Mark Twain's The War Prayer

Throughout Mark Twain's lifetime he engaged in a lifelong struggle with the concept of God and faith, not with religion as an abstraction nor with the earthly church, but a struggle with god and himself. Mark Twain often traveled the world and got to know imperialistic endeavors from many different nations. After his return to America, Twain was given the opportunity to serve in the Civil War. The short story or prose poem, "The War Prayer" had not been published until after his death in 1923. It was thought to be considered sacrilegious and could have been detrimental to his writing career. But Mark Twain’s, short story “the war prayer” uncovers the combustion of patriotism and religion. He composes a bold statement on the negative influence

Twain redirects this connection by going on saying, "The country was up in arms, the war is on..." insinuating that the nation was at war. This statement leads to confusion for the readers but is then made clear by Twain that the country was undoubtedly excited to go to war because "in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism" (Twain). Twain having experienced war was able to also convey an image from a patriotic outlook, to build a relationship that connects the audience. By doing so he generates a trusting environment that allows the reader to follow his message and understand his feelings. Throughout The War Prayer, Patriotism is excessively distorted due to many lengthy phrases, being separated by commas and semicolons, indicating the motivation for their cheers through the absence of pauses. For the remainder of the paragraph, it would be seemingly seen as an exciting story expressing of how "the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay" with their proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts" that are in fact "choked with happy emotion." Yet it is expressed a later paragraph that, "God the all-terrible! Thou who" ordains is responsible for the actions of war. This was driven by Twain's experience of different governments during his

Twain characterizes God as an "unjust, ungenerous, pitiless, and revengeful, punishing innocent children for the misdeeds of their parents, punishing unoffending people for the sins of their rulers"(Paine 1354). All through the opening piece , Twain utilizes satire and irony to criticize American society and raise awareness to readers about war. He presents both sides of the war. Twain distinguishes the cheerful spirit and patriotism of the townspeople through the use of vivid imagery and connects the country with war but does so in a hyperbolic way. The overall atmosphere of the crowd is caught when Twain discusses “the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, and the bunched fireworks hissing and sputtering.”Twain mocks the enthusiasm of the people for such a contemptible cause. However, toward the end of the of the first segment, there is a sudden shift in tone that demonstrates a sense of fear among those who disapproved of war. Mark Twain disapproval of the war in the story is evident when in the passage he indicates “the half of dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war." The servant explains the wrongdoing of the people Prayer when he warns them,"When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results, which follow victory" he attempts to gain their understanding that their hopes have harsh consequence. As Helen Lock