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What is the importance of character development in literature
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Mark twain use of regionalism
Mark twain uses regional details to make events and themes come to live for his reader in the stories of Life on The Mississippi and the “Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras” by describing the landscape and areas and by showing the way the character talk to show the lack of intelligence they posse,which help reader get a better understanding of the character.
In the Life of The Mississippi twain briefly describes the area where the story is taking place at the begging of the paragraph “... our village on the west of the mississippi” “...the dense forest away on the other side”.In this two quotes we get a bref idea to what the area would look like. A concepts to what it would be like we can assume that it's semi
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Twain uses a quote further on in the story to describe a small portion of the area which smiley is in. as smiley goes into the swamp looking for a frog twain describes the area as the following states “smiley went to the swamp and slopped around in the mud”.In this quote reader can imagine a swampy, muddy area which smiley is in as well as smiley being covered in mud since he was slopping around the mud.
Another example of how twain help bring his story to live is in the Life of The Mississippi. While Mark Twain is telling the story,A quote he uses in one of his character states “that boy had been notoriously worldly, and I just the reverse: yet he was exalted to his eminence, and I left in obscurity and misery”In his quote we can hear the accent in which they spoke since he refers to himself as “I” when addressing himself.
In the “notorious jumping frog of calavera country” as Twain tells his story he says the following “He would have foller that straddle bug to mexico”,showing how the words they used, and they way they spoke were different.Instead of saying follow he uses the word “foller”.Another quote that Twain uses which help develop the character happened later on in the story when Smiley was talking about his frog which he has been training to jump. Smiley say “If he hadn't no talent”.Smiley uses a double negative showing how he isn't so bright,since he said “hadn't
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel written by Mark Twain during the late 1800’s (Mintz). The book brought major controversy over the plot, as well as the fact that it was a spin-off to his previous story, Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This book has remained a success due to Twain’s interesting techniques of keeping the audience’s attention. Chapters eleven and twelve of “Huckleberry Finn,” uses a first person limited point of view to take advantage of the use of dialogue while using many hyperboles to add drama to entertain the reader by creating description within the story without needing to pause and explain.
Both Twain and Douglass use formal diction and grammar, fluidly switch between the objective and subjective tones, and include both positive and negative experiences in their narratives. However, Twain and Douglass also use differing techniques such drawing on their different cultural experiences in the south, ending their narratives on different emotional notes, and writing from an independent perspective versus an inclusive perspective. However, all these narrative techniques in The Boys’ Ambition of Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain and in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass effectively helped create these well-known, masterful personal
The only impulses that Twain intends to stir are a person’s moral compass in an attempt to rid society of their negative outlook toward African Americans. In the Explanatory of the novel, Twain tells the readers that “several different ‘dialects are used,’ which have been written ‘painstakingly,’ based on his own ‘personal familiarity with these several forms of speech’” (Adventures 3). Twain grew up in a setting similar to that of the
First, Mark Twain uses educated diction and obscure descriptions of Simon Wheeler in an attempt to entertain the general public reading the newspaper “The Saturday,” the newspaper where Mark Twain published his original version of his short story. To begin, Mark Twain uses the character of Jim Smiley to interest the reader and keep them hooked at the obscure personality of Mr. Smiley and his frog. Jim Smiley, a man addicted to gambling and competition, fools others through deception and false manipulations and gains the reader’s attention through his dedication to win and compete. Through clever manipulation of words, Jim downplays the skill of his...
The main thing that stood out in the book was that the story always happened around the river. Huck would go away from the river for a while but would always end up coming back to it a short time later. It was the same way with Mark Twain, whose real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens. “Mark Twain” is a river man's term for water that was just barely safe for navigation (Kaplan). He was only four years old when his family moved to Hannibal, a small town in Marion County on the west bank of the Mississippi River. There Clemens spent his boyhood, amazed by the romance and shocked by the violence of the river life, with the steamboats, keelboats, and giant lumber rafts, as well as by the people who washed up by the river, the professional gamblers and confidence men. Near the river, the men were fierce and had little cares. It was no place for a young boy.
The unfluctuating outflow of the Mississippi permeates his eardrums, the wind bushes against his crimson cheeks, while the incense of fresh water saturates his nostrils, he distinguishes the boundless hues of cardinal reds and tangerine oranges of an autumn diurnal course adjoining the monumental Mississippi River. Mark Twain, also known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is one of America’s greatest authors.
Twain uses personification to show the beauty of nature in contrast to the immaturity and obnoxious mentality of society. Huck would sometimes wake up to "see a steamboat coughing along upstream" that "now and then would belch a whole world of sparks up out of her chimbleys" which acts like a child without manners. (Twain, 81) In almost every chapter Twain uses colorful descriptions of nature to help the reader to imagine the setting of the scene. Twain would not have used so many examples and vivid descriptions of nature if he didn't want nature to be a huge part of the novel.
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
Literary artists refuse to be categorized, defined, and completely fathomed by any standardized paradigm, but a writer's work exhibits his or her personality traits. Though authors are incapable of being defined by mere personality traits, literary accomplishments, and literary criticisms, an author's personality can be used to sketch a limited definition of his or her literature. Mark Twain's literature manifests his personality's candor, graphicness, humor, and criticalness that William Dean Howells describes in "My Mark Twain." These attributes are evident in "Old Times on the Mississippi," The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," "Fennimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," and "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg." Howells' portrayal of Twain facilitates some understanding of Twain's fiction, but by no means is Mark Twain's literature as simple as four personality traits. The traits of Twain's literature transcend simple entertainment, and he enlightens the reader about the need to reform literature, religion, society, and the individual.
Mark Twain’s “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is a short story with the lesson that what goes around comes around. In this short story, which first appeared in 1856 and his first successful story, Twain uses local customs of the time, dialect, and examples of social status in his story to create a realistic view of the region in which the story takes place. The way that the characters behave is very distinctive. Dialect is also used to give the reader a convincing impression of the setting in “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. The social status of the main characters in this story also was something that Twain took into account in writing this story. Mark Twain is a realist who concentrates on the customs, dialect, and social status of specific regions of the country.
Mark Twain uses the Mississippi River as a symbol showing protection from danger. Several instances in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn include this contrast of the carefree and safe river and the dangerous and mischevious land. Huck and Jim encounter two con men, the King and the Duke, on land. The King and Duke put on a dramatic show for the town making them believe that they are the Wilks' brothers and are from England. Huck only knows the truth behind con men's tricks, and thus another troublesome event on land emerges. The Mississippi River actually protects him from all danger throughout the novel....
With Twain’s style of complexity in characterization and sophisticated narrative structure, Mark Twain’s “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” was one of the best works that he had ever written. Mark Twain’s, “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is about a man by the name of Jim Smiley was a man who would bet on anything. Smiley made a frog his pet and bets a stranger that his frog, Dan’l Webster, could jump higher than any frog. When Smiley was distracted, the stranger filled Dan’l Webster with lead, resulting in Smiley losing the bet. Before Smiley could figure out what just happened, the stranger vanished along with the money he won by cheating. In “Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”,
Mark Twain is world renowned for his authentic portrayal of southern dialect. Twain’s phonetic spelling of words, such as “genuwyne” rather than “genuine” and “swaller” instead of “swallow,” communicated the southern way of speech of his diverse characters in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain 54-78). He breathed life into his characters and gave them personality through his style and word choice. For example, Aunt Polly’s diction differed significantly from that of Huck Finn’s, and this hinted at the education, age, and gender of each character. Variations in the dialogue of characters and narration evoked a wide range of emotions as well as completed the imagery of each character and scenario. Additionally, the language of each character was kept consistent, realistic, and natural. Twain’s convincing prose distinguished him from the decorous authors of that time who wrote with acute formality.
In "Two Views of the River," an excerpt from Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, Twain comes to the realization of the realities of the river. After a life along the river and knowing "every trifling feature that bordered the great river as" well as he knew his alphabet, (Twain 1) Twain sees the reality behind the "beauty" (1) and "poetry" (1) of the river. A comprehensive analysis reveals Twain's argument questions the value of learning a trade, as his images of "the majestic river" (1) and the peril it may cause for the steamboat, show the comparisons of the beauty and the reality of the river.
Using his experiences as a steamboat engineer, Mark Twain creates a realistic novel through meticulous detail in the descriptions of the setting, diction, and characters. The setting is described with much detail and imagery, so as to make it as close as possible to the actual surroundings. Twain uses a page just to describe the sunrise over the river.