THEMATIC AND IDEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CHILDREN’S IMAGE
Keywords:
Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, Image of Children, Good-Bad Boy, Model Boy, Socio-Cultural Criticism, Moral Awakening, Structural Literary Models.Abstract
This article provides a detailed literary and ideological evaluation of the childhood domain in Mark Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. By contrasting the archetypes of the “Good-Bad Boy” and the “Model Boy,” the study dissects how Twain utilizes the subverted child image as a vehicle for socio-cultural criticism against rigid 19th-century American social institutions, hypocrisy, and religious dogmatism. Through a systematic analysis of core thematic structural models-ranging from the moral awakening in the Muff Potter trial to the strategic subversion of the Sunday School ticket system-this paper demonstrates how childhood functions as a self-contained, ideologically independent domain rather than a mere transitional phase toward adulthood.
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