only be read by adults. it is only written for children”. (mitchell ix) so he neednt consider whether the language style is suitable to children. the realistic writing settings lea

38、d to and require this language style, which contributes to the works success. wizard of oz is a magical theme; the readers are mainly children, so the writer uses the simple, plain language. you seldom meet complex and long words in the book. but it has its style. there are many parallelism sentence

39、s in the novel. dorothy has three partners. every of them has a dream. so every time dorothy expresses her idea to solve the problem they meet, the three expresses they own one by one. they appear many times in the book. for example,“then i shall never have courage,” declared the lion.“and i shall n

40、ever have brains,” added the scarecrow.“and i shall never have a heart,” spoke the tin woodman.“and i shall never see aunt em and uncle henry,” said dorothy (baum, 74)“you promised to send me back to kansas when the wicked witch was destroyed,”said the girl.“and you promised to give me brains,”said

41、the scarecrow. “and you promised to give me a heart,”said the tin woodman.“and you promised to give me courage,”said the cowardly lion. (101)“i thought oz was a great head,”said dorothy.“and i thought oz was a lovely lady,”said the scarecrow.“and i thought oz was a terrible beast,”said the tin woodm

42、an.“and i thought oz was a ball of fire,”said the cowardly lion.(102)2the differences of the method to reveal the subject in the adventures of tom sawyer, the writer adopts expression methods such as satire, humor, comparison, mental description, hyperbole, irony ,pun,metaphor and so on. “in this no

43、vel, mark twain adopted much rhetoric and humor mentioned above for many times especially much use of hyperbole, irony ,pun,metaphor. ”(huang 55)in chapter five there are many descriptions which satirize the religious customs and etiquette in the town.twain descripted humans dress and behaviors when

44、 they went to church with some hyperbole and the progress about how the minister host the religious services. twain wrote that”and now the minister prayed. a good generous prayer it was and went into details” the minister didnt top his prayers until he finished presenting a number of people who are

45、prayed for,and also organizations and affairs. the prayer was with many exaggerated words and there wasnt any piety and sincerity in his prayer. these descriptions adopted irony and are full of satire and hyperbole.(huang 55)in chapter nine, the writer describled the word “devil” which is a pun sayi

46、ng by children and it is a bitter satire on adults dirty behaviors. when they were at the tombs, the two boys thought that the coming figures are ghosts,but the imaged ghosts were persons with flesh and blood. there are many vivid and deep descriptions of childrens mental activities. through this ki

47、nd of description,we can know about what the social conditions are in childrens eyes. so we can know more about the value concept of adults and the society. to express adults opinions in childrens point of view,this is twains special method to expose the social reality with his humor. one of the mos

48、t excellent parts in this novel is about how tom succeed in cheating other childrens odds and ends by giving their chance of whitewashing the fence. this was a preposterous thing. but we can know about the real world. that is at that time human were always looking forward to doing what they are forb

49、idden to do.in general,chidren are willing to do something they dont like at first if they get awards. this is childrens general psychology of children.twain conveyed this by describling how tom got excited to recite lines in bible after getting rewards. in wizard of oz, the writer takes symbolism a

50、s the main methods, and comparison as the minor method. it depends on plot as well as metaphor to reveal the theme. it also use some black humor. “for the authors part,although wizard of oz is full of the atmosphere of joy,it is a novel adopting much use of metaphor and some use of black humor. as t

51、he embodiment of wisdom, kindness, courage and honesty, the scarecrow, the tin wood man, the lion, toto are not human with flesh and blood. the scarecrows consisitency with paper and consciousness seems to indicate that the modern culture has alienated human. the justice ,kindness,unselfishness and

52、firmness of tin wood man contrast with its hollow shell” (duan 224).if we regard the novel as a morel allegory, then dorothy and his partners symbolize the depressed citizens and farmers. oz is the impotent government who cant save its citizens from the slump. the hurricane is the slump. the silver

53、shoes are silver-based monetarism which the citizens think as a saver. and the yellow brick road can take as the gold-based monetarism proposed by democratic party. “during the middle of the 1980s slump, the suppressed americans take silver as the goal to vent their anger. popular literature describ

54、ed the impact of silver-based monetarism on the countryside moral area. wizard of oz (published in1900)written by l. frank baum is a moral allegory, presenting the concept of value in countryside (kansas, aunt em, uneducated but clever scarecrow, kind tin woodman)and peoples party(a wicked wizard fr

55、om the orient, the harmony relationship between the silver shoes with magical power and the yellow brick road)” (nash 631).if we take the novel as a bildungsroman, the scarecrow, the tin wood man, the lion, toto each stands for a virtue needed in a childs growth. they are wisdom, kindness, courage a

56、nd honesty. duan fengli(224) said” the scarecrow, the tin wood man, the lion, toto each is wisdom, kindness, courage and honesty personified.” the fours growth through the adventure is the girls growth in four sides.”3. the differences of the function of the writersthe two novels were both written i

57、n the third person, but the adventures of tom sawyer is a half-biography. the author often interferes himself in the story, “in telling the story, the writer plays an active and alert role, so many violence tom experienced weakens and seems mild.”(rubins 260) after getting to know their children died, toms aunt and mrs. harper were heartbroken. there are descriptions of their many actions, their sorrow, their regretful lines wh