An Essay Examining Humor in Mark Twain's Novel, "Tom Sawyer"

Tom Sawyer is one of the best-known characters in 20th century literature. His heroism, adventures, and mischievous actions are related in a book written by Mark Twain, namely, “Tom Sawyer”. It is, by far, one of the funniest books that I have ever read. In this essay, I will attempt to communicate to you some of the methods that this author used in his writing of one of his most famous books, Tom Sawyer.
When a writer decides to use comicality in his novel he is presented with a number of options. The easiest and most widely used of these options is to incorporate dialect. Mark Twain uses this method quite exaggeratedly in Huckleberry Finn, and friend of Tom’s, but keeps the dialect moderated enough so that we, as the readers, can still understand what the character is saying. Overall, this is a good method to use, but it has certain drawbacks. A few of them are the facts that, first; too much dialect is not desirable and cannot be enjoyed by the reader. Second, dialect cannot and should not be used on a character such as an English baron or a French nobleman. It is only acceptable if dialect is used on characters that truly speak as you make them seem to in your dialect. Lastly, a southern dialect should not be used if the author is writing about a character that is a native to Spain. The dialect used must match the story’s location. Mark Twain does a fine job in avoiding these crucial problems, and thus the dialect in his story is fun to read and adds a certain degree of humor.
Another option presented to the humor-incorporating writer is to make strong comparisons in his book. Mark Twain does this to extremes. After writing about Huck and Tom for some time, the dialect and conversation getting more humorous all the time, it is typical of Mark Twain to suddenly pull back into an omniscient third person and proceeds to explain the situation in genuine 18th century style! Although this seems to be a more difficult option than the aforementioned one, the results are well worth it, in my opinion.
Parody is an interesting word. It is also an interesting way to express humor in a novel. Especially in Mark Twain’s novel. For example, take chapter six “Tom meets Becky.” The humor in this chapter is not due to dialect, for it is nonexistent in this chapter. Nor does it come from strong comparisons. Most of the humor in this chapter comes from the storyline, a strong parody of a romantic novel. Tom sacrifices his honor for the one he loves, and then wins her.
Although we must delve deeply into this story to discover some of Mark Twain’s humor, a couple humorous components can be seen quite clearly by the average reader. The first and most obvious of these is the superstitions that the characters are bound by. These are of course fictitious, but they add a great deal of humor and affect the story heavily. What I mean by this is that the characters won’t do certain things on certain days, e.g. go to a “haunted” house on Friday.
Another of these is the conversation that takes place. The speakers are blunt an to the point, and say what they think regardless of what other may think of them for doing so. This also illustrates the simplicity of the characters, which adds a lot of humor. They are politically incorrect and don’t really care what other people think of them or their opinions.
The last of the easier elements of humor that I will mention is that of unfulfilled threats. Tom is quite a mischievous character, and has a peculiar way of disappearing whenever it is time to whitewash a fence, or just when he is about to get ‘licked’ for playing hooky. This adds to the story immensely.
I think I have covered most essential elements of humor in this novel, and, if you or your children choose to read it, I hope my short examination will help you in your enjoyment of this great literary work.

Andrew J. Kay

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