Why Mark Twain's Essay: The River Was Beautiful

How does Mark Twain view the Mississippi river versus civilization, and how does Hawthorne view the forest versus civilization? Mark Twain is a pseudonym for Samuel Langhorne Clemens; he chose this name after his love for the Mississippi River. Mark Twain lived from 1835 until 1910. He lived in Missouri as a child, when he was eighteen years old he moved to New York City. He was 21 when he returned to Missouri. The Mississippi river played a huge part in his life. He worked on the river as a river pilot until the Civil War broke out, because traffic on the Mississippi was curtailed. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in the United States in February 1885. The Mississippi river is described in detail in the narrative as well as the people and places alongside the Mississippi. Nature played a big role in his narrative, and especially the Mississippi river.

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, one of the major authors of American fiction. Twain is also considered the greatest humorist in American literature. His varied works include novels, travel narratives, short stories, sketches, and essays. His writings about the Mississippi River, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, have proven especially popular among modern readers.

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a piece of fiction that is so strongly written it can be conceived as the truth. Mark Twain’s ability to paint a clear and realistic picture of the Southern way of life in 1885 is unparalleled in any author. The story of Huckleberry Finn is one that gives ample opportunity for interesting sights into the South at that time. The story consists of Huck and a runaway slave, along with two men and Huck’s faithful friend Tom Sawyer and some points of the novel, floating down the Mississippi’s shores and encountering different feats of Southern culture, tragedy, and adventure. A nice example of Twain’s ability to turn an event on a river into an analysis of Southern culture is a fun bit of the story where Huck

As one of America's first and foremost realists and humorists, Mark Twain, usually wrote about his own personal experiences and things he knew about from firsthand experience. #

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

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

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.

Mark Twain was a very interesting fellow, having many interests and partaking in stimulating hobbies as a child in Hannibal. He had a strong interest in traveling through and observing the outdoors, having access to caves and forests that gave him the “opportunity for exploration and adventure” ("Mark Twain." Contemporary Authors Online). This is similar to Tom Sawyer, as Sawyer also loved to sneak out and go wandering around town. Sawyer, at one point in the novel, ran away from home with his friends and camped out on an island for a couple of days. Twain had also been fascinated with the Mississippi River, spending a fair amount of his time “observing its busy life, fascinated by its romance, but chilled by the violence and bloodshed it bred” ("Mark Twain."

Mark Twain is important to American literature because of his novels and how they portray the American experience. Some of his best selling novels were Innocents Abroad, Life on the Mississippi, Huckleberry Finn, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In these books, Mark Twain recalls his own adventures of steamboating on the Mississippi River.

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.

In river boating, the phrase, Mark Twain, was used to ensure the safety of traveling through the water. However, nowadays, the phrase associates more with the acclaimed author of classics such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: the father of American literature himself, Mark Twain. Long before his fame and success, Twain went simply by the name of Sam Clemens. Before fame, he devoted his days to learning the ways of the Mississippi River’s and was on his way to become a respected steamboating pilot. And so, it was there where he heard, for the first time, the eventual, and one day, historical, pen-name: Mark Twain. During his time on the Mississippi, Twain grew to love the river and all of its constantly

Samuel Clemens may not be a very well known name, but Mark Twain is very well known. Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn and Life on the Mississippi . He grew up on the Mississippi River which is where he got his inspiration. His writing is very well known in American Literature. Mark Twain uses the Mississippi River as inspiration for his novels.

In �The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn�, the Mississippi River plays several roles and holds a prominent theme throughout much of the story as a whole. Huckleberry Finn and Jim are without a doubt the happiest and most a peace when floating down the river on their raft. However, the river has a much deeper meaning than just a compilation of water. It almost goes to an extent of having its own personality and character traits. The river offers a place for the two characters, Huck and Jim, to escape from everybody and even everything in society and leaves them with a feeling of ease. In the middle section of Huckleberry Finn, the river takes on more of a concrete meaning and will be discussed more so in the paragraphs that follows.

Mark Twain once stated, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.” This quote should let us all know how much travel actually meant to him. In his life, he did a lot of traveling and exploring. From a newspaper apprentice to a pilot Mark Twain lived a rather adventurous life .