“The Convergence of the Twain” is a nonlinear retelling of the Titanic disaster of 1912; however, on a deeper level, the poem explores hubris, downfall, and how fate connects hubris to downfall. Through tone, diction and juxtaposition, the speaker describes the sinking of the Titanic as inevitable and necessary. The juxtaposition of the Titanic and the environment in the first five stanzas symbolizes the opposition between man and nature, suggesting that nature overcomes man. The speaker characterizes the sea as being “deep from human vanity” (2) and deep from the “Pride of Life that planned” the Titanic. The diction of “human vanity” (2) suggests that the sea is incorruptible by men and then the speaker’s juxtaposition of vanity with “the
The speaker characterizes the Titanic as a “creature of cleaving wing” (17) in reference to its supposed inability to be sunken. The diction of “cleaving” (17) suggests that the speaker, at the time of the Titanic’s building, believes the Titanic to be able to sever through all obstacles. However, she immediately juxtaposes it with that “Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything” which “prepared a sinister mate” (18-19). By enjambing the two lines, the speaker foreshadows the surprise of the disaster. The “sinister mate” (19) alludes to the iceberg, while the “Immanent Will” (18) alludes to nature. The diction of calling nature the “Immanent Will” implies the speaker’s reverence and nature’s power. The speaker capitalizes the W and I since the “Immanent Will” is a specific entity, and also because the speaker realizes the power of nature. An immanent will suggests nature to be like an inherent testament, which cannot be overpowered or controlled. While the speaker will characterize the ship as “smart” (22) and growing in “stature, grace, and hue” (23), the speaker never capitalizes the word “ship” or any of the references to the ship. The speaker respects the Titanic by using words with positive connotations; ironically, she shows her greater reverence towards the “Iceberg” (24)
Frederick Douglass wrote in his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, about the devastation associated with slavery and the destruction from which comes desperation. Douglass intends to summon upon the guilt and empathy of his white audience by giving an account from which the reader is able to coax up a new perspective on the dreadful oppression. Seen especially in the third paragraph where Douglass provides a series of rhetorical devices including: apostrophe, anaphora, personification, exemplum, and epithet in his sorrowful bellowing to passing ships.
The author shows the reader the sea just as the sailor does as death, but more than death
Both Mark Twain and Frederick Douglass use many similar narrative techniques in The Boys’ Ambition and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Both Twain and Douglass use formal diction when recounting their personal lives in these narratives. For example, when Twain writes “before these events, the day was glorious with expectancy; after them, the day was a dead and empty thing”, he shows his understanding of high level vocabulary as well as the appropriate usage of a semi-colon (Twain). Douglass also demonstrates his formal diction and educated grammar usage when he writes “I may be deemed superstitious, and even egotistical, in regarding this event as a special interposition of divine Providence in my favor” (Douglass). Another way
Mark Twain told us in his speech on October 17, 1907 "We build a fire in a powder magazine, then double the fire department to put it out. We inflame wild beasts with the smell of blood, and then innocently wonder at the wave of brutal appetite that sweeps the land as a consequence." Twain’s word convey the fact that as society we build an environment that enrages these wild or “insane” people then we call To fix the people that we have made into a certain way……... Twain's quote both ties into gun violence and us as Americans it's our responsibility to look out for one another be each others backbones and hold each other up when times are hard.
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.
The fall of Icarus often comes as a cautionary tale about pride and ambition. However, W. H. Auden and William Carlos Williams took inspiration from Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus in their respective poems Musee des Beaux Arts and Landscape with the Fall of Icarus to tell a new tale. The poems use imagery, form, repetition, and alliteration to convey the apathy of the world in the face of personal tragedy.
Marshall, Donald G. "Twain, Mark." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
The Seafarer highlites the transience of wordly joys which are so little important and the fact thet we have no power in comparison to God.
Mississippi Twain tells us of a man with a dream. As imperfection has it this
Mark Twain was a catalyst for the American education reform movement and the social changes that it brought. By writing in a style that the common man could relate to, he opened a nations eyes to problems, within the nation, that may have gone undetected.
