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The role of Mark Twain in American literature
The role of Mark Twain in American literature
The role of Mark Twain in American literature
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Have you ever wondered about Mark Twain? Did you know Mark Twain’s life included bankruptcy, writing, and economic struggles? Did you know that Mark Twain is considered one of America’s best authors and humorists? Below I’ll be explaining Mark Twain’s life in a whole. My thesis is that Mark Twain’s writings reflect his life through his pen name and modeling on his childhood. To understand Mark Twain you first need to read an overview. Below will be the overview of Mark Twain’s life. Mark Twain was born to Jane, and John Clemens. (Liz Sonneborn 21) I’ll first point out that Mark Twain’s famous pen name; Mark Twain is really a pen name. Mark Twain’s real name is Samuel Clemens (21). Clemens was born 2 months early and was predicted …show more content…
(28) He was a typist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. (29) Twain then moved to Washington, D.C. Mark Twain only stayed in Washington, D.C for several months because of the high cost of living and the high competition of jobs. (29) Twain then went to work for Orion; however Orion refused to pay him like before. (29) After leaving Orion he started spending time in numerous cities. (29) Twain visited St. Louis, Chicago, and then Cincinnati. (29) After visiting those places he boarded a river boat and planned to take another river boat from the destination to Brazil where he’d engage in coco bean trade. (29) However he spoke to the river boat pilot about becoming a river boat pilot. (29) Eventually they agreed on five hundred dollars for the training, two hundred fifty upfront, and two hundred fifty after Twain was working. (32)
As Twain learned the Mississippi Twain came up with his pen name. While training Twain memorized the entire Mississippi. (33) Eventually his brother Orion and Henry both lose their job due to Orion closing down his printing business. (33) Mark Twain found Henry a job as a clerk aboard a river boat.
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(34) The civil war broke out and the Mississippi was blockaded by the Union effectively shutting down all riverboat traffic. (35) Twain out of fear of being forced to be a pilot for the Union fled to the south. (35) Twain in the south joined a militia group that wasn’t really soldiers. They pretty much spent their days hiding in the woods and even if the slightest chance of the Union soldiers is near; they would flee. (35) Some of his friends enlisted in the army; (35) however he decided not to and moved to Nevada. (35)
After a three week trip he arrived in Nevada. (36) Twain tried working for the Nevada legislature, but that was too conventional for him. (36) Twain tried starting his own lumber business but to no avail. (36) Their lumber business was over once they lit a campfire and lit their forest on fire. (36)
Twain then left for Virginia City, Nevada. (36) After arriving in Virginia City, he wrote several stories for a paper and was hired to be an editor for the paper. (36) Making twenty five dollars a week twain was unable to live the way he did. (36) While working in Virginia City Twain trotted out his newest and most popular pen name, Mark Twain. (37) He used it for a political report from Carson City (37) Mark Twain eventually thought his rival was going to challenge him to a duel. (38) So Twain left Nevada for San Francisco.
Although both Twain and Douglass both lived in the south, Douglass was a slave and, therefore, faced greater hardships than did Twain. While Twain was preoccupied about becoming steamboat captain, Douglass was experiencing more dire troubles such as having “no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no trousers, nothing on but a coarse tow linen shirt, reaching only to my knees” (Douglass). As a free, white male, Twain’s biggest worry was not accomplishing his goal of becoming a steamboat pilot (Twain). Another difference is the use of joyful and troubling memories. While Twain ends his narrative in despair because he “somehow… could not manage…” to become a steamboat pilot, Douglass ends his narrative in the hopeful and thankful tone of a freed slave. Douglass proclaims “this good spirit was from God, and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise”(Douglass). Finally, another narrative technique that differs Twain from Douglass is that Twain speaks for all of the boys of his town while Douglass only recounts his own experiences. According to Twain, “when I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a steamboatman.”(Twain). Douglass, although alluding to other slaves, does not depict their desires nor does he show a kinship with them. Douglass’
Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. New York: P.F. Collier and Son Company, 1889. Wagenknecht, Edward. Mark Twain: The Man and His Work. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1935.
By writing this, Twain has demonstrated a social class element found in many of his stories. He wanted to express the different types and attitudes from these different social classes. In his days, Mark was fortunate enough to provide and thrive in a corrupt society, while many could not. Many of his jobs (such as a entrepreneur and a journalist) may have exposed him to the blend of culture and wealth found in the corrupted, gilded age of the 19th century. Being emotionally locked with these unfortunate situations in society, Mark may have been compelled to incorporate this into his
Mark Twain, originally born as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was the sixth child of a family of eight. Born to John and Jane Clemens on November 30, 1835, Twain was born in the small town of Florida, Missouri. At the age of four, Mark Twain and his family then relocated to Hannibal in the hope of drastically improving their living conditions. He later died of heart disease in Redding, Connecticut on April 21,1910. By lineage, Twain was of Southern decent, as both of his parents' birthplaces were that of Virginia. Slaveholding in the small community of Hannibal, with only a population of 2000 at the time, provided a variety of both a rugged lifestyle mixed with southern tradition. With a lifestyle previously mentioned, these played as a major influence in his major writings, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Samuel Longhorn Clemens, or better known as Mark Twain is recognized for his novels set in his adolescence (America 's Story from America 's Library). Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri and was the sixth of seven children. At the age of four, Mark Twain moved to a small frontier town in Hannibal, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River with his family. Years later, on April 21, 1910 Mark Twain died in Redding, Connecticut in his sleep. Mark Twain’s purpose for writing his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was to provide a clear view of the culture and lifestyle during the period of the novel.
Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida . At age four, his family of nine moved to the banks of the Mississippi River in Hannibal , Missouri . His family was happy there but not all of his memories of the river were particularly pleasant. Because Missouri was one of the fifteen slave states it was subject to racism and Twain grew up witnessing lynchings, mobs, racism and general inhumane treatment of African Americans. One of Twain’s most horrible memories was “the murder of a defenseless slave by a ruthless slave master and of course, the grim sight of shackled slaves was itself a near-constant along the docks of the river” (Howard). The sightings at the river were not Twain’s only experience around African American slaves though as his own father and uncle both owned slaves. “When Twain visited his uncle’s farm, he enjoyed playing in the slave quarters and listening to their tall tales and spirituals, which he kept with him throughout his life” (http://www.marktwainhouse.org/theman/bio.shtml) When Twain left the South forever, he felt that it was his duty to pay back the debt he felt ever white man owed to every black man because of all the cruelness he had seen done to them. Even though the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a sequel to the light hearted novel Tom Sawyer, it shows the darker aspects of growing up next to the Mississippi river in a slave state (Howard).
Mark Twain was mostly known for his accurate account of his surroundings. After spending his childhood near the Mississippi River, he developed an understanding of literature and the use of symbolism in his works. In “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, Twain reflected Finn’s character as a free spirit, whose actions could be reflected to the river itself. Twain majorly used symbolism in his works. the river was one of the symbols in book, where it is highlighted to be independent and free of all worldly bounds and limitations. This is shown in the character of Huckleberry Finn, as he chooses to live a life of freedom near the river. He pursued adventures, which were not considered to be normal in that particular society. Additionally, he was not limited by worldly responsibilities and was flexible in his approaches, throughout the novel. Similarly, another symbol was Jim. He was a symbol of slavery and reflected the lives of all the slaves in that period of time. Through his actions and the treatment he receives, the readers could develop an understanding of the life of a slave and the attitudes of the society ...
Twain's life was going along really well until he was twelve. At that age, in 1847, his father died from Pneumonia. As expected, Twain was shocked from the lose of his father because he was at such a young age and it was then that his formal days of learning were ended. For him he began to work as a printers apprentice To raise money. Twain was prepared for his soon to be career by working with a typesetter and reading a lot in his spare time. When Mark Twain worked as a typesetter and made articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens.
Twain describes local customs and the ways that the characters behave to create a more realistic setting for the story. In the story the characters engage in behavior or activities that would be unusual for a regular person to do. For example, the narrator says:
Samuel Clemens, was the sixth child of John Marshalll and Jane Moffit Clemens, born two months prematurely and was in poor health for the first 10 years of his life. His mother tried different types of remedies during those younger years. Twain used his memories of his childhood and his illness to fill the pages of several of his books including Tom Sawyer and other writings. Clemens was often pampered, by his mother, and thus developed early in life the testing her indulgence through mischief, while offering his humor as bond for the crimes he would commit. When Twain’s mother was in her 80s, he asked her about his poor health in those early years: “I suppose that during that whole time you were uneasy about me?” “Yes, the whole time,” she answered. “Afraid I wouldn’t live?” “No,” she said, “afraid you would.” One can clearly see where Twain got his sense of humor and zest for life, (Morris, 1996)). Even though it seemed life started out rough Twain pushed his passed it all and went for what he wanted not allowing anyone to stand in his way.
The child was puny, and did not make a very sturdy fight for life. Still he weathered along, season after season, and survived two stronger children, Margaret and Benjamin. By 1839 Judge Clemens had lost faith in Florida. He removed his family to Hannibal, and in this Mississippi River town the little lad whom the world was to know as Mark Twain spent his early life. In Tom Sawyer we have a picture of the Hannibal of those days and the atmosphere of his boyhood there.
At the young age of twelve, Twain lost his father. Ever since the loss of his father, he began to work in various jobs. From starting as “an apprentice, then a composer, with local printers, contributing occasional squibs to local newspapers” (“Mark Twain”). The early start of responsibility was just the beginning of his career. During the time, he was working for the newspaper, for six years in the newspaper company, he “finally ended up as an assistant to his brother, Orion” (“Samuel Langhorne Clemens.”). He stayed in Iowa by his brother’s side until he
Mark Twain quickly rose to fame after the release of his story, “Jim Smiley and the Jumping Frog,” and he continued to make a name for himself through the release of stories such as The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Twain saw immense success and fame; he was easily recognizable and wildly popular, even to the point of being called “the greatest American humorist of his age” by the New York Times. In short, Twain was as close to being an international sensation as one could hope for in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, it wasn’t until the later days of his writing career that Twain became so well known. As photography was expensive and hard to come by, caricatures were the method of choice to portray celebrities. And, as
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN AUTHOR’S SKETCH Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. When Samuel Clemens was four years old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, where he spent his childhood. Clemens first approach to literature was through typesetting for a newspaper in 1851. At the time Orion, his brother, was a newspaper publisher in Hannibal. From 1857 until 1861, he served as the pilot of a riverboat on the Mississippi River.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pseudonym Mark Twain, has been central to American literature for over a century. His seemingly effortless diction accurately exemplified America’s southern culture. From his early experiences in journalism to his most famous fictional works, Twain has remained relevant to American writing as well as pop culture. His iconic works are timeless and have given inspiration the youth of America for decades. He distanced himself from formal writing and became one of the most celebrated humorists. Mark Twain’s use of the common vernacular set him apart from authors of his era giving his readers a sense of familiarity and emotional connection to his characters and himself.