Essay/Term paper: Mark twain

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Biography

Mark Twain was a pilot, a comic lecturer, a humorist, a

short story writer, and a novelist, to name a few of his

many accomplishments. On November 30, 1835, Samuel

Langhorne Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain,

became the first man of any importance ever to be born

west of the Mississippi River. He has become an icon as

the American writer. This is because his way of writing

cannot be simulated by Europeans or anyone else, due to

the fact that the western setting of America creates a whole

new atmosphere and style of writing. Mark Twain is a

classic American writer that acquired fame by using satire,

writing with single-minded use of words, and by writing the

way that most people think and speak. Twain writes with

single-minded use of words, which is understood to be

plain and simple, yet still intelligent, which enhances

American literature. He writes what comes into his mind

without fear. This is an example from Huckleberry Finn: ...

"then comes a h-wack! bum! bum!

bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum - and the thunder

would go rumbling and grumbling away" ... (Twain 45).

This enriches American literature, because it is a clever

way, and the only way to make the reader actually seem to

hear and feel the sounds the writer is trying to convey. This

is an example from Tom Sawyer : "Set her back on the

stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! chow! ch-chow-wow! chow!".

(Twain 15). This dialect can be explained as a familiar

speech spoken around us all the time. It is the speech of the

illiterate, the preliterate, the children, and the poor people

(Bloom 46). This is actually a very intelligent style of

writing, for it is difficult for an author to write in a different

level of dialect than they actually speak. The reader can tell

that this dialect isn"t Twain"s own, since he doesn"t write

with it in every part of the book. Huckleberry Finn is

supposed to be written from Huck"s point of view. The

story is written as he would speak it, so mistakes inevitably

appear. However, this single- minded dialect was worked,

composed, and written by Twain. It was not done

haphazardly (Bloom 46). American literature would not be

the same if not for Twain"s ideas for ways of writing in a

way that spectacularly conveys the feelings of touch, sound,

and sight by the use of single-minded words. Another way

that Mark Twain enriches the heritage of American

literature is by his style of writing in the vernacular, which

means to write the way that people think and speak

(Kesterson 14). The vernacular portrays the word in the

purest sense of its original meaning. The vernacular

symbolizes American writing because nobody else on earth

would talk in that way besides the early American settlers.

An example from Huckleberry Finn is : " I reck"n I could

eat a hoss. I think I could. How long you ben on de islan"

?" (Twain 46). This style is done by writing without

worrying about spelling or context, and rather just writing

the way that the speech sounds. This style of writing is

uniquely American, because the famous European authors

did not write that way since the people of Europe didn"t

speak that way. Another example from this book is: " Say,

who is you? Whar is you? Dog my cats ef I didn"t hear

sumf"n." (Twain 5). Europeans had never spoken like this

or heard of it before Mark Twain. The vernacular enhances

American writing solely because it is uniquely early

American. It also gives a face to American writing,

distinguishing it from writing in other parts of the world. The

vernacular also shows the rural, uneducated portion of

America. These are two examples from Tom Sawyer : "

Can"t, Mars Tom. Ole missis, she tole me I got to go an"

git dis water an" not stop foolin" roun" wid anybody. She

say she spec" Mars Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash, an"

so she tole me to go "long an" "tend to my own business -

she "lowed she"d tend to de whitewashin"" (Twain 13).

Another example is: " Look at him, Jim! He"s a-going up

there. Say-look! He"s a-going to shake hands with

him..."(Twain 38). This shows how they are uneducated,

because of the sloppy sentence structure, and it hints at the

fact of them being rural by mentioning whitewashing the

fence. This enriches American literature by showing a point

of view from the poor, which is welcome to those who are

tired of hearing about the glamour of rich people. Mark

Twain"s legacy as a humorist is to use satire, which greatly

enhances American literature. Satire is a term for a work

that uses ridicule to attack ideas, institutions, people, or

other objects taken from real life. The main purpose for

using satire is to arouse disdain for its targets (Rasmussen

418). It belittles human weaknesses, using humor as its

weapon (Rasmussen 418). Twain doesn"t try to mislead

the readers intentionally, for he believes that all humans

already misunderstand themselves (Kesterson 27). One

example of satire is in the Grangerford episode of The

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Here, Twain attempts to

make fun of Shakespeare"s Romeo and Juliet by mocking

the story line. Both stories include two otherwise intelligent

families who destroy each other because of a feud so old,

they don"t even know why they"re fighting (Rasmussen

419). The story lines are so similar, everybody knows that

he"s mocking Romeo and Juliet, but the subtle twists make

it humorous. Another example of satire is in Twain"s first

novel, The Gilded Age. This book is filled with a lot of

sharp satire that "satirizes almost every aspect of 19th

century political and social mores." (Rasmussen 419). The

whole idea of this book was focused on satire. People

liked this book so much that there were constant cries for a

sequel (Kesterson 71). Surely enough, the sequel to The

Gilded Age , called The American Claimant was written. It

is about a democratic English noble, Lord Berkeley, who

comes to America prepared to give up inherited

Aristocratic privileges for republican equality. However, the

American society is obsessed with grasping for what he

wants to cast off (Rasmussen 419). For example, Lord

Berkeley came to America for hope of less authority from

the government, however, the Americans were stuck on the

idea that giving the government more power would be

better for them in the long run. This acute example of satire

is directed at the people of America whom wish to go back

to the old traditions of England. Twain uses satire in this

book to make the American people question why they

would come to the "land of freedom" if they were planning

on turning around and giving the government more authority

than necessary. Another great example of Twain"s use of

satire is in his novel called Captain Stormfield"s Visit to

Heaven. This novel has very clear satirical targets and

sticks to them the whole story (Rasmussen 419). As it says

in Rasmussens"s Mark Twain A to Z, "Stormfield discovers

that Earth counts for so little in the cosmic scheme of things

that a clerk in heaven needs two days just to find it on a

map" (p. 419). This is pointing out the vanity of all human

beings. The satire in this book enriches American literature,

by letting readers see themselves in a new light that they

may not have thought about before reading it. Using satire,

single-minded words, and writing in the vernacular has all

helped Mark Twain to become the classic American icon

that he is today. He left behind a legacy of unmatched

ingenuity to think of sharp, efficient satire in many of his

writings. Twain"s use of single-minded words captures the

reader"s attention, making them feel almost as if they are in

the book themselves. His masterful use of the vernacular

portrays the speech of early rural America. Twain"s use of

the vernacular lets the reader read more smoothly since

they do not have to pay attention to the structural

significance of the word. Since Mark Twain was the first

truly great western author to define American writing, he

has opened the way for many future authors to come.

Works Cited Bloom, Harold. Interpretations of Mark

Twain"s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. NewYork:

Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Clemens, Samuel L. The

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. NewYork: Dodd, Mead

& Company, 1953. Clemens, Samuel L. The Adventures

of Tom Sawyer. NewYork: Dodd, Mead & Company,

1958.

Http://galenet.gale.com/a/acp/netacgi/nph...thor-search.html/&r=1&f=l3;1;

+ "1647-1".ID. Kesterson, David B. ed. Critics on Mark

Twain. Florida: University of Miami Press, 1973.

Rasmussen, Kent R. Mark Twain A to Z. NewYork: Facts

on File, Inc., 1995. Stapleton, Michael, comp. The

Cambridge Guide to English Literature. NewYork:

Cambridge University Press, 1983.