Delectable Land In The Pilgrim's Progress

“Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above it, was green with vegetation, and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting” (Twain 14). I very much enjoy this quote as it contains two unique allusions, one referring to Mark Twain’s earlier life and the other alluding to a relatively old book. Mark Twain grew up near Holiday Hill in Hannibal, Missouri; Cardiff Hill is a corresponding reference to Holiday Hill which was located just north of Twain’s hometown. The 17th-century literary writer and preacher John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress is alluded to by the phrase “Delectable Land.” This refers to the Delectable Mountains on which the Celestial City can be seen.

“Plainly here were ‘two souls with but a single thought’ ” (Twain 81). The Austrian playwright Baron von Münch-Bellinghausen wrote the

Every few steps other lofty and still narrower crevices branched from it on either hand— for McDougal's cave was but a vast labyrinth of crooked aisles that ran into each other and out again and led nowhere” (Twain 163). Mark Twain, throughout the novel, seems to enjoy alluding to his childhood. It is almost as if Mark Twain is re-living himself through Tom Sawyer. McDougal’s cave is actually drawn after McDowell’s cave located south of Hannibal, Twain’s hometown.

“Now she heard of Painkiller for the first time. She ordered a lot at once. She tasted it and was filled with gratitude. It was simply fire in a liquid form. She dropped the water treatment and everything else, and pinned her faith to Painkiller” (Twain 77). Twain mentioned being forced in his childhood to consume patent medication, suggested here as "painkiller," even though it was purposed for application to bruises and other exterior afflictions. Tom endures the same treatment as Mark had when he was a child. This once again demonstrates Mark’s obsession with making Tom’s life similar to his