Dialect In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer

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Tom Sawyer, the protagonist in Mark Twain’s beloved novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, has been a special literary character, holding a place in readers’ hearts since 1876. The infamous author, Mark Twain, masterfully exploits wonderful dialect in his novel to produce the archetypal traits in his hero, little Tom. Lexically defined, dialect is a particular form of language that is peculiar to a specific individual, obvious in his mental thoughts and verbal conversations. In the very beginning of the narrative, the author alludes to wonderful narrative in his novel when he gives the internal struggle occurring as Tom is stuck doing work on a beautiful Saturday. Writing his archetype with innovative ideas through dialect, he opens with:
He remembered …show more content…

That’s the way she always talks. Gimme the bucket- I won’t be gone only a minute. She won’t ever know.” (Chapter 2)
In this section, the reader is automatically on Tom’s side due to the brilliant technique Mark Twain uses. It is critical that Tom get out of work, and his ingenious idea to use Jim’s chore to escape his own sets him apart. The dialect, thoughts and words, Twain uses for Tom in this section creates an archetypal hero who has great ideas. The dialect is continued with this quote from later in Chapter 2,
“At this dark and hopeless moment an inspiration burst upon him! Nothing less than a great magnificent inspiration...He paid no attention to Ben but continued whitewashing (Chapter 2).”
Tom, a clever boy, eventually strikes upon an idea internally and displays it through conversations with neighborhood boys, using his antics to make them do his work. To the reader’s satisfaction, the main character evade his work as poor victims are tricked into Tom’s work. The readers finds themselves cheering for the protagonist’s accomplishment, and are in awe of his heist. His charming acting skills in his manipulative conversations makes Tom Sawyer a smart archetype to Twain’s readers. By implementing creative dialect, Mark Twain produces an archetypal hero and ultimately became known for applying this terrific technique in all of his

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