The Life and Writing Style of Mark Twain - Essay Example

? The Life and Writing Style of Mark Twain Mark Twain once wrote, “If Christ were here there is one thing he wouldnot be – a Christian” (Cox vii). This is indeed not only humorous but also demonstrative of two types of criticisms – a low estimation of man and an equally low regard for the role of God and religion in people’s lives. This was the language that Mark Twain used to employ in his works. As one born during the era of literary realism, the American writer Mark Twain is regarded as “the philosopher and the humanitarian [who looks] through the twinkling eyes of the humorist” (Eliot). By employing humor in his works, Twain was able to expose the bitter, realistic attributes of of society, religion and humanity. In fact, Twain’s two masterpieces “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “Letters from the Earth” demonstrate Twain’s two kinds of humor. Mark Twain was born in 1835 as Samuel Langhorn Clemens, a man who had had numerous careers before he even turned 30 from being a journeyman printer to being a riverboat pilot. When he found a job at a newspaper company, he immediately adopted a pen name – Mark Twain. It was in 1865 when he gained overnight fame from his first masterpiece – a short story entitled “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” and also a piece of work that practically displays Mark Twain’s typical writing style (Schultz). Most of Twain’s writings had in them local color realism and mainstream realism. For “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” Twain employed local color realism and mainstream realism, while for “Letters from the Earth,” the author used sharp sarcasm and wit. In “The Celebrated Jumping Frog,” local color realism can be proven by Twain’s use of the dialect of the deep south. The vocabulary used by the character Simon Wheeler in short story is typical of local color realism. In the story, Wheeler uses “feller” instead of fellow, and contractions like “reg’lar” and “solit’ry” (Twain, “The Celebrated”). Moreover, there are also some words used which, by current standards, are considered grammatical incorrect: “the curiousest,” which is supposed to be “the most curious,” “she don’t,” which is supposed to be “she doesn’t,” and “ketched” which stands for “catched” but which is supposed to be “caught.” (Twain, “The Celebrated”). Moreover, mainstream realism is also used in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog” as Twain mentions real life events like gambling and cheating. Both local color realism and mainstream realism attribute the realistic aspect of any literary work during the era of realism in literature. On the other hand, Twain employs sarcastic humor in “Letters from the Earth.” In fact, the whole story is heavily peppered with sarcasm. One of these instances is in saying that “[man] believes the Creator is proud of him; he even believes the Creator loves him” when in fact He does not (Twain, “Letters,” I). In fact, the picture of man as otherwise arrogant and proud is what he means by the aforementioned example. Twain was therefore trying to awaken people through his sense of humor coupled with realistic elements. Satan also mentions in his letters that although human beings place sexual intercourse “far and away above all other joys,” they have somehow forgotten to include it in their idea of heaven (Twain, “Letters,” II). This now addresses a confusing issue about sex. If human beings consider the act as sexually and physically pleasurable as it is stated in the Bible, then why would the idea of sex be excluded from one’s perception of heaven? Twain addresses this issue in “Letters from the Earth” (Twain). As an addition to sarcasm, Twain used religious references in “Letters from the Earth” but references to the government in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog.” The purpose is to instill humor. Through the characters of the archangels Michael and Gabriel and through the character Satan, Twain used to illustrate the current religious instinct in man and that he assumed every one to read “Letters from the Earth” (“Mark Twain”). Twain uses many other references to religion such as the mention of Adam and Eve (III), Noah and his ark (IV), and Moses and Eleazar (IX). The thing, however, is that Twain used these biblical references to give sarcastic criticisms to God in ways that are humorous ways. For example, Adam and Eve are described by Twain as two “ignorant children” of God who were not forgiven by God at all despite the new law of the New Testament (III). While Twain maligned religion in “Letters from the Earth,” he gave subtle criticisms of the government in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog” by calling the pup Andrew Jackson, the American President during the author’s time (Twain, “The Celebrated”). To the frog, he gives the name Dan’l Webster, which was short for the American Statesman Daniel Webster. The story is actually humorous for the reason that giving animals these lofty and stately names is actually not as obvious as assigning these otherwise “honorable” statesmen the nature of animals. Lastly, the two literary works of Twain both show a low estimation of human beings, and, specifically, in “Letters from the Earth” in particular, Twain put down God in two of his speeches. In “The Celebrated Jumping Frog,” Twain also showed man’s gullibility in the character of Jim Smiley. Smiley decides to leave his frog Dan’l Webster to the untrustworthy fellow with whom he has made a bet, only to find out in the end that his frog is supposed to be medicated with quail-shot (Twain, “The