The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Discuss how each of the following quotes identifies Tom as the
"Universal Boy."
The “Universal Boy”
1. “. . . to promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the
world to make a body want to do that very thing.”
2. “Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that
Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.”
3. “If he (Injun Joe) had been Satan himself, there would have
been
plenty of weaklings ready to scribble their names to a pardon petition,
and drip a tear on it from their permanently impaired and leaky
waterworks.”
4. “. . . the bars and shackles of civilization shut him in and
bound him hand and foot.”
5. “. . . showing off with all his might - cuffing boys, pulling
hair, making faces - in a word, using every art that seemed likely to
fascinate a girl and win her applause.”
Discuss Mark Twain's use of satire or irony in each of the following
quotes or examples:
1. Tom plans the “. . . slaughter of more innocents.”
2. “The fresh-crowned hero fell without firing a shot.”
3. “. . . it made the going into captivity and fetters again so
much more odious.”
4. “. . . she had to hide her griefs and still her broken heart
and take up the cross of a long, dreary, aching afternoon, with none
among the strangers about her to exheange stories with.”
5. The entire chapter “Examination Day”.
Make a cartoon strip or story board of one of the Tom Sawyer
stories. Be sure it includes one of the elements of the
“universal
boy” theme.