Mark Twain's Two Ways Of Seeing A River

The first half of Life on the Mississippi was ideally written and reading the extremely detailed and captivating account of Twain's apprenticeship was quite enjoyable. However, the second part of the book was not as fascinating. The short stories were frequently only two pages long and were not very well connected to be a clear read. Though a few of the characters Twain met on his journey were quite interesting, the majority of them merely served as an example of a certain characteristic which he wished to further discuss. This may be due to the fact that Twain was much older by the time he made the trip in the second half of the book, and he had grown aware of the various faults of humanity and thus wrote more analytically and critically than he did in the first half to reflect his change in character and the change of the times he lived in.

81). However, this reverent tone shifts as he mentions that he soon began to “...cease from noting the glories and charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the river’s face” (Fader/Rabinowitz pg. 81). The previously appreciative essay morphs by the third paragraph with the first sentence being “No, the romance and beauty were all gone from the river” (Fader/Rabinowitz pg. 81) Twain has clearly grown up, allowing his view of his environment to become sullied. The wonder of the world has been dulled with all of his experiences piling on top of one another. His attitude towards the river and everything he used to associate with it changed for a more pessimistic

Mark Twain , the author , described his experience as if he was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Twain incited a lot of changes as he was riding through the river. He seen the beauty of the river and he also seen the unborn of the river. He compared a wonderful book to the face of water. He also used descriptive language to help the reader visualize the river. Technical language was used to note the change in his viewpoint of the river to the reader. Twain describes his experiences by using technical language , descriptive language , and comparison as a pilot riding through the Mississippi River.

Mark Twain in “Two Ways of Seeing a River” uses sensory imagery to describe the surrounding river. Twain puts

The beauty and innocence that Mark Twain witnessed on the Mississippi River was just a deception due to his lack of knowledge. In Mark Twain’s memoir, Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain acquires knowledge that exposes the majestic Mississippi River as a dangerous and malevolent place. In Mark Twain’s memoir he introduced a book that was perceived differently between the passenger and the pilot. Mark Twain was once the optimistic passenger that saw the beauty in anything.

In the excerpt Life on the Mississippi, it discusses how Mark Twain has a different viewpoint of the river from the beginning of the excerpt to the end were he does not have the same feeling that he had. Twain had found out the truth about the:grace, beauty, and poetry of the Mississippi river. As Mark Twain experiences the Mississippi River, his perspective of the river changes from the beginning of the excerpt to the end. Twain descriptive details about the river showed the wonderful beauty of the river.

In the Novel, "Huckleberry Finn", the Mississippi River is as beautiful as a bride on her wedding day. The green leaves on the trees were bright like a shooting star. All of the birds were hanging out in the trees and singing the day away. The tree roots along the bank side looked like a snake slithering along. The sun fish are sunbathing at the top of the water.

Two Ways of Seeing a Relationship Most people are blinded by flaws, at the very beginning at least. At first, everything is new and exciting, but when imperfections of the couple become annoying in life everything takes a turn for the worse. Mark Twain understands this behavior and recognizes that there are two ways of seeing things for what they truly are. In his essay,”Two Ways of Viewing a River”, he describes how beautiful the river was before he became a pilot and eventually sees the horrors that lay hidden in the water. In a relationship, it is known that the beginning is the most euphoric and is often referred to the honeymoon stage. After the bliss is gone and the flaws start to show, overtime the couple may realize that the relationship is not worth salvaging. The stages in a relationship can be compared to the magnificent river in the essay by the thrill of a new lover, the contentment of love, and the realization that sometimes it is not meant to last.

Life on the river for Huck and Jim is very peaceful. Jim built a snug wigwam to keep their belongings dry, they could just lay looking up at the sky, and they good weather. Huck says, “We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness” (Twain, 64). The river provided Huck and Jim many things, not only food, but also a way to escape. For Huck, the river provided him an escape from his life with his father and the Widow. For Jim, the river provided an escape from being a slave. On the river they were both free from their past lives. Mark Twain, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, shows us how nature can offer an escape from society’s restrictions and evils. Even though nature has changed immensely since this book was written, it still provides an escape from society. In today’s world, nature can be utilized as a thinking place or as a place to recover from pain. There are many more themes that we can see in today’s society. Several themes of Huck Finn are still relevant today, including “Nature offers an escape from society’s restrictions and evils,” “People tend to act cruelly or irrationally in groups,” and “Discrimination causes pain and suffering for many people”.

The river also shows the path Huck takes to reach maturity. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses various symbols, such as the river and the land to expose freedom, trouble, maturity, and bonding relationships. In the book, land is

Growing up seems a little daunting as we are younger but every year and each event we experience transforms our views and outlook on life. Mark Twain’s “Old Times on the Mississippi” is a story that embodies the human nature to not only explore our world but to find our true selves. This work shows us a glimpse of each stage of life that many people go through while growing up. In this essay we will look at several sections of the book and how each part of the story relates to our how our own human nature changes with each experience.

Twain's understanding of the river was not very strong at first. He understand change of perspective of the river throughout his journey. At first Twain’s view of the river was beautiful and alluring but as time went by he started seeing it was boring and old. In the first paragraph of the story, the author uses an analogy to show how he felt about the river. “And it was a book to be read once and thrown aside for it had a new story to tell everyday.” This analogy shows Twain’s point of view on the river at this time. The Mississippi River in his eyes at this time is positive, and he enjoys the time he gets to spend on the river while doing his job. As Mark Twain’s time on the river he changes how he views it from being negative to

After reading the excerpt from Mark Twain's story two ways of seeing a river i've been introduced to a new idea that the beauty of an object or concept changes as you start to observe and understand the thing. For me this phenomenon has occurred for the world around me. When i was young the world was a magical place full of mysteries and surprises but then i grew up and i was no longer the innocent youth that i once was. I gained knowledge and experience and soon the world became bleak and the beauty had left i saw the horrors of this world and the only thing that brings me comfort is the thought of the future which holds more beauty in the form of mysteries and surprises yet to come.

He explains that the bubbling in the river he had previously described as opal-like was actually caused by the shifting of sands under the water. He also reveals a dangerous side to the beauty, “ the lines and circles in the slick water over yonder are a warning that the troublesome place is shoaling up dangerously.” Twain included this in order to explain the pros and cons of learning nature's secrets. Because he was able to recall the meaning of the lines he did not ram his boat into shallow water, although it was at the expense of the childlike wonder present in the first

Thus, Twain’s early experiences in life helped him to flesh out a well-rounded vocabulary and sparked his interests in adventure and traveling. Twain spent his boyhood in the riverside town of Hannibal, Missouri where he, “experienced the excitement of the colorful steamboats that docked at the town wharf, bringing comedians, singers, gamblers, swindlers, slave dealers, and assorted other river travelers” (Gribben). His exposure to much of the world at a young age opened his eyes to people groups, travel, and differences in dialect that would all become subject matter of his later writing. Twain wrote in Life on the Mississippi that he became acquainted with all the “different types of human nature that are to be found in fiction, biography, or history” while he worked as a steamboat apprentice (128). The diverse people and places he met during his time on the river all became awe-inspiring to him and served as the foundation for his works to come. Countless