Analysis of Mark Twains The Story of the Good Little Boy - Book Report/Review Example

Since Jacob Blivens “always obeyed his parents, no matter how absurd and unreasonable their demands were; and he always learned his book, and never was late at Sabbath-school”, already the author intends to season the start with make-believe. Twain even sounds as casual and less formal in conveying details from this point onwards perhaps due to the simplistic approach of drawing a sense of innocence from the readers as they are made to examine the character of the good boy. Similarly, the rough composition is also meant to address the comprehension level of the general mass in the society under struggling economy and state of moral and social affairs or where the case of Bivens may particularly apply.

Though much practicality is employed in the tone, Twain nevertheless seeks to necessitate completeness in stating the major conditions with which the protagonist is involved. Having read a third of the story, this time around one should have had full acquaintance with Jacob’s noble ambition of being included in Sunday-school books in which are told the stories of other good little boys whom he looks up to with great admiration. Because it is claimed that “He never could see one of those little boys on account of his always dying in the last chapter”, such passion and curiosity fuels his drive to keep on staying too good to be true.

It may be observed that the narrator has deliberately dwelt at this stage long enough for the audience to ascertain how crucial the role Sunday-school book plays. As it becomes the center of Blivens’ life, the boy is gradually discovered to pattern his purpose of living according to such a remarkable book. Certain unpleasant twists in the middle, however, constitute the ensuing irony perceived through the conflict between what Jacob sees and expects as ideal in the books read and what becomes of him out of real incidences met.

While Twain puts it in “But somehow nothing ever went right with this good little boy; nothing ever turned out with him the way it turned out with the good little boys in the books”, he prepares the reading audience for a transition that allows them to maintain the original belief that there comes magical relief after all the sufferings or assume otherwise by virtue of realism. Proceeding with the irony eventually conditions the reader’s mind to get accustomed to the unlikely circumstances that Blivens confronts such as when Jim Blake fell on him instead of on the ground, breaking his arm.

Even on finding the lame dog that chose to rip his clothes off rather than to return to him the gratitude deserved and sliding into the river by the log. The element of irony not only incorporates an attribute that enables a reader to affirm or decline the hypothesis with respect to the destiny which awaits the good little boy but, in the process, it also establishes morale that being totally good without any trace of reservations does not always reap equivalent rewards.