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Mark twain's importance in american literature
Mark twain's importance in american literature
Mark twain's importance in american literature
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Mark Twain, in his Juvenalian essay “The War Prayer” (1916) asserts that patriotic and religious fervor is not a motivation of war. He supports his claim by implementing spiteful irony of situation, grim hyperboles, and effective allegories. Twain’s purpose is to address the immorality of the United State’s involvement in the Philippine War in order to make patriotic and religious people aware of their hypocrisy about war. He adopts a grim, didactic tone (“help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds… help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire… ”) for a religious, patriotic, and feminine populace during the time of World War I.
Appendix:
Type of Evidence: Irony of situation Examples(s): “We ask it, in the spirit
The book ‘For Cause and Comrades’ is a journey to comprehend why the soldiers in the Civil War fought, why they fought so passionately, and why they fought for the long period of time. Men were pulling guns against other men who they had known their whole lives. McPherson’s main source of evidence was the many letters from the soldiers writing to home. One of the many significant influences was how the men fought to prove their masculinity and courage. To fight would prove they were a man to their community and country. Fighting also had to do with a duty to their family. Ideology was also a major motivating factor; each side thought they were fighting for their liberty. The soldier’s reputations were created and demolished on the battlefield, where men who showed the most courage were the most honored. Religion also played an important role because the second Great Awakening had just occurred. Their religion caused the men who thought of themselves as saved to be fearless of death, “Religion was the only thing that kept this soldier going; even in the trenches…” (McPherson, p. 76) R...
“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.
A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain ...
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a constant battle between death and love.
The Poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” attempts to make war seem as repulsive as possible. The author’s goal is to discourage people from joining the war or any future conflicts by shattering the romantic image people have of the fighting. The setting of this poem helps
Both Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” as well as “next to of course god america i” written by E.E. Cummings preform critic on war propaganda used during the first world war. Besides this the influence war propaganda has on the soldiers as individuals as well as on war in more general terms, is being portrayed in a sophisticated and progressive manner. By depicting war with the use of strong literary features such as imagery or sarcasm both texts demonstrate the harshness of war as well as attempt to convey that war propaganda is, as Owen states “an old lie”, and that it certainly is not honourable to die for one’s country. Therefore, the aim of both writers can be said to be to frontally attack any form of war promotion or support offensively
Mississippi Twain tells us of a man with a dream. As imperfection has it this
In the world today, no one understands the consequences of some of their prayers. People that pray for war or other violent acts literally just want people to die. In the Satire The War Prayer written by Mark Twain he explains that people do not think about what they are praying for. Twain shows these people are not praying for peace, instead they are praying for more war and death. In The War Prayer Twain uses satire to enlighten society to think about what they actually pray for.
Welch, Richard E., Jr.? Response to Imperialism:? The United States and the Philippine-American War, 1899-1902.? Chapel Hill:? The University of North Carolina Press, 1979.
Yet, Twain remarks that this is not the sole detriment of this flaw as the state control on an individual’s religion not only cripples the very essence of self-governing citizenship but damages the cause in an even wider context. By crafting an identical religious identity for the entire mass, the state secretly infuses a false sense of security and sows the seeds of conformity within society. As Twain points out in “As Regards Patriotism,” “The Patriot did not know just how or when or where he got his opinions, neither did he care, so long as he was with what seemed the majority—which was the main thing, the safe thing, the comfortable thing (“Patriotism” 566).” The resultant comfort, conformity and patriotism that stems from state control consequently blurs the line between the personal and national identity of the individuals. As a result, an individual begins to perceive the two identities as one and, not realizing the significant difference between “shared” and “individual” identity, thus fails to recognize his own involvement in the creation of both. The deceptive and misleading nature of state control not only creates an illusion of the acceptable identity an individual
In closing, W.D Howells is successful in his use of these methods of argument. “Editha” paints a clear picture of the men who must fight and the people who casually call for war. He proves Editha’s motives are unworthy of devotion. After all, it is easy to sit back and call for war when it will be the common enlisted man who will die to provide this luxury. In the end, Howells made his point clear. War never comes without sacrifice or consequence.
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
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.
The presence of clashing opinions and beliefs results in unknown reality to be overpowered by false perceptions. These misconceptions result in costly effects but shape the aggression and instinct of humanity. Society often reflects on this difference of expectation and reality through many forms of literature. World War I was full of conflicting and evolving opinions within it’s poetry from the people in the battle and those back at home. The events of the war, life in the trenches, and views from the home front are reflected upon in World War I poetry. The Call written by Jessie Pope incorporates repetition of thought-provoking questions to convince men to join the war. Dulce
Society tells people that if they go to war and fight for their country, they are heroes. Every generation has war heroes that sacrificed a great deal. Many heroes die fighting for their nation while other heroes survive and have to live with post-traumatic symptoms either stimulated by physical and/or mental trauma. Ernest Hemingway, an expatriate of World War I, recognizes the effects of the war has on soldiers and effectively captivates the heroes’ distress, alienation, and detachment in The Sun Also Rises through his writing style. Hemingway terse and simple, yet effective, sentences captivates people into his novel. The characters in The Sun Also Rises illustrate the Lost Generation who came out of World War I and as a result of their war experiences and the social upheaval of that brevity, they were portrayed as cynical exasperators that had no emotional stability. Happiness and love deteriorates because of the catastrophe of World War I. The characters of this novel neglect to realize that society is exchanging soldiers’ title from war heroes to “lost” heroes and although they try to suppress and escape reality and drown their sorrows with wine and cynical humor in order to gain a subliminal stimulus of hope, they are all part of the lost generation.