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Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Adventure of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

56 reviews

ggcd1981's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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joshkiba13's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I listened to the William Drufis recording, and he did a wonderful job bringing Mark Twain's work to life. His voice as narrator was whimsical and boisterous enough to well match the well exaggerated and hyperbolic prose Twain adopted to portray the mind and personality of young mischievous boys. His voices for Tom himself and for Huckleberry Finn were done well too.

The story reminded me much of The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt, due to the aforementioned exaggerated and hyperbolic adventures of adolescent boys. It was a fun and mostly lighthearted story that made me chuckle several times while listening.

I understand that the sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a tad more serious in nature (just like Okay For Now, the sequel to The Wednesday Wars was) and I'm excited to read that soon. I really enjoyed a lot of Twain's word choice, so hopefully the prose in the sequel is similar to this one. If not, I'm sure I'll still enjoy it.
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willow_the_wisp's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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ladyethyme's review against another edition

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Frankly the main character of Tom Sawyer is portrayed as having all the characteristics of the serial killer. He's deliberately tricks people into doing chores for him, he emotionally manipulates girls and physically abuses them, sexually harassing them. And this is supposed to be like an eight year old? They also physically torture animals, and for some reason it's supposed to be funny. And that's not even getting into all of the racism, and I mean like, serious racism. "All n@ggers are liars"; and that kind of thing. I don't know why this is considered a classic. Frankly I find Tom to be a complete asshole, and I'd love to see him end up in prison where he belongs. But I guess this is the kind of masculinity that was encouraged or even laughed about in the 1870s.
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celery's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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buttongirl22's review against another edition

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adventurous funny informative lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

It’s definitely a book of its time. I enjoyed it a lot more than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but it’s still not something I would seek out if it wasn’t a “classic” (or, more honestly, if Nick Offerman wasn’t narrating this audiobook). 
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amalas_bookstop's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I mainly read this so I can read the James perspective retelling. Mark twain did a good job of capturing the way a child dreams and can create a whole new alternate reality. Tom and Huck get into plenty of trouble that works out for them in the end. However this book has some pretty awful language about African and Native Americans that I find it hard to believe that people read this book to their children currently.
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emmacb's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Ok off the bat, some of the language in this is uncomfortable. However, as a window into a world I have almost no connection to, it was an interesting read and the sweet, uncomplicated perspective of Tom Sawyer (as much as a proud little hooligan could be considered sweet!) was tempered with an adults longer view of his day to day life that resulted in a gentle story that really reminded me at times of how huge and dramatic things felt as a kid that I look back on now very differently. 

I was also a little jealous of all the crap they got up to.
I don't want to get lost in a cave, but  exploring one as a kid sounds fun. And I don't want to run away for days and go back to my own funeral, but I was impressed by how well these literal children knew to survive!
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idesofmarch's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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fr_eddie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

«"Se fosse stato run grande e savio filosofo, come l'autore del presente libro, si sarebbe reso conto, a questo punto, che il lavoro consiste in qualsiasi cosa una persona è costretta a fare, mentre il divertimento consiste in qualsiasi cosa una persona non è costretta a fare"»

Storia carina e leggera sulle avventure di Tom Sawyer e dei suoi amici, in un racconto di amore, amicizia e morte.

Libro interessante, che aiuta a vedere il mondo ottocentesco dagli occhi di un ragazzino astuto, sia per quanto riguarda le tradizioni e le superstizioni, sia per quanto riguarda il razzismo.
E non è che ne ci sia poco di razzismo: la n-word è ripetuta più volte, con Huck che chiede a Tom di non dire in giro che mangia in compagnia di un nero (Huck how could you), e omg guarda che caso il cattivo del libro è mezzo indiano. Incredibile.

Storia che spazia da Tom e amici che scappano di casa per fare i pirati a Tom e Becky che rimangono rinchiusi nel labirinto delle grotte e Becky che sembra pronta ad accettare la morte. Con calma.
Vengono affrontati temi giovanili e superstizioni , ma anche come le azioni che facciamo si riflettano sul mondo (tipo la parte divertentissima in cui Tom va a vedere il suo funerale. Fra. Credo che tua zia non si sia divertita) o come la ricchezza alla fine limiti (Huck che vuole essere sporco e dormire in barili è un patatone).

Lo consiglierei? È un libro corto e anche scorrevole, ma la voglia che avevo di riprenderlo era quasi inesistente. Se si vuole leggere storie di bambini, leggete "I ragazzi della via Pal", che almeno lì non ci sono n-word.
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