<![CDATA[Novel, as one of literary works, can be a representation of the real life thatportrays the social and cultural phenomena in a certain society. Novel can be used as thedescription of the influence of society towards the character building of the charactersof the novel as individual. In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, thecharacter building of Tom Sawyer, as the main character, is influenced by the Southsociety in America, which also leads to the development of Tom Sawyer’s personalitiesis implicitly and explicitly shown. The study applies socio-cultural approach as the grounding theory to find out thesocial and cultural phenomena of the South society which influences Tom Sawyer’scharacter building. The background of Mark Twain in terms of The Adventures of TomSawyer novel and the socio-cultural life in the South society are used to provide somesupporting information to make the analysis and interpretation of the study becomesmore comprehensive. The result of the study reveals that Mark Twain’s The Adventures of TomSawyer elevates the socio-cultural issues in the South society that influence thecharacter building of Tom Sawyer. The relationship between Tom Sawyer and theSouth society and the psychological process within Tom Sawyer’s personalities isclearly described. However, because this novel does not merely elevate socio-culturalaspects, it is suggested for the next researchers to research it from other perspectives,such as economic condition, racism, or Christian cultural values.Keywords: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, character building,personalities, socio-cultural approach]]>