He turns her from beautiful, innocent, and pure to lifeless, brown, and limp like the dead seaweed. Additionally, just like how the daughter’s body is being tossed around by the waves without anyone else’s control, the outcomes of arrogant behavior also happen without anyone’s control. Although the skipper did not intend for his daughter to die, his borderline-smug attitude ultimately ends up ruining everything about her. The imagery used here depicts what a person’s overconfidence does to the things they love and care about. In conclusion, Longfellow uses imagery of the skipper’s eyes and daughter’s hair to convey the poem’s theme to his audience.The author of “Wreck of the Hesperus”, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, uses personification, simile, and imagery to establish that the overconfidence and pride that people have leads to a wild downward spiral for that person, and for the innocent things that the person loves. This is important for people to remember because overconfidence leads to an over-inflated ego and an excessive amount of pride, which weakens people and their relationships with others. People like this find it difficult to reach out and think it’s below them to ask for help or want help.
The human voyage into life is basically feeble, vulnerable, uncontrollable. Since the crew on a dangerous sea without hope are depicted as "the babes of the sea", it can be inferred that we are likely to be ignorant strangers in the universe. In addition to the danger we face, we have to also overcome the new challenges of the waves in the daily life. These waves are "most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall", requiring "a new leap, and a leap." Therefore, the incessant troubles arising from human conditions often bring about unpredictable crises as "shipwrecks are apropos of nothing." The tiny "open boat", which characters desperately cling to, signifies the weak, helpless, and vulnerable conditions of human life since it is deprived of other protection due to the shipwreck. The "open boat" also accentuates the "open suggestion of hopelessness" amid the wild waves of life. The crew of the boat perceive their precarious fate as "preposterous" and "absurd" so much so that they can feel the "tragic" aspect and "coldness of the water." At this point, the question of why they are forced to be "dragged away" and to "nibble the sacred cheese of life" raises a meaningful issue over life itself. This pessimistic view of life reflects the helpless human condition as well as the limitation of human life.
Within both Thomas Hardy’s “The Convergence of the Twain” and W. B. Yeats’ “The Second Coming”, the actions of God are extremely prevalent, though the timing of His intervention varies greatly. Though, both poems were published within a five year period (1914 and 1919 respectively), they convey significantly different perspectives on the actions of God, in relation to our actions as human beings. These poems were written less than a decade apart, but are separated by one significant event that changed the world: the First World War. Though, God plays a prevalent role within both works. His intervention occurs at different times. Yeats demonstrates a God that reacts to man’s actions, whereas Hardy’s God is omniscient, developing a correction to man’s perception of accomplishment before the Titanic is ever constructed. Hardy’s writing came just after the sinking of the Titanic, and he demonstrates that man had outstepped his bounds. In sinking the ‘unsinkable’ ship, according to the speaker, God is correcting the misadventure of man. Yeats’ poem was written shortly after World War I, and the speaker foresees an apocalypse due to the sin of man as a whole. Both authors portray the perceived actions of God, though the speaker within “The Convergence of the Twain” appears to be more accepting and less fearful. Throughout “The Second Coming”, the speaker demonstrates their fear of God’s inevitable reaction to World War I. Both poems share the imagery of water, though its significance varies between poems. The speaker’s acceptance of God’s will within Hardy’s poem represents a devout religiosity that is unwavering throughout this writing, and Yeats’ depiction focuses on fear of the coming future.
The story’s theme is related to the reader by the use of color imagery, cynicism, human brotherhood, and the terrible beauty and savagery of nature. The symbols used to impart this theme to the reader and range from the obvious to the subtle. The obvious symbols include the time from the sinking to arrival on shore as a voyage of self-discovery, the four survivors in the dinghy as a microcosm of society, the shark as nature’s random destroyer of life, the sky personified as mysterious and unfathomable and the sea as mundane and easily comprehended by humans. The more subtle symbols include the cigars as representative of the crew and survivors, the oiler as the required sacrifice to nature’s indifference, and the dying legionnaire as an example of how to face death for the correspondent.
There are many quotes to describe a classical American author, but Ulysses S. Grant describes one particular true American author as “. . . the simple soldier, who, all untaught of the silken phrase markers, linked words together with an art surpassing the art of schools and into them put a something which will bring American ears, as long as America shall last, the roll of his vanished drums and the thread of his marching hosts.” (American Experience, Grant’s Memoirs) Mark Twain is this simple soldier who is a true American author who expressed America with his writings. He fought for America in his writings as he did when he fought in the Civil War; the realistic literary time period. And his travels around the nation and life-changing experiences influenced him to write for the American readers to imagine what he viewed. Twain is a true American author due to his life events that influenced him to share with his beloved readers.