Celebrated”). In fact, the scene where Smiley knows about the trick and runs after the fellow is not humorous but also a good reason to drive the audience laughing hard at Jim Smiley if the story were a movie. In “Letters from the Earth,” the same ignorance of mankind is somehow given emphasis by Twain when he refers to Adam and Eve as “ignorant children” of God (Twain, “Letters,” III). In the same way, Twain considers human beings “the most interesting fools there are” (VIII). One of the reasons is that even though God has brought diseases upon the poor, these poor people still worship Him endlessly (VII). Aside from this, Twain gives a low estimation of God in “Letters from the Earth” by stating a most obvious fact: “It is [God] whom Church and people call Our Father in Heaven who has invented the fly and sent him to inflict this dreary long misery…and decay of body and mind” (VII). Yet the diseased keep worshipping God, and so this is obviously illogical and busy and hectic situation is the basis for Twain’s humor and the laughable quality of this particular literary work. Some of the probable influences in Mark Twain’s writing style somehow began when he was only a child growing up in Hannibal, Missouri. It was here, in a village near the Mississippi River, that Twain experienced the colorful steamboats, funny clowns and performers, gamblers, slave dealers, swindlers and other travelers along and across the river. Twain’s childhood therefore was somehow a colorful experience and one which probably influenced the kind of exciting and lively imagery he employed in the writing of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “Letters from the Earth” (“Mark Twain”). When Twain became a riverboat pilot in his early 20s instead of going to South America, he had a better-paying job and one which he enjoyed. Moreover, his experience as a riverboat pilot gave him several opportunities to meet many more interesting people. In fact, according to Twain himself, “In that brief, sharp schooling, I got personally and familiarly acquainted with about all the different types of human culture that are to be found in fiction, biography, or history” (“Mark Twain”). In short, what Mark learned from the aforementioned experienced is that the fiction that he had been reading was actually not just simple stories in a book but a rather realistic account of life. This must have made Twain admire more the art of short story writing and of writing itself. Twain may have therefore realized that the purpose of the art of writing was not only to entertain but also to provide the readers with a more realistic view of the world. Nevertheless, in the era of realism, where most authors would have written something not only realistic but also bleak and pessimistic, Twain succeeded in writing his otherwise realistic stories with much humor. Such experiences may therefore have encouraged Twain to finally begin writing a few years later (“Mark Twain”). After Twain’s travels to Nevada, he settled temporarily in California and began his career as a writer in a local daily known as the San Francisco Morning Call and in a literary journal known as the Californian. It was also in California where Twain wrote his first popular short story – “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (“Mark Twain”). Twain then went to New York to hopefully find a chance to make money using his writing career. It was also here that Twain met Olivia L. Langdon, whom he married and with whom he had four children. After this, he kept on working as a newspaper editor in Buffalo, New York, and finally Twain and his family moved to a 19-room house in Hartford, Connecticut. It was in his 20 years in Hartford, Connecticut that Twain was able to write his novels – his first, The Gilder Age in 1873, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885. The last has always been considered as Mark Twain’s greatest literary masterpiece. In fact, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a fictional account of the adventures of two runaways – a white kid known as Huck and a black slave named Jim. However, what provided Twain’s signature humor was the character Tom Sayer, which also reappears in The Adventures of Huckleberry (“Mark Twain”). In the 1890s, Twain must have suffered from the death of his two daughters and his wife as well. This somehow changed him a little bit and although he does not admit it, Twain’s satire became one which was full of bitter pessimism and a view that all human motives were basically selfish, particularly in the autobiography when I was writing. He died of a heart disease in April 1910 and left behind several unpublished manuscripts of his works (Schultz; “Mark Twain”). Nevertheless, even though Mark Twain is gone, we still remember him as the writer who “helped to devise the personal style of American travel writing” (Schultz). Moreover, he was able to successfully employ a good sense of humor and fun to otherwise strictly realistic works of the period of literary realism. Works Cited Cox, James Melville. Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor. Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2002. Print. Eliot, Charles William. “Jim Smily and His Jumping Frog.” Bartleby.net. 2001. Web. 4 May 2012. Schultz, Stanley K. “Twain, Mark Samuel Clemens.” 2012. Web. 20 Jun 2012. Twain, Mark. “Letters from the Earth.” Positive Atheism. 1995. Web. 7 May 2012. Twain, Mark. “Literary Timeline.” The American Novel. 2011. Web. 4 May 2012. Twain, Mark. “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Malakoff. Web. 3 May 2012. < http://www.malakoff.com/jumpfrog.htm> Top of Form Bottom of Form Read More