Mark Twain

“All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.... All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since..”

*Ernest Hemingway.*

## Biography

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), better known by his pen name of Mark Twain, grew up in the Mississippi River frontier town of Hannibal, Missouri. Ernest Hemingway’s famous statement that all of American literature comes from one great book, Twain’s *Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*, indicates this author’s towering place in the tradition.

Early 19th-century American writers tended to be too flowery, sentimental, or ostentatious — partially because they were still trying to prove that they could write as elegantly as the English. Twain’s style, based on vigorous, realistic, colloquial American speech, gave American writers a new appreciation of their national voice. Twain was the first major author to come from the interior of the country, and he captured its distinctive, humorous slang and iconoclasm.

No writer sought to give voice to the conflicting resources and directions of American culture in the post-Civil War period more fully than the author who took to himself the humorist's name of "Mark Twain." Samuel Langhorne Clemens had begun his literary career by going West, lighting out for the territory like his most famous hero, Huckleberry Finn. During the war he had divided his sympathies, even serving briefly in the Southern army, for his parents were Southerners who had moved from Virginia into the slave-holding lands of the Louisiana Purchase and settled in Missouri.

Twain was an American humorist, journalist, lecturer, and novelist who acquired international fame for his travel narratives, especially *The Innocents Abroad* (1869), *Roughing It* (1872), and *Life on the Mississippi* (1883), and for his adventure stories of boyhood, especially *The Adventures of Tom Sawyer* (1876) and *Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* (1885). A gifted raconteur, distinctive humorist, and irascible moralist, he transcended the apparent limitations of his origins to become a popular public figure and one of America’s best and most beloved writers.

At the age of 13, his father died and he started working as a printer, together with his brothers. By the age of 20, he became a pilot of a riverboat, where he came up with the idea for his pen name: "By the mark, twain," which meant that the water was deep enough for a steamboat to sail safely.

In 1863, Clemens started signing documents and articles with the name Mark Twain, later used in his literary texts.

In 1861, Twain enlisted as a confederate in the Civil War, but left as soon as he could. After the war, he moved to the west and started working as a journalist. He lived a successful life, became wealthy and started a family.

His first literary works centered around his travels, as seen in *Innocents Abroad'* (1869) and *Life on the Mississippi* (1883).

Around the 1890s, Twain's life took a turn, and in a span of nine years he lost two of his daughters, his wife and one of his closest friends. Also, he became bankrupt and lost his money through unsuccesful investments. He died in 1910 of a heartattack.

## Historical & Cultural Context

### US Westard Expansion

In the 1800s, the population of the United States had mainly been established along the East coast. With a growing population, the newly independent country statred exapnding to the west. Between 1801 and 1861, exploration was encouraged as the US underwent vast territorial espansion and settlement.

Many Americans believed in manifest destiny, the idea that the United States had the right and duty to rule North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Government leaders used manifest destiny to justify evicting Native Americans from their tribal lands.

### Civil War

The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) between the industrial North and the agricultural, slave-owning South was a watershed in American history. The innocent optimism of the young democratic nation gave way, after the war, to a period of exhaustion. American idealism remained but was rechanneled. Before the war, idealists championed human rights, especially the abolition of slavery; after the war, Americans increasingly idealized progress and the selfmade man. This was the era of the millionaire manufacturer and the speculator, when Darwinian evolution and the “survival of the fittest” seemed to sanction the sometimes unethical methods of the successful business tycoon.

### Reconstruction Era

After the war (1866-1877), America entered an era of reconstruction. After the North won the war, there were many reforms to be done in the South. Reparations had to be made for former slaves.

During this era, three new amendments were added to the Constitution:

* **13th - Abolition of Slavery**: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
* **14th - Citizenship and protection under the law**: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States ... are citizens of the United States ... No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, ... nor deny to any person ... the equal protection of the laws.
* **15th - Guarantee of Voting rights**: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

However, this reconstruction was not successful, as these reforms sparked violence against black people and former slaves in the South. Around 1866, the Klu Klux Klan was founded, which, together with the White League, exherted violence against black people.

Among the efforts to prevent reconstruction in the south, Black Codes would be implemented (considered to be the beginning of the Jim Crow laws that established segregation in the South). These codes limited the rights of the former slaves. Black people were forced to accept poor working conditions, their movement across the country was limited, and risked being jailed if found unemployed. Some of these codes even require former slave owner's permissions for black people's activities.

### Segregation in the U.S.

In 1877, after upholding the "separate but equal" doctrine through the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court officially establishes the segregation of white and "colored" people, which lasted until 1965.

Even though the doctrine stated equality, most of the facilities for colored people were inferior than those of whites. This algo gave shop owners and employers to restrict access and job opportunities to non-whites.

### The Gilded Age

A term for the post–Civil War era when rampant acquisitiveness became a prominent feature of American society. These were years of great changes in American society: technological advances such as the inventions of the telegraph and the telephone; the growth of industry; massive increases in immigrant populations; the rapid development of new urban centers like Chicago and San Francisco; and the feverish spread of speculation in land and on the stock market. The name derives from *The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today* (1873), a novel written by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. The novel satirizes unscrupulous land speculation and its connections with corrupt politicians. The social criticism built into this novel refl ected the spirit of REALISM/NATURALISM that defi ned the literature of the age.

### Regionalism (Local Color)

As the new American nation pushed further west and south, literature tried to capture the rapidly changing conditions on the various frontiers. "Local color" became a term for fiction, particularly short stories, dealing both realistically and romantically with specific areas of the United States and the people that lived there. For the novel, this meant either realistic and humorous, and later more serious, studies of frontier life or historical romances. The local-color school produced a great many outstanding authors.

The local-color movement has been associated especially with the Middle West and the West. Here, the names of the Eggleston brothers, of Bret Harte and Mark Twain are most prominent.

**Local Color** is the use of detail peculiar to a particular region and environment to add interest and authenticity to a narrative. This will include some description of the locale, dress, customs, music, etc. It is for the most part decorative. When it becomes an essential and intrinsic part of a the work then it is more properly called *regionalism*.

**Regional Novel**: A regional writer is one who concentrates much attention on a particular area and uses it and the people who inhabit it as the basis for their stories. Such a locale is likely to e rural and/or provincial.

The surge of interest in reading and writing about specific locations, known as the “local color” movement, occurred just after the Civil War, a period marked by the proliferation and increased circulation of magazines. Writing about the West was popular. Mark Twain was at first perceived as a local colorist because of his tales of life on the Mississippi River, though his reputation soon exceeded its regional beginnings. Regional writing functioned as virtual travel, a way of experiencing other parts of the United States. And the more specific the dialect, customs, and peculiarities of behavior, the better. Thus readers of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening would have been interested not only in the progress of Edna Pontellier, but also in the manners of Creole life, the setting of New Orleans, and the smatterings of French in the characters’ dialogue. Dialects signaled authenticity, an insider’s view of the observed community.

### American Realism

In art and literature, a term covering a broad range of views centered on the attempt to depict life as it is usually experienced, without recourse to miraculous events, larger-than-life characters, or supernatural intervention. In a realistic text, the emphasis is on the way things are for ordinary people, whose behavior and speech mirror their social position and cultural attitudes. In this sense realism is opposed to ROMANCE, which represents life as we would like it to be.

In American literature, realism was a gradually developing process, stirred by the spread of scientifi c and rationalist thought. One of its earliest appearances is in the work of regionalist writers, such as Bret Harte and Sarah Orne Jewett, who emphasized the details of daily living in the lives of their characters. These characteristics, coupled with psychological and social observations, were elevated to a higher plane in the work of Mark Twain (*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*, 1884).

For Twain and other American writers of the late 19th century, realism was not merely a literary technique: It was a way of speaking truth and exploding worn-out conventions. Thus it was profoundly liberating and potentially at odds with society. The most well-known example is Huck Finn, a poor boy who decides to follow the voice of his conscience and help a Negro slave escape to freedom, even though Huck thinks this means that he will be damned to hell for breaking the law.

***A LITERARY EFFORT TO MAKE FICTION A MIRROR OF REALITY, THAT WOULD FAITHFULLY REFLECT REALITY AS IT IS, WITHOUT EMBELISHMENT, WITHOUT STYLIZATION, JUST TRYING TO BE AS HONEST AS POSSIBLE WITH REAL LIFE (EVERYDAY FACTS, COMMON PEOPLE, ETC.)***

## Bibliography

* 1869 - *The Innocents Abroad*
* 1876 - *The Adventures of Tom Sawyer*
* 1883 - *Life on the Mississippi*
* 1884-5 - *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*
* 1889 - *A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court*
* 1894 - *Pudd'nhead Wilson*

### Literary Style

The writing style of Mark Twain is unique in that it sets him apart from other writers of his era on account of the use of vernacular speech and the brilliance of dialogues used in his stories and novels.

Many who have read Mark Twain’s works are aware of his keen satire, present in several of his novels. While satire is his most commonly known literary element, Twain has a distinctive style that is evident throughout his works. Twain’s careful choice of diction and vivid descriptions give his novels a sense of realism amongst an element of adventure. Mark Twain is known for his repeated use of pointed satire and his use of vernacular dialogue, as well as his calculated yet carefree writing style.

In both *The Adventures of Tom Sawyer* and *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*, Twain’s writing style is, at first glance, sloppy and unrefined. The raw, uneducated vernacular of the people of St. Petersburg can be convoluted and full of slang that it is difficult to understand. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that Twain’s diction is carefully calculated to give the reader the sense of a carefree narrative.

Twain’s writing style is characterized by his adroit use of exaggeration, stalwart irreverence, deadpan seriousness, droll cynicism, and pungent commentary on the human situation. All of this is masked in an uncomplicated, straightforward narrative distinguished for its introduction of the… vernacular into American fiction that was to have a profound impact on the development of American writing.

The slang, numerous abbreviated words, and blatantly incorrect grammar serve to develop the characters in a more human way.

Twain also develops a nearly palpable setting for his novels through the use of imagery. The combined use of dialogue and imagery inject a sense of realism to his settings and characters, allowing for better enjoyment of the story and easier relationships between the reader and the characters. Twain establishes both the small, typical Southern feel of St. Petersburg and the gritty yet luxurious elements of London through imagery and descriptive language, often using figurative devices such as similes to develop a scene. The imagery serves to transport the reader to each scene, such as the night following Tom Sawyer’s witnessing of Doctor Robinson’s murder: “The ticking of the clock began to bring itself into notice. Old beams began to crack mysteriously. The stairs creaked faintly” (Twain 69). The imagery establishes a nearly tangible sense of fear and dread, and it provides a dark and ominous tone to the scene. The element of realism among the adventurous, fictional elements is a large part of what makes Twain’s novels so well loved by audiences, young and old.

Twain’s poignant satire and social commentary play an important role in many of his works. Twain is famous for his criticisms of American society, both in his stories and in his own world. He effectively communicates his views in a manner that is not overbearingly obvious through the eyes of his characters and the lessons that they learn throughout the novels.

## *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*

### Genre

**Coming of Age** A sociological term for the movement of an individual from childhood or adolescence to adulthood. In primitive societies, coming of age is marked by a prescribed ritual in which the young person, after undergoing a test or submitting to a painful procedure, becomes a member of the tribe. In literature, this tradition is refl ected in stories that mark a child’s passage from innocence to experience or knowledge, in which the child usually pays the price of pain or disillusionment.

**Picaresque** A term for a form of NARRATIVE that recounts the adventures of a *pícaro* (Spanish for “rogue”). Usually exhibiting an episodic structure, in which the pícaro moves from one situation to another, the form generally satirizes the characters or societies it depicts.

**Bildungsroman** (education novel) A German term for a type of novel that focuses on the development of a character moving from childhood to maturity. Sometimes known as a COMING OF AGE novel, the form usually charts a movement from innocence to knowledge.

### Tom Sawyer

The characters of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn appear on a previous book by Twain: *The Adventures of Tom Sawyer* (1876)

This novel sets the stage for the events in *Huckleberry Finn*. By the end of *Tom Sawyer*, both characters end up acquiring money that is put in a trust fund, from which they each receive a monthly payment.

Twain includes, in the form of a para-text, a conclusion that reads:

“Most of the characters that perform in this book still live, and are prosperous and happy. Some day it may seem worth while to take up the story of the younger ones again, and see what sort of men and women they turned out to be; therefore it will be wisest not to reveal any of that part of their lives at present.”

Huck finn opens *Huckleberry Finn* by ackowledging this previous novel by Twain with an allusion to his own work:

“You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. ”. (pp. 169)

### Summary

Twain’s masterpiece, which appeared in 1884, is set in the Mississippi River village of St. Petersburg. The son of an alcoholic bum, Huck has just been adopted by a respectable family when his father, in a drunken stupor, threatens to kill him. Fearing for his life, Huck escapes, feigning his own death. He is joined in his escape by another outcast, the slave Jim, whose owner, Miss Watson, is thinking of selling him down the river to the harsher slavery of the deep South. Huck and Jim float on a raft down the majestic Mississippi, but are sunk by a steamboat, separated, and later reunited. They go through many comical and dangerous shore adventures that show the variety, generosity, and sometimes cruel irrationality of society. In the end, it is discovered that Miss Watson had already freed Jim, and a respectable family is taking care of the wild boy Huck. But Huck grows impatient with civilized society and plans to escape to “the territories” — Indian lands. The ending gives the reader the counter-version of the classic American success myth: the open road leading to the pristine wilderness, away from the morally corrupting influences of “civilization.”

Huck Finn is a most unusual narrator. As an uneducated river rat and abandoned child under the protection of the Widow Douglas, he uses his Missouri dialect for an entertaining report about his adventures during a trip on a raft down the Mississippi. Huck's first sentence, brimming with lexical and grammatical mistakes, directly addresses the readers as if they were listeners. Although linguistically unreliable (an essential element of realism), Huck proves a fascinating narrator, as he describes the adventures with his friend, the runaway slave Jim, on their way down the great river. A large part of the novel's satire and humour derives from Huck's seemingly naive comments on aspects of civilized life, on bourgeois families and people he meets. Afraid that Tom Sawyer's aunt will take him under her socializing wings, Huck concludes at the happy ending of the novel, "I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can't stand it. I been there before".

As Huck and Jim drift along on their symbolic voyage, which can be read as an initiation into the world, Mark Twain unveils the false morality and conventionality of adult and bourgeois life. At each contact that Huck and Jim make with the world, this world tries to corrupt and deprave them. The American dream is reduced to an illusion ironically upheld by Huck's final words. Against the corrupt image of civilization are set the idyll of the raft and a Rousseau-like though partly world-wise hero. The realistic style and characters in this novel paved the way for the works of Hemingway, Faulkner, and Salinger, to name just three novelists who profited from Twain's most influential book.

### Analysis

#### General

* **Setting**: Missouri, 40 to 50 years before the Civil War
* **Narrator**: 1st person protagonist, unreliable
* **Tone**: Adventurous, Ironic, Satirical, Reflective
* **Themes**: Morality and the law, Hipocristy of the "sivilised," Maturity and Growth, Salvery in the southern states, "Freedom"

#### Para-Text

Twain includes a Notice and an Explanatory before the start of the novel:

NOTICE

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR,

Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance.

EXPLANATORY

In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremist form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary ‘Pike County’ dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guess-work; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech.

I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding.

THE AUTHOR

#### Literary Devices

* **Allusions**:
	+ To Twain's own work: “You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. ”. (pp. 169)
	+ Biblical: To raise Cain
	+ To other works/writers:

* **Symbols**:
	+ The Raft: A comfort zone, freedom from society and its norms.

“I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft”. (pp. 256)

* + The River: Both safety and danger for Huck and Jim

“Not a sound anywheres — perfectly still — just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs a-cluttering, maybe. The first thing to see, looking away over the water, was a kind of dull line — that was the woods on t’other side; you couldn’t make nothing else out; then a pale place in the sky; then more paleness spreading around; then the river softened up away off, and warn’t black any more, but gray.” (pp. 257)

* **Irony**:
	+ Huck's prayers:

“[Miss Watson] told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn’t so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks ... I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn’t make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn’t make it out no way.” (pp. 176)

* + The Con men's punishment
	+ Tom's knowledge about Jim's freedom

* **Binary Opposition**:
	+ Rights and wrongs
	+ Free states and slave states
	+ “sivilised” and uncivilized
	+ “Blackness” and “whiteness” - “I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he’d say what he did say — so it was all right now”. (pp. 377)

## Intro Paragraph

The United States of America suffered great changes in the 1800s. While industrialization brought about progress, the political conflicts regarding the abolition of slavery led to the Civil War (1861-1865). It was around this time that Realism reached its prominence in American literature, with Mark Twain (1835-1910) being one of the most prolific writers of the movement. Unlike the idealization seen in the Romantics, Realist writers sought to mirror reality, trying to reflect it faithfully and objectively in their works. The emphasis is placed on the characters of the story, who often face complex moral dilemmas. One of Twain’s most important works, *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* (1884) (*Huckleberry Finn* from now onwards) is a distinctive example of American Realism. Set in the antebellum era, the coming-of-age novel is about a thirteen-year-old boy, Huck Finn, who escapes his caretakers’ attempts at “civilizing” him while helping a slave reach freedom. Considered a pioneer of the movement, Twain shows, in *Huckleberry Finn*, the characteristic traits of American Realism, while resorting to his unique style.

Body 1: *Huckleberry Finn* features some of the tenets of Realism: unembellished, objective descriptions; great importance placed on the characters, rather than plot; and complex ethical decisions.

Body 2: Along the characteristics of the movement, the author’s singular style also makes *Huckleberry Finn* a Realist classic.

### MLA citation

Twain, Mark. *Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn*. Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 2001. Print.

## Sources

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3  VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. *Outline of American Literature*. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Information Agency, 1994. Print.
2. ↑  Ruland, Richard and Malcolm Bradbury. *From Puritanism to Postmodