Composition on the topic: “Mark Twain and his favorite heroes. Mark Twain's Little Heroes Tom Sawyer is an ordinary child

Heroes over whom time has no power ... (M. Twain. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer")

From early childhood, the world of native literature opens up before us. But we do not always think about the fact that culture is the creation of all mankind, and not of one nation. This means that Ukrainian literature is just one of the branches on the fruitful tree of world literature.

In the small American town of Hannibal, at the foot of one of the hills descending to the Mississippi, there is a sculptural group depicting two boys. Talking animatedly, they go somewhere in a wide world full of wonders, surprises and adventures. their names are Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. They are the heroes of the famous books of Mark Twain. History knows only a few cases when monuments were built to literary characters - fictional people who never lived in reality, generated by the creative thought of the artist: Sherlock Holmes in England and the Little Mermaid in Denmark.

The sculpture of Cardibror Hill is evidence of the extraordinary vitality of the images created by the great American writer. For many generations of readers, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are living people, acquaintance with whom did not pass without a trace. They have long ceased to be purely literary heroes, turning into "great guys", "their guys", "one of us". It seems that time and space have no power over them, because even today they can be easily recognized in a motley noisy crowd of almost any nation.

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are mischievous and inventors, wise men and simpletons, "entrepreneurs" and romantics, naughty people and people-lovers. Reading about their adventures, together with them we plunge into a bright life full of unusual events.

"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is a hymn to childhood, arranged in prose, as Twain himself noted. Two brothers live in an equal way - Tom and Sid Sawyer. The exemplary boy Sid is an obedient quiet and sneaky, lives "according to the rules", as a decent boy from the rules of the family is supposed to live in the town. And because such a life is not to your liking - the inhabitants of the town consider him a bully and a lazy person. Having read books, he wants to be brave and fair, like the heroes he read about. His favorite hero is the legendary Robin Hood, the hero of English folk legends and ballads, the chieftain of robbers, the defender of the people.

Tom chose Huck Finn as his best friend. Let at home and at school it is forbidden to be friends with Huck, because he is an ill-mannered, “street” boy; let all mothers neglect this sharp-pack, saying that he is "lazy, mischievous and does not obey anyone" - for Tom, Huck is the best friend. Together they seek adventure.

The idea for a new novel - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - came to Twain when he was finishing his book about Tom Sawyer. And immediately the conviction came that in this new book, Tom would not be the main character. Mark Twain wrote to one of his friends: "Tom Sawyer is not suitable for this." The protagonist of the new work is a back-to-back boy, a "romantic tramp" Huck Finn.

Huck loves his rags, the free bank of the river, the barrel that serves him as a home; Huck cannot get used to living within four walls and sleeping in a bed. At first glance, it might seem that this is the main difference between him and Tom. But in fact, the difference is much deeper - this is revealed in the new novel by M. Tvsna. The novel about Huck Finn is the highest achievement of Twain as a humorist, Twain as a writer of everyday life, Twain as a psychologist, Twain as a master of style.

Huck has completely different adventures, a completely different life path. Tom lives by fiction in the world of his fantasies, for him all life is a continuation of his favorite books and games. Huck is all on the ground. The living conditions of a homeless boy developed in Huck common sense, practical ingenuity, and not a passion for book fiction.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the boys fled to a deserted island and decided to become pirates. In the new book, Gektezhuteche is on Jackson's island, but already alone and not for the sake of the game, but saving his life and freedom.

Jimma Huck met on the island by chance and unexpectedly. But this meeting determined his future fate, and adventures, and thoughts, and peace of mind.

Huck helps Jimm hide. However, in his boyish soul there is an internal struggle. Huck is the same child as Tom, but life confronts him with a serious, not at all childish question. Everyone around is convinced that the fate of blacks is slavery, the law of selling people is just, to help a slave escape is to commit a crime before people and God. Huck thinks so too. Saving Jimmy, he feels like "the last rubbish, the last scoundrel and scoundrel." He thinks it's his duty to betray Jimm, and twice he was willing to do so. But Huck renounces what he considers his duty, he remains true to his black friend. And although Huck did not fully understand that there was a huge injustice before him, that by standing up for Jimm, he was thereby fulfilling his real duty as an honest man, he was still not afraid to go against the law, against human thought and prejudices.

When Jimm was caught and he again turned out to be a slave in Feltiv, Tom began to help organize his escape together with Gsk.

But, in fact, the boys are completely equal to Jimma. Tom freed a free Negro, knowing that Miss Watson had given him freedom. For Tom of Liberation, Jimma is "a fun game", "rich food for the mind". But if Tom plays, then Huck helps Jimm in earnest, because Jimm is a good man, his best friend.

Huck understands why Tom started such a "wild fuss" when it came to firing Jimm. Tom kept wanting to continue this game, pestering Jimma with all sorts of ingenious tasks: he wrote “letters” with blood, endured snakes, spiders, rats in his shack, which Tom inflicted there, knowing for sure that the Negro was terribly afraid of them. In the end, Tom outplayed, notifying everyone he knew with a letter about the escape that was being prepared, and he himself became a victim of his excessive ingenuity (he was wounded in the leg by Jimm's pursuers). To a certain extent, this was retribution.

Therefore, the boring life of a provincial town, his dreams are not like the dreams of adults. But still, in the end, Tom remains a "good" boy. Much later, thinking about his hero, M. Twain wrote that Tom, when he grows up, when he stops playing, will "lie like everyone else lies." Twain remembered Huck as the most dear hero for him, as a person who was able to maintain his independence, was able not to submit to lies and prejudices, stood up against everyone in defense of the offended.

In the 20th century, the story of the friendship between Huck and Jimm acquires universal significance. It can be said that world literature has given people two ideal models of human coexistence - D. Defoe's Robinson and Friday, H. Twain's Huck and Jimm. Both examples demonstrate a simple and eternal truth: people of different races and nationalities can peacefully coexist and develop harmoniously only on condition of mutual respect and knowledge of each other's culture.

It is clear that in our time it is very difficult to live according to the wise laws of Robinson and Friday or Huck and Jimm. This requires a sharp mind, a warm heart and a subtle soul. But there is simply no other way out for humanity: it costs him, like Gek and Jimmu, to take one wrong step - and he will be swallowed up by madness and a nightmare. Therefore, God give us the strength and mind to live according to the eternal and simple laws that Twain's heroes teach us! They are really "great guys", "their guys", "one of us". After all, the main idea of ​​the works of M. Twain, embodied in the images of his heroes, is the affirmation of humanism, deep humanity, the idea that a person is not alone in the world.

Cool! 2

Mark Twain is one of the most famous writers of the last century. Sam Clemens was born into a poor family in 1835. After his father died, he was forced to live and earn on his own. First, he mastered the typographic craft, then he was apprenticed to a pilot, dreaming of driving large twin-tube steamers on the waters of the Mississippi. But the craving for change did not allow the future writer to stay in one place for a long time. After some time, he finds himself in California in an artel of gold miners. It was here that the turn in the fate of Sam Clemens took place: he became a writer.

In the evening, sitting by the fire, after hard work, the gold miners loved to tell stories. One of them, about Jim Smiley and his trained frog, was recorded by Clemens and printed in the local newspaper. This is how Mark Twain was born.

In 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published. Initially, the book was conceived as a work for adults and was intended to show readers the shortcomings of American society at that time. But the world of children in the novel is described with such love and so convincingly, as if the author himself participated in all their tricks. Therefore, the book has become a favorite for many generations of children.

The protagonist is a twelve-year-old boy from a provincial town. Fidget and mischievous, he is forced to listen to pious instructions daily at school and at home. Tom dreams of adventure, travel and buried treasure. He turns everything into a game, whether it is painting a fence, church service or helping a fugitive nonsense. Thanks to sparkling energy, the boy finds himself in the most incredible situations. Tom is a liar and a prankster, but when faced with injustice, he intuitively finds the right solution.

Tom loves to read, he is captivated by the adventures of pirates, but still, his favorite hero is Robin Hood, who helps the poor. The boy wholeheartedly sympathizes with those who are unjustly offended. Tom has many extraordinary abilities. He is smart and enterprising. He manages to inspire his friends to all sorts of tricks and risky acts. Tom also has chivalrous qualities - he takes the blame for Becky Thatcher and suffers punishment for her, and when he gets lost in a cave, he consoles and supports the girl.

And yet, the favorite hero of Mark Twain, according to the author himself, is not Tom Sawyer at all, but Huckleberry Finn. Tom is an inventor and dreamer, he transfers his games to real life. Huckleberry lives in a completely different environment. Homeless life forced him to be practical and to show common sense. Huck lives freely and independently. Once on the island, he copes well alone: ​​arranges an overnight stay, catches fish. The subsequent meeting with Jim changes the boy's life, it becomes decisive in his fate and the formation of the spiritual world. If all of Tom's adventures take place in a small town, then through the eyes of Huck, when he travels with Jim along the Mississippi, the reader sees the life of America at that time. Slavery has not yet been abolished. Wandering in rags, Huck sees himself as a white man, and Negro Jim as a runaway slave.

Life puts the boy before a serious choice. He considers it his duty to betray Jim, but in spite of everything, remains true to his friend. And although Huck does not understand that slavery is a huge injustice, he dared to go against the law in the name of friendship.
Despite the fact that the characters of the main characters of the book are so different, the boys with honor passed the test of life's difficulties, wealth and fame and remained true friends.

More essays on the topic: "Mark Twain and his favorite heroes"

It is well known that the real name of the American writer Mark Twain is Samuel Lenghorne Clemens. Mark Twain was popular during his lifetime, some manufacturer in his honor even produced a wax with his name, and the newspapers called him "America's second celebrity." “The rumors about my death are exaggerated” such telegrams were received by newspapermen from the author, on which an obituary (death message) was printed. Of course, it was Mark Twain himself - an unsurpassed humorist in his time. In fact, he almost died - he got into a car accident, but survived.

He is still alive! Millions of children read his works and laugh, guessing themselves in this or that hero, and adults simply return to their own childhood. Such a miracle is made by Mark Twain's book "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (published in 1875), which the author conceived as a parody of polite girls and polite boys.

The continuation of the stories about Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer will be written by the writer only ten years later. And now such works of Mark Twain as the story "The Prince and the Pauper", the story "Joan of Arc", the novel "A Yankee in King Arthur's Court", satirical and humorous stories remain popular.

The story of two boys - the inventor and dreamer Tom Sawyer and his faithful friend and squire Huck Finn - captured more than one generation of readers. There are very few adults who have not read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This story belongs to those books that are read in childhood and re-read in adulthood, finding witticisms that have been lost through childish recklessness.

This book is varied and multicolored - a skillfully written work and at the same time a parody of "terrible" children's books. This is a story about people who live in the provinces, they are infected with boredom, holiness, stupid prejudices, but at the same time, this is a poem about rather kind people.

In Mark Twain's (Samuel Clemens) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, we are talking about children who are depressed by school and church, but still manage to live a free and happy life.

Tom and Huck are not reckless thugs. The guys help people and even save them. If it weren’t for Tom’s restlessness, Becky would have stayed in the cave, if the guys hadn’t gone to the cemetery, Meph Potter would have been executed for a crime that he didn’t commit, if Huck hadn’t called for help, the widow would have been killed.

Tom is unique - no matter how much we would like, it would be difficult to repeat his "feats", but we see in the images of Tom and Huck our own features, the features of our friends, resourceful restless dreamers. Since the writer's goal was not only to entertain boys and girls, but also "to remind adults what they themselves once were, what they felt, how they talked and what strange adventures they got into."

The works of Mark Twain do not burden with morality, which “wags a curly tail at the end of each work”, since, perhaps, they are moral. And their morality is to live free from the prejudices and problems that others impose on us, cheerfully and simply. And then happiness will come - "be simpler, and people will be drawn to you." But this is only one thought out of thousands of thoughts on this subject, since each of us finds something of his own in this book.

Source: litrasoch.ru

Twain Mark (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorn Clemens) is an American writer. Born into the family of a small merchant. Mark Twain is the pseudonym of his professional occupation. He worked as a pilot on the Mississippi. He then remained a passionate opponent of slavery until the end of his life.

T., like most American writers, began his literary activity with journalism. He wrote essays, printed them in magazines ("Simples").

Twain defended democratic freedoms, promoted a reasonable attitude to reality, fought prejudice, was skeptical of fanatical faith and piety. “Captain Stronfield's Journey to Paradise” is about a modern American, for whom life in paradise is monotonous, boring, lean food, no drinking, no gambling, no smoking. The captain is convinced that far from a good life on Earth is more interesting than a boring one in paradise.

Mark Twain was the first among American writers to travel around the country and acted as a reader, kept a huge correspondence. A man with a brilliant sense of humor, but his humor is specific. Humor is manifested not so much in language, in stylistic devices, but in comic situations (in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a cat was lowered on the head of a teacher at graduation, Taming the Bicycle).

Twain's work is very diverse. He left more than 25 volumes of works of various genres, from light essays to thick historical novels.

Twain began writing in the 1960s, during the US economic boom. Belief in American democracy, in the superiority of the American constitution over European statehood runs like a red thread through all his works of the early period. He sarcastically ridicules the manners and customs of the Old World ("Innocent Abroad", "Journey Abroad").

World fame T. created novels about Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn. The first of these novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, sounded fresh and new in American literature for young people. The young heroes of T.'s novel are endowed with enterprise, courage and imagination, they experience various adventures, perform "feats", - they captivate with their energy and spontaneity. All this makes it clear why Tom Sawyer was and still is one of the favorite books of the youth of all countries and is also read with enthusiasm by adults. The sequel to Tom Sawyer is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Here, the images of both boys are very vividly developed. These are not only lively and vivid individual characters, but also representatives of a certain social environment. The bourgeois boy Tom Sawyer is opposed to Gekk, the son of a drunkard and a tramp, who despises bourgeois morality. Other notable novels: The Prince and the Pauper, A Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

An innovative and truly magnificent page in the work of Mark Twain was his "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876). In his autobiography, Twain said that Tom Sawyer wrote largely from himself, and in the preface to the story he claimed that most of the adventures described in it were taken from life - they happened either to him or to his classmates. And the town of St. Petersburg described in the book is very similar to the town of Hannibal, in which the writer was born and raised.

In the hero of the book, the features of a small businessman stick out, he appears as a kind of miniature "model" of typical American businessmen. Doesn't Tom dream of being rich? Isn't he looking for the benefits of painting the fence? Doesn't he buy tickets to win a place of honor in Sunday school?

Tom Sawyer is a kind, generous, desperate inventor. With friends he leaves for the island, plays Robin Hood. Everyone is looking for them. During the memorial service for them, they appear in the church.

With impeccable truthfulness, the author reproduces the inner world of young human beings who have not yet lost their spiritual purity and poetic charm. Twain had a brilliant ability to understand children, knew their character, their psychology.

It is clear that humor plays an important role in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Without humor, the story of Tom would sound simply sentimental and false. It is humor that gives the figure of the protagonist, as well as some other characters, truth, spiritual depth. The story glorifies a wonderful free life, and laughter, colored with lyricism, sincere humor serve as an expression of love for simple and kind people.

Twelve-year-old boys, residents of a small provincial American town of St. Petersburg, comrades in games and fun, which every now and then gives birth to their irrepressible imagination. Tom Sawyer is an orphan. He is raised by his late mother's sister, the pious Aunt Polly. The boy is completely uninterested in the life that flows around, but he is forced to follow the generally accepted rules: go to school, attend church services on Sundays, dress neatly, behave well at the table, go to bed early - although he breaks them every now and then, causing the indignation of his aunt .

Enterprise and resourcefulness Tom does not hold. Well, who else, having received the task of whitewashing a long fence as a punishment, could turn things around so that other boys would paint the fence, and besides, paying for the right to take part in such an exciting event with “treasures”: some with a dead rat, and some with a fragment of a tooth buzzer. Yes, and not everyone will be able to receive the Bible as a reward for the excellent title of its content, in fact, without knowing a single line. But Tom did! To play a trick, to fool, to come up with something unusual - this is Tom's element. Reading a lot, he strives to make his own life as bright as the one in which the heroes of the novels act. He embarks on "love adventures", arranges games of Indians, pirates, robbers. Tom gets into whatever situations thanks to his bubbling energy: either at night in the cemetery he becomes a witness to a murder, or he is present at his own funeral.

Sometimes Tom is capable of almost heroic deeds in life. For example, when he takes the blame for Becky Thatcher - a girl who is awkwardly trying to woo - and endures a teacher's spanking. He is a charming fellow, this Tom Sawyer, but he is a child of his time, of his city, used to leading a double life. When necessary, he is quite capable of taking on the image of a boy from a decent family, realizing that everyone does this.

The situation is quite different with Tom's closest friend, Huck Finn.

He is the son of a local drunk who does not care about the child. No one forces Huck to go to school. He is completely on his own. The boy is alien to pretense, and all the conventions of civilized life are simply unbearable. For Huck, the main thing is to be free, always and in everything. “He didn’t have to wash or put on a clean dress, and he knew how to swear amazingly. In a word, he had everything that makes life beautiful, ”the writer concludes. Huck is undeniably attracted to the entertaining games invented by Tom, but personal freedom and independence are most precious to Huck. Having lost them, he feels out of place, and it is precisely in order to regain them that Huck in the second novel is already undertaking a dangerous journey alone, leaving his hometown forever.

In gratitude for saving Injun Joe from revenge, the widow Douglas took Huck to be raised. The widow's servants washed him, combed his hair with a comb and brush, laid him down every night on disgustingly clean sheets. He had to eat with a knife and fork and attend church. The unfortunate Huck survived only three weeks and disappeared. They were looking for him, but without Tom's help they would hardly have been able to find him. Tom manages to outwit the ingenuous Huck and return him to the widow for a while. Then Huck mystifies his own death. He himself sits in a shuttle and goes with the flow.

During the trip, Huck also experiences many adventures, shows resourcefulness and ingenuity, but not out of boredom and a desire to have fun, as before, but out of vital necessity, primarily for the sake of saving the runaway Negro Jim. It is the ability of Huck to think about others that makes him especially attractive. Perhaps that is why Mark Twain himself saw him as a hero of the 20th century, when, from the point of view of the writer, there would no longer be racial prejudices, poverty and injustice.

The purpose of the lesson: develop interest in the work of Mark Twain, in the study of literature and English

language, to form the skill of working in a group.

Decor: drawings of children; exhibition of the writer's books; portrait of Mark Twain; posters with the words:

Literature serves as a guide to other epochs and to other peoples, opens the hearts of people before you - in a word, makes you wise.

D. S. Likhachev.

All American literature came from one book by Mark Twain, from his Huckleberry Finn.

E. Hemingway.

During the classes

1. Dramatization

Country music sounds. (Huck appears in rags and a torn hat, with a cat (a soft toy in his hands). Tom comes out to meet him.)

Tom: Hey Huckleberry! Hello!

Huck (solidly, with dignity): Hello you too, if you want ...

Tom: What do you have? (He touches the cat.)

Huck: Dead cat.

Tom: Let me see, Huck! .. (Feeling the cat). Look, you're completely numb. Where did you get it?

Huck: Bought from a boy.

Tom: What did you give?

Huck: a blue ticket and a bull bubble... I got the bubble at the slaughterhouse.

Tom: Where did you get the blue ticket?

Huck: Bought from Ben Rogers two weeks ago. Gave him a stick for a hoop.

(Huck sits down on the floor, holding the cat on his knees.)

Tom: Listen, Huck, dead cats - what are they for?

Huck: Like what? And remove warts.

Tom: Is it? Well, but how to bring them dead cats?

(Tom sits down next to Huck.)

Huck: Here's how. Take the cat and go with it to the cemetery shortly before midnight to a fresh grave where some bad person is buried, and at midnight the devil will appear, or maybe two or three; but you won't see them, you'll only hear the noise of the wind, or maybe you'll hear their conversation. And when they drag the dead man, you throw a cat after them and say: "Damn after the dead man, cat after the devil, warts after the cat - this is the end of it, all three are down with me."

(Takes a pipe out of his pocket and busily “lights it up”).

Tom: Looks like it. Have you ever tried it yourself, Huck?

Huck: No, but old Hopkins told me...

Tom: Well, that's right: they say she's a witch. (Tom also takes out the phone. He pats Huck on the shoulder.) Listen, Huck, when are you going to try the cat?

Huck: Tonight. I think so, the devils will surely come this night for the old sinner Williams ...

Tom: Why, he was buried on Saturday. They, I suppose, dragged him off on a Saturday night?

Huck: Nonsense! Until midnight they could not drag him away, and at midnight it was Sunday. On Sunday, devils don't roam the earth much.

Tom: Right, right. I didn't even think. Will you take me with you?!

Huck: Of course, if you're not afraid.

Tom (jumps up indignantly): I'm afraid! Well, here's more!

(Huck gets up too. Music plays. Boys leave dancing.)

2. The word of the teacher of literature

“Even the most serious, most businesslike American, when he talks about these world-famous boys, begins to smile, and his eyes become kinder,” wrote Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, having visited the USA in the 30s of the XX century. This, of course, you guessed it, is about Tom Sawyer and his bosom friend Huck Finn, whose adventures the American reader first met in December 1876.

And this wonderful book was written by the famous writer Mark Twain. Here are the memories left about him by the eldest daughter: “He has very beautiful gray hair, not too thick and not too long, but just right; Roman nose, from which his face seems even more beautiful, kind blue eyes and a magnificent mustache.

3. Students report about the writer in English and Russian

My dear friends!

Teacher: Our lesson is devoted to Mark Twain, a famous American writer. Some of his books are very popular with the children in our country, in other countries of the world and in America, of course. What books are these? Do you know (shows books)? Yes, you are right! Here are “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, “The Prince and the Pauper”, “Life on the Mississippi”. These books are great favorites not only with the boys and girls all over the world but also with grownup readers.

Listen please some words about Mark Twain`s life.

In these books Mark Twain shows the joys and sorrows of children with such deep understanding and sympathy that readers always see themselves in the characters. As Mark Twain said later, many events in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” really happened, and the characters were from real life.

There is also a b satirical element and humor in these books.

Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, was born in 1835 in the small town of Hannibal on the Mississippi River. He was the son of a lawyer.

Little Samuel spent his childhood in his native town. He was a bright, lively boy. He went fishing and swimming to the river and he was the leader in all the boy's games.

Samuel had a lot of friends at school. And when he became a writer he described them in his stories.

When Samuel was eleven years old, his father died, leaving his wife and four children with nothing. And the boy had to leave school and look for work. He learned the profession of a printer. For some years Samuel worked as a printer for the town newspaper and later for his elder brother, who at that time started a small newspaper of his own. The two young men published it themselves. Samuel wrote short humorous stories and printed them in their newspaper.

When Samuel was a boy, he dreamed of becoming a sailor. At the age of 20 he found a job on a ship traveling up and down the Mississippi.

Here on a ship he “found” his pen-name “Mark Twain”. It was taken from the call of the Mississippi pilots when they measured the depth of the river.

Many steamboats moved up and down the river carrying all kinds of people - rich and poor , farmers and businessmen , slave owners and slaves. Thus, Samuel Clemens saw America passing before his eyes. This work gave him the opportunity to get to know a great deal about life. He worked as a pilot for more than four years.

Later he used to speak about this time as the happiest period of his life and described it in his book “Life on the Mississippi’’

Then the young man worked with the goldminers in California for a year. Here he began to write stories about camp life and sent them to newspapers under the name of Mark Twain.

The many professions that he tried gave Mark Twain a knowledge of life and people and him to find his true calling – that American satirical and critical literature began with Mark Twain.

In 1876 he published “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and eight years later “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Children and grownups all over the world now know these two novels.

Writing did not bring much money to Mark Twain, so he had to give lectures on literature and read his stories to the public. He visited many countries and lived in England for a long time. In 1907 Oxford University gave Mark Twain an honorary doctorate of letters.

We advise you to read Mark Twain's books.

The teacher himself will determine the number of presenters who will talk about the life and work of Mark Twain. In all the scenes below, the main character is Tom Sawyer. This role can also be filled by multiple students.

Sam Clemens was born in 1835. His parents were poor people. When his father died, the little son had to leave school and family to look for work. Life forced the boy to go to the people. He first learned the typographic trade and became an itinerant typesetter. He wandered around the country, worked in the printing houses of large cities. However, something else attracted Sam Clemens. In his audacious dreams, the boy from Hannibal saw himself at the helm, driving large twin-tube steamboats through the rapids and rifts of the Mississippi. Sam Clemens entered the “puppies” (that was the name of the pilot students) to one of the most famous pilots on the river. “Having learned the Mississippi by heart, the young man became a brave driver of steamboats.”

But Clemens could not stay long in one place. He wanted to see everything and know everything. In a few years we will meet him on the outskirts of the country, in California, among the gold diggers. It was a harsh life, full of surprises and vivid impressions.

Here came a great upheaval in the fate of Sam: he became a writer. Sitting by the fires after a hard day's work, the gold diggers loved to tell funny and perky stories. Clemens decided to record one of these stories and publish it in a local newspaper. It was a story about Jim Smiley and his trained frog. Under the pen of Clemens, a simple story turned into a small miracle of fun and wit. It became clear that the young gold digger was gifted with great writing talent. He was invited to contribute to the newspaper. Then his new name was born - Mark Twain. Few of those who read the essays and stories of the new writer knew that “mark twain” was an old expression of navigators brought by Clemens from the Mississippi. "Mark Twain!" - (measurement two) the sailor shouts, pulling a lot out of the water and making sure that the depth of the river is sufficient for the passage of ships.

Teacher: Of course, not everyone knows English. But the language of theater is an international language.

Look at the scenes prepared by our classmates. Try to remember what events the guys are talking about in English.

4. Dramatization of the scene "Tom and Aunt Polly" (in English)

I hope that you have carefully read the work and made sure that Tom did not represent life

no trials, no adventures. Are you ready for the test?

Listen please to my children. They are today the heroes from the books by Mark Twain.

Scenes from the book “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”

Scene 1

Aunt Polly: Tom! Tom! Where is that boy? Where are you, Tom?

Aunt Polly: Oh, you've been in that closet. What were you doing there?

Aunt Polly: Nothing! look at your hands. (Tom looks at his hands.) What is that?

Tom: I don't know, Aunt.

Aunt Polly: Well, I know. It's jam, that's what it is. (Pointing to a switch on the floor) Hand me that switch!

Tom: Oh, look behind you, Aunt! Aunt Polly looks behind her. Tom runs away. Aunt stands surprised, then she breaks into a laugh and goes away.

Teacher: Tom liked the adventures very much but he didn't like to go to school. We have a little story about Tom and about school for you.

Scene I I

Tom and Sid are in their beds. It is morning and time to get up. Tom doesn't want to go to school. He wants to be ill. Then he could stay at home.

Tom: Oh, Sid, Sid!

Sid: What's the matter, Tom?

Tom: Oh, Sid! I am dying. I forgive you everything, Sid. When I am dead… (Groans.)

Sid: Oh, Tom, you are not dying! Don't!

Tom: I am not angry with Aunt Polly. Tell her so. And, Sid, give my cat with one eye to the new girl at school and tell her…

Sid runs away. A minute later Sid and Aunt Polly came in.

Sid: Oh, Aunt Polly, Tom is dying.

Aunt Polly: Dying?

Aunt Polly: Tom, what has happened to you, my boy?

Tom: Oh, Auntie, look at my right hand! It is red and hot.

Aunt Polly: Oh, Tom, stop that nonsense and get up!

Tom stops growing. He feels a little foolish.

Tom: Oh, Auntie, it's so hot that I've forgotten about my tooth.

Aunt Polly: Your tooth! And what has happened to your tooth?

Tom: It's loose and aches terribly.

Aunt Polly: Open your mouth. Well, you are right. Your tooth is loose. Sid, bring me some thread.

Tom: Oh, please, Auntie, don't pull it out. It's all right now.

Sid brings the thread. Aunt Polly ties one end of the thread to Tom's tooth and the other to the bed. Then she suddenly claps her hands before Tom's face. Tom falls back. The tooth hands on the thread.

Tom: Oh! oh!( He covers his mouth with his hands.) Oh! My tooth was all right. But I didn't want to go to school.

Aunt Polly: Oh, Tom, so all this is because you don't want to go to school! You want to go fishing. Tom, Tom, I love you so dearly, and you… Now get up quickly and get ready to go to school!

6. The word of the teacher of literature

Mark Twain was an inexhaustible inventor, a master of practical jokes, he believed that "nothing can stand against laughter."

Watch a dramatization of the episode "Mark Twain and His Friend on the Train." Scene in English.

Mark Twain, as everybody knows, was a famous American writer. He wrote many stories, which are still popular in many countries today. Mark Twain was also famous in his days as a speaker. In his speeches Mark Twain always liked to tell funny stories and to play jokes on his friends.

Scene III

“A Journey with Mark Twain”

Mark Twain and his friend are buying tickets

Mark Twain"s friend:" Mark, I have lost my money Pay please my train fare for me."

Mark Twain:" But I haven"t enough money to pay both your fare and mine."

Mark Twain's friend: That's too bad. What shall I do then?"

Mark Twain: "I"ll tell you what we can do. We can get on the train and when the conductor asks the passengers for the tickets, you can get under my seat."

(Scene in the train. The conductor comes to ask for the tickets.Mark Twain gives him two tickets-one for himself and one for his friend.)

Conductor: "Your tickets, please."

Mark Twain:" My friend is a very strange man. When he travels on a train, he doesn't like to sit on the seat. He prefers to lie on the floor under the seat."

If the guys do not understand, you can translate. At the train station, a friend discovered that he had forgotten the money. In confusion, he turned to Mark Twain: “What to do?”. The writer replied that he only had enough money for one ticket. Then he invited a friend to hide under the seat. A friend did just that. When the conductor entered, Mark Twain handed him two tickets, and pointing under the seat, he explained: “My strange friend: he does not like to travel while sitting on a bench, but prefers to lie under it.”

5. Quiz

At the end of the skit, the children are offered a quiz “Mark Twain and his characters” (“Mark Twain and his characters”).

Type I "Cat in a bag"

From a pre-prepared bag, one of the students takes out cards with questions for each group. The cards should be of two types: one for the English learners and one for the rest of the class. English language learners are encouraged to answer questions in English.

Sample list of questions in English

1.What is the real name by Mark Twain?

2.When and where did Mark Twain live?

3.What professions did he know?

4.What is his best novel?

5.What did Tom Sawyer like to eat?

a) milk
b) jam
c) honey

6. Tom didn't like to go ...

a) to the river
b) to the school
c) to the church

7.What present did Tom Sawyer become for the whitewashing of the fence?

a) dead dog
b) dead cat
c) good dinner

8.Who was Tom Sawyer's best friend?

The correct answers of students are evaluated by verbal praise.

Sample list of questions in Russian

1. What happened to the apple and the gingerbread while painting the fence? ( Aunt Polly gave Tom an apple

and he stole the gingerbread from the pantry.)

2. What illness did Tom invent to avoid going to school?( He said he had gangrene on his finger.)

3. Why did Tom and Huck go to the cemetery at night? ( Remove warts by taking a dead cat.)

4. Who was Tom's favorite character? ( Robin Hood).

5. What would Tom and his friend choose to be in the presidency, what would they like to be? ( Rogues from Sherwood Forest.)

6. Why did Tom tie a handkerchief as if he had a toothache? ( In order not to let it slip in a dream, when I was delirious because of the story of the murder in the cemetery.)

7. Why was Aunt Polly looking for a piece of bark in Tom's pocket? ( She was looking for a note to make sure the boy thought of her on the island..)

8. Why Tom joined the Society of Friends of Sobriety. ( Tom was attracted by a shiny uniform with a red scarf.)

9. How did Tom make peace with Becky?( Tom took the blame for the girl when she tore the teacher's book.)

II round

The tasks of this round are given immediately for four groups and are carried out simultaneously.

Tasks for children studying English.

1. Students are offered groups of adjectives, nouns, verbs, from which they must make a description of Tom Sawyer as a literary character.

For example: gay, cheerful, merry, jolly, kind, helpful, hero, friend, bravemen, adventures, adventureslover, find, like, love, considerate, think.

2. Students compose a letter-message to future readers, future adventurers in English. Students with a good level of preparation can complete this task on their own. Less prepared students can be offered a pre-prepared letter, cut into its component parts. They must connect the cut parts in the right order.

7. Group work

Independent generalization - a conclusion about the hero of the work - compiling a syncwine.

Tasks for children who do not study English. Here are some options.

Tom Sawyer, who loves adventure and seeks them everywhere, fights, saves, creates, he is the eternal disturber of the peace of adults.

Tom Sawyer, in love, noble, courageous seeks, cunning, invents, he has a warm heart, a subtle soul, he is a gentleman.

Task for the second group: write a letter to a fifth grader with a request to read the works of M. Twain. The letter is the result of the work of the group.

Letter to younger brother

My little friend! Have you read Mark Twain's wonderful book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer yet? I envy you! You just have to enjoy laughing along with mischievous Tom Sawyer. You will only still be eyes widened with delight, dig into the lines of description of the pranks of the cheerful eccentric Tom. All this is ahead. It is only important not to miss a minute and read this wonderful book on time.

A timely read book by Mark Twain can decide your fate, determine your lofty goals.

It is unfair to believe that the entire responsibility for your education, for what you will be, lies on the shoulders of the teacher who taught you. Like every member of the crew on the ship, and every student in the school depends on the appearance of the school. The more inquisitive, well-read children there are in the classes, the more lively and interesting all circles work, the easier it is for the teacher to discover something new for the children, and not waste time pulling up those who are lagging behind and repeating what has been passed.

I tell you this, your elder sister. Listen to me, Seryozha, and read as many Mark Twain books as possible.

After completing the task, the children are invited to evaluate their own work.

For self-assessment, cards with symbols are prepared:

8. Final word of the teacher

Mark Twain, in my opinion, was one of the most talented writers of the last century. He left over 20 books and a huge number of unpublished manuscripts to the people. “I'm not familiar with the 20th century yet. I wish him good luck,” Twain wrote. Did he know that he himself would become one of the greatest successes of the now 20th century? And his words: "Peace, happiness, the brotherhood of people - that's what we need in this world" - will be modern and timely.

Homework:

While working on "Tom Sawyer", Twain himself did not know well whether he was writing for adults or for children. Having put his cherished thoughts and aspirations into this perky, mocking, cheerful book, the writer was inclined to think that "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" "will be read only by adults" . However, enthusiastic letters from young readers, as well as responses from recognized luminaries of children's literature, convinced Twain that he, unexpectedly for himself, became the author of a children's book. This point of view found support among many representatives of contemporary American literature and criticism of Twain. Thus, W. D. Howells wrote to Twain: “A week ago I finished reading Tom Sawyer. I didn’t get up until I reached the end of the manuscript - I just couldn’t tear myself away. "read. The book will be an immense success. But you must absolutely treat it as a book for boys. If so, adults will enjoy it equally, and if you go on to study the character of a boy from the point of view of an adult - that would be wrong."

Mark Twain considered his first self-written novel to be the poetry of childhood. "It's just a hymn, arranged in prose in order to give it a verbal shell," he said.

John Galsworthy admitted: "Truly, of all the books I have ever read, the most pure pleasure I received from the charming epic of youth - "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn". They enlivened my childhood and continue to bring joy into adulthood - to this day."

It is appropriate here to recall the idea of ​​V. G. Belinsky that a children's book is a literary work written "for everyone". Approximately the same way Mark Twain solved the problem of the specifics of children's literature.

“I believe,” Mark Twain argued, “that the correct method of writing a work for boys is to write in such a way that it is interesting not only for boys, but extremely interesting for anyone who has ever been a boy. This greatly expands the audience.”

With captivating artlessness, telling about the life, adventures and experiences of boys, remaining truthful and simple in revealing child psychology, Mark Twain creates a realistic picture of the reality that surrounds his little heroes.

The poetry of the purity of children's feelings and boyish disobedience has a social meaning for him. In the world he described, only in childhood and adolescence does a person retain the integrity and purity of the soul, the freshness and immediacy of feelings, which grow dim and disfigured in adults.

"Tom Sawyer" is not an autobiographical book, but it contains a lot of direct childhood impressions, real facts of the author's own biography, which give the story a charming charm. However, this material is subjected in the mind of the artist to a kind of selection and restructuring, dictated by a loving-elegiac attitude to the past.

In the preface to the story about Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain writes: "Most of the adventures described in this book happened in reality: two or three adventures with me, the rest with my schoolmates. Huck Finn actually existed. Tom Sawyer too. But not as a separate person: it combined the features of three of my familiar boys ". It was later established that they were the author himself, his school friend Will Bowen and a boy from Shawneetown. This lively, cheerful twelve-year-old boy told Twain about his school tricks; His name was Thomas Sawyer Spivey. Many years later, Spivey met Twain in New York. Spivey was a farmer, tried to write novels. He died in 1938. Each of the other characters also had a certain prototype.

Mark Twain lived for 13 years in the small cozy town of Hannibal on the west bank of the Mississippi. Later he will transfer this city to the pages of his stories under the name of St. Petersburg. For Twain, Hannibal became the source of those life experiences that later played such a huge role in his creative life. Here he spent his childhood, here, together with his peers, he spent time in games and pranks, swam in the Mississippi, deceived Sunday school teachers, wandered in caves located near the city. Here, in the crowd of barefoot boys who flooded the narrow streets of Hannibal, he first met the prototypes of his future heroes. Twain's friendship with the little tramp Tom Blenkeship, later immortalized by him under the name of Huckleberry Finn, became one of the most vivid memories of his life. The prototype of Huck's father was a simple Hannibal city dweller. There was also an Indian Joe in Hannibal, and one day he almost died of hunger, getting lost in one of the caves. “In a book called Tom Sawyer,” writes Mark Twain in Autobiography, “I starved him to death in a cave, but for the sole interest of art—it didn’t really happen.” The prototype of Becky Thatcher was the girl Laura Hawkins. She lived just across from Twain's house. It was here in front of her window that little Twain tried his hand at simple acrobatics in order to attract the attention of Laura, just like Tom Sawyer did. The prototype of Judge Thatcher was Laura's father. Tom's younger brother, quiet and sneaky, Sid is Henry, Twain's younger brother, who died in the explosion of the Pennsylvania steamer; cousin Mary - Twain's sister Pamela; Aunt Polly - the writer's mother; Negro Jim is written off from "Uncle Dan" - a slave on the plantations of John Quarles - the writer's uncle.

Twain's memories of childhood are surrounded by a poetic halo, and he repeatedly refers to them in his works. To see what impressions are made of the pictures drawn in the book, one should turn to the pages of Twain's Autobiography, written in the same vein as the book about Tom Sawyer:

"I can recall the solemn twilight and the mystery of the depths of the forest, the smells of the earth, the light fragrance of forest flowers, the brilliance of rain-washed leaves, the fraction of falling raindrops ...".

"I know what a wild blackberry looks like and what it tastes like, I know what a good watermelon looks like when it warms a fat round belly in the sun ...".

"I see a large hearth, on winter evenings, to the top full of flaming nut logs, at the ends of which sweet juice bubbles ... a lazy cat stretched out on uneven stones of the hearth..."

It is Twain who recalls his uncle's farm, where he visited a lot in his childhood.

In the autobiographical memoirs cited, Twain says that such a life was "a paradise for boys."

But the bright, cheerful impressions of Hannibal's life were inseparable from the terrible and tragic ones. Echoes of the violent, noisy life of the West often invaded the peaceful existence of Hannibal. Once Mark Twain witnessed a murder that took place in broad daylight on one of the main streets of the city. Twain subsequently captured this picture on the pages of his story The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Many of the painful impressions of Twain's childhood are connected with the slavery that existed in Hannibal. He grew up surrounded by Negro slaves, in close association with them, and to many of them he had a friendly affection.

And yet, the future writer repeatedly happened to witness the brutal reprisals against Negro slaves. He saw how six men beat an exhausted, exhausted fugitive, how a slave owner killed a Negro belonging to him for an insignificant offense.

The older brother of his friend Tom Blankenship, Ben, hid the runaway Negro in the reeds for two weeks, slowly delivering food to him. When the Negro was tracked down, he helped him escape. Subsequently, Mark Twain captured this childhood memory on the pages of the story about Huck Finn.

The hatred that Mark Twain had throughout his life for all manifestations of racial discrimination undoubtedly first arose in his soul in connection with early childhood impressions.

Tom Sawyer does not have a specific narrator. But he, an adult, the writer Mark Twain, is invisibly present in the story, and this "presence effect" is the source of both a special barely audible nostalgic note of the story and its lyrical humor. The events taking place in the book are illuminated by the author's smile, contemplating the "lost paradise" of his childhood from the depths of time. It is this view from afar, from another era of both the world and his own life, that allows Twain to see much that has not been seen before, and to find the cause of the conflict of generations not only in the peculiarities of their age, but also in the conditions of life in America past and present. The correlation of these two time dimensions is established here by the very idea of ​​the story, which is based on the facts of the author's biography.

Finishing the story of Tom Sawyer, Twain writes: "Most of the heroes of this book are healthy to this day; they are prosperous and happy." Laura Hawkins lived to a ripe old age. In 1902, along with another Mark Twain schoolmate, John Briggs (Joe Harper in the novel), she greeted Mark Twain when he came to Hannibal to receive his degree from the University of Missouri. They were photographed together, and Mark Twain wrote a touching note on the bottom of the card: "Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher."

A long and happy journey for these literary heroes, favorites of readers around the world.