MARK TWAIN QUACK PHILOSOPHER Essay Example For Students

MARK TWAIN: QUACK PHILOSOPHER Essay Mark Twain is, according to critics and readers alike, the first great American novelist (Reuben). Throughout his lifetimeTwain, born Samuel Longhorn Clemens, held an eclectic mix of jobs, and, wrote a great deal about his experiences and hisboyhood. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (AOTS) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (AOHF) are a pair of novels byTwain that: present the new and radical changes in the early 1800s in contrast to the old fashioned ways; mirror Twains lifeas a young boy growing up in a one-horse town on the Mississippi River; and, give the reader an idea of his view that theloss of innocence signals the coming of age. Twain was born in 1835 and Tom Sawyer grew up in the 1840s. Around this time, America, especially the North, wasundergoing revolutionary changes in transportation and communication (Geise 93). The river steam boat was invented in1807 (Roberts and Kennedy 305) and subsequently took over mass transportation from sailboats using the ocean (Geise). This was a big change from the previous small scale or trans-ocean transport. After the steam boat came the steam trainwhich revolutionised transportation in a similar fashion, and they synergistically opened the West to all people and boostedtrade and commerce enormouslynot just of the big industrial towns but of the en-route towns and the farms, In 1849,agriculture accounted for over half of the nations economy, whereas today it is one-fiftieth (Roberts and Kennedy A27). Canals, turnpikes and clipper ships also greatly affected transport and communication between distant places (311). Thetimes were revolutionary in that the old ways of taking dirty, bumpy roads long distances with little profit were over. Another sign of the times was slavery. Racism was widespread during this time period because many large farms andplantations held slaves. Feelings towards slaves in Missouri were not generally sympathetic, and abolitionists were not wellaccepted because the economy would collapse without the slave based agriculture. Rudyard Kipling wrote at the end of thatcentury The White Mans Burden, (643) that was taken to mean that blacks must accept their position as underlings. Whilea false interpretation, it shows that many Confederates and sympathisers held the view that blacks and slaves deserved to beoppressed even after the Civil War (1861-1864). TAOTS accurately reflects the small town economy. The river trade is the centre of all commerce and without it, town lifewould end. In Chapter Two of TAOTS, Ben Rogers, a local boy, pretends to be a steamboat. This exemplifies howimportant the boats were to the town. Everything in the townthe mill, the tavernsthey all depended on the trade from theriver. The town, consisting of a church, a school, a general store, taverns a mill and a docking area for the boats also reflecthow important the river really was. The ministers fire and brimstone sermons (35) preach against the evils of drink,gambling and lust, all of which would have been demonstrated by the passing river sailors and conmen. In the AOHF, the town life is not so much the focus of description as river life. But it is the description of the treatment ofslaves that truly stands out. Huck was poor, but still he was socially above Jim because he was white and not owned. TAOHF was set a few decades before the civil war so when Huck and Jim escaped down the Mississippi and headed south,they were putting Jim in more peril. When they took on board the King and the Duke these other travelers wanted to turn Jimin. Many non-slave states actually had laws that allowed for the returning of runaway slaves (Geise 109). Both TAOTS andAOHF are accurate in their description of the situation (slave-wise and town-wise) at that time. Mark Twains views about childhood and the subsequent loss of innocence are a product of childhood experience growingup in Hannibal, Missouri (pop 500), a small town on the Mississippi River. As a young boy, he enjoyed skipping school togo fishing on the nearby island; playing with the off-limits Tom Blackenship (Draper 3713), the son of the town drunk; orspending time with his sweetheart Laura Hawkins (Thayer 5). Twain once had a harrowing experience as a child when hegot lost in a local cave with Laura. Living in the small river town, whose only commerce was from the steamboat trade, hewitnessed at least four murders (Sanderlin). When he was eleven, his father died (Meltzer 75). He quit school in fifth grade(twelve years old), just as most children did at that time (Kaplan 356). He then became an apprentice in a printing shop,where he began to write down stories his overactive imagination created. Twain had an ideal life in Hannibal. Even thoughhe was poor (Roberts 5), he went to sc hool and Sunday School where he got some education and made many friends, andmuch mischief. He and his friends had exiting experiences together, some of which jolted him out of his innocence. OnceTwain and his friends were playing in the creek and a clumsy German boy, who makes an appearance in TAOTS, dived intothe creek and drowned. The boy had memorised 3000 verses of the Bible for Sunday school, so Twain had a hard timefiguring out how God could be that cruel. Or, for that matter, how people could be cruel. He once saw a master brutallymurder his slave: not a rare occurrence in Missouri, a slave state. As a result, Twain underwent ups and downs in his moodas a child had bad dreams and sleep-walked (Sanderlin 13). The Bay Of Pigs EssayTom ran away to Jackson Island to escape society that was oppressing him by not letting him have fun. It was on the islandthat he learned independence was not all it cracked up to be. Twain had to act like an adult at that age, so here he wassaying that boys have to behave like boys before they can become men. When Tom was lost in the cave in Chapter Thirty hewas forced to become the adult because Becky was behaving like a child. He had already been exposed to reality so he wasprepared to take the responsibility of comforting her and not letting her worry. In Chapter Sixteen Tom and Joe were notready to smoke, but Huck was ready to experience some part of adult life. Huck had always taken care of himself. When he was abducted by his father he was realistic about his situation and practicalin his plan of escape. Philosophically, Twain wants to show the reader that the boys loss of innocence is how they became mature adults ratherthan remain impractical or conscienceless boys as they had been before. Adulthood could be a culmination of events endingin a review that brings one to change their outlook. But Twains life was more dramatic. His father died and he was thrustinto the real world, his school of life without much warning. Tom saw the murder and came to an eventual conclusion: thatmen can be cruel and so can God, but what one does personally is what is important. Huck came to this same conclusionmore smoothly. He had always seen society as bad for him. The social mores of education and religion never did much forhim, and social institutions like class structure and manners were even worse. He accepts having to behave civilised, butthinks his own way, for example that slavery is not fair. Mark Twain began writing AOHF before TAOTS, but had to put it aside. When he started up again he wrote TAOTS formoney but kept TAOHF in its pure form. TAOHF is his commentary on: societythat it does no good; on religionthatonly fools believe in it; and on menthat they do evil but can do good. But essentially the novels are simple local-colourstories of boyhood and the journey to manhood in a romantic, and alternatively, in a realist. Works CitedBailey, Thomas A; and Kennedy, David M. The American Pageant: A History of the Republic. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991. Derwin, Susan. Impossible Commands: Reading Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn. 1990-1995. 13 pages,