The Misanthropic Themes Of Mark Twain

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Life can be unpredictable. It can impact a man in more ways than one throughout the course of his lifetime. In the end, change is inevitable, which can be brought upon someone through a series of events. These events can incite a metamorphosis in an individual. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, more famously known as Mark Twain, is a perfect candidate. He completely transformed to a different writer with a new demeanor through the course of time. Mark Twain’s later years impacted his changed attitude about society, which is reflected in his darker tone and misanthropic themes.
Mark Twain grew up in the small town of Hannibal, Missouri where he lived with his parents and six siblings. It can be considered a splendid place to live as there were many …show more content…

Jim Smiley was a gambler, betting with anyone on anything, just for the thrill of competition. Through either his luck or cunningness, he would always end up on top. He employed the use of animals such as Dan’l Webster the frog and Andrew Jackson the underdog to win bets. Twain used these names in particular as satire to make a loose connection between Andrew Jackson the president and Daniel Webster the senator to their respective animal counterparts. Up until his last wager, he was unbeaten, only losing due to unfair circumstances. Mark Twain used Jim Smiley as an outlet for his own thoughts about gambling; as it was the same time Twain headed out west to try to strike it rich with silver mining. He himself took a gamble on moving from Hannibal to the other side of the country, just to try to make a quick buck (Mark Twain, His Life). Due to him deriving this story from a real tale in Angel’s Camp, the colloquial western vernacular is heavily applied throughout the story. All in all, “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” was a great example of Mark Twain’s early attitude, in the beginning of his career. As the years past, certain situations put Twain in a different position, changing his writing style for the …show more content…

This story clearly depicts the epitome of Twain’s pessimism as he talks of the nephew of Satan, with the same name as his uncle, and his adventures with three boys; Theodor, Nikolaus, and Seppi. Satan performs extraordinary feats that excite the boys, such as giving life to people made of clay, leaving them in awe and wonder. The children practically worship Satan, even though his mentality is different from theirs. Though Satan entertains them, he all the while enlightens them to his own beliefs of human inferiority and irrelevance. He causes excitement wherever he goes, for better, but mostly, for worse. In the end, he ends up killing off Nikolaus, altering the lives of some of the villagers, and ultimately giving Theodor awareness of his existence; telling him “there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream- a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought.” (Applebaum 121) By the end of the story, Twain leaves the reader astonished by his thoughts on

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