Politics is dirty and competitive and has not changed between 1879 and 2018. It is a complex system of jargon, charm, facts, and lies. Mark Twain’s “The Presidential Candidate” satirically expresses the essence of both old-world and modern politics as a presidential candidate who blatantly tells the truth of his wrongdoings. As a politician, one must be an open book. Their life must be truthfully written on the pages for the readers to analyze and evaluate their credibility as leaders. “The Presidential Candidate” resonates both in 1879 and 2018 with his use of humor, use of diction and use of subtlety. Mark Twain’s use of humor in the story mocks and shines light on the issues of our society’s political system from back then that continue …show more content…
Towards the end of the story for example, Twain’s presidential candidate admits to “[burying] a dead aunt under my grapevine” (Twain 4). He writes asking rhetorically if this makes him unfit for being President, to which he follows up with pointing out that the “Constitution of our country does not say so.” (Twain 4) He has not done something illegal, but he has broken what some would say moral law. He feels just because he wishes to hold such a position and that he had been truthful of his wrongdoing that he should not be under scrutiny for it. This is comparable to today’s political sexual scandals because nowhere in the Constitution does it explicitly say that a politician would be eliminated as a candidate for the Presidency, but most have their careers ruined by being under fire. For instance, this year the governor of Missouri was accused of having an affair before his run for the Missouri office. “Greitens also said he had no plans to leave office, despite calls from Republican and Democratic lawmakers for him to resign.” (Porter) The governor of Missouri may not intend to step down, but with more issues rising concerning the affair and his public image, he may have to step down. This all suggests that perhaps sometimes honesty is not always the correct move and that these private matters should be kept out of the public’s
Ann Richards’s keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1988 was extremely interesting to watch. I believe her speech was intended to be focused on the American family and also the American farmers. These two areas seemed to be very important to Mrs. Richards and she made a point to discuss both.
Mark Twain in his essay “A Presidential Candidate” uses hyperbole, irony, and diction to accost politicians and show their faults to the well-read voters. Twain’s use of hyperbole, which is seen through his past stories such as the incident involving his grandfather, establishes an exaggerated sense of himself as a candidate which creates the image of a forthright yet malicious man running for office. He also uses reductio ad absurdum to show the ridiculousness of the politicians running for office and how they are deceitful about small things while he is willing to tell how he killed his grandfather for snoring. Twain’s diction as seen through such phrases as “prowl”, “heartless brutality”, and “Napoleonic” set up a sarcastic tone that was
Abby Gross Mr. Bruneel AP Lang- Period 7 10 April 2014 Exploring Censorship of Twain’s Great American Novel: A Literary Critique To delve into a topic as serious as book censorship, one must first determine the purpose of reading, of literature in general. Blahblahblah (what Ms Buckingham said).
So to speak, no one will judge you for a difference of opinion because most people agree with yours. Once again Twain uses an example that appeals to logos, and can be applied to everyday life. Paragraph eight continues the issue of politics by saying men think with their parties, not their brains. No one will seek out the opposite argument because that isn’t what their party believes, therefore it doesn’t
President Obama’s Address to the nation was presented on January 5, 2016. His speech was shown on all of the major network stations. The main goal of his speech was to get the point across to the nation about the increasing problem of gun use. His speech really focused on the issue of gun control and if it would benefit the country. Overall, the biggest idea of his Address was that gun control is a large issue in the United States. The way to prevent deaths caused by firearms can be prevented in other ways than taking peoples guns away. The examples brought up in this Address really stood out to me. The use of personal, national, and global examples really made his speech stronger on the topic of effectiveness.
According to Mark Twain, “A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.” Throughout literary history, the reoccurring theme of a shady character performing immoral, habitual actions is no new topic. These vial characters entertain readers by their confident persona and their desire to win. The literary pieces that include this genre of character are especially prominent entering the 19th century, as humor and deception become key components of literature. Mark Twain, one of the most distinguished American authors in the 19th century, made his living by writing “light, humorous verse, but evolved this literature into a chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and murderous acts of mankind.” The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, written by Mark Twain, focuses on a narrator from the east suffering through a Westerner’s tale about a jumping frog as the author attempts to entertain the reader through its oddities in the short story, its humorous tall tale of satire, and its desire to inform the reader of East versus West stereotypes.
Twain’s novel was greatly influenced by the times and criticizes the imperfections in society. These errors in society were subjective to the current events during the Gilded Age. The following show the effects of the current times that influenced the context of the novel. One of America’s leading historians of America in the west, Patricia N. Limerick well elaborates on what happened in the Gilded Age. The following quote fro...
Many would argue that President Obama is one of the most effective speakers in the decade. With his amazing speeches, he captivates his audience with his emotion and official tone.
“The beauty of me is that I am very rich” according to Donald Trump. His ignorance has lead him to do things that he shouldn’t being doing or has done. In the past few months he has been racist man that would insult people that are from a different race. When Trump started running for president he would insult and bully everybody in general not knowing the people’s stories. He made people seem like they are poor and have nothing to live for, Trump’s inability to see past his greed. He wants to separate the United States and wants people to think he is the best of the best; Trump should not be President.
The parallelism that is introduced in the two long sentences that make up paragraph 14 emphasize Twain’s belief in people. He shows that people believe that they are putting time and effort into thinking about politics and deciding what party they belong to when in all actuality they are influenced by those around them. This can be seen when twain states “they read its literature, but not that of the other side” (720). This shows that many people are actually clueless of the whole picture. They only receive information about a single part and make their decision based off of that, without taking the time out to view both sides.
Mark Twain is one of the major authors of American fiction and is widely considered American Literature’s greatest humorist. Mark Twain’s work is the basis for all American Literature we know today. Even though many of his works were banned in schools and libraries because of his repeated use of satire to bash society, his work still stands as the backbone for modern American Literature. His use of misspelled words to help emphasize the characters dialect changed the world of writing to make it more immersive and realistic. Mark Twain published a variety of works including novels, travel narratives, short stories, sketches and essays; all in which he conveyed the idea of faith in emotion, and man’s connection with nature and he expressed these ideas through the medium of writing to recapture the ecstasy of exploration and discovery and inspired many other writers in the Romantic Period.
When Barack Obama ran for presidency, there were a lot of questions about his race, color, and whether he was born in the U.S.. The comments from his pastor Jeremiah Wright put him in an awkward situation, so he decided to give this speech to prove the point that we are all the same and live in the same country, so there shouldn’t be any discrimination among anyone. In his speech, Obama uses rhetorical devices to explain how race discrimination is affecting our country and us in every way possible. The use of rhetorical devices in this speech has strong effects on the audience. The use of allusion, symbolism, optimistic tone, and repetition of words gives the speech a strong argumentative tone. He argues the fact that to be able to achieve such big goals and how out country was supposed to be from the beginning, we need to stay united and rely on younger
McCain starts off his speech by using self-disclosure and describing his time as a young man as a navy liaison, and eventually senator, on the senate and working alongside former vice president Joe Biden. “Joe was already a senator, and I was the navy’s liaison to the Senate. My duties included escorting Senate delegations on overseas trips, and in that capacity, I supervised the disposition of the delegation’s luggage, which could require – now and again – when no one of lower rank was available for the job – that I carry someone worthy’s bag” (McCain 2017). Self-Disclosure is the the speaker telling the audience of their personal experiences and tells the audience why they have the personal convictions that they have. (Hamilton 2017)
As a very gifted writer and philosopher, Mark Twain, maintains his audience with the use of humor. He starts the essay out by saying, “You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I’ll tell you what his ‘pinion is” (1). The
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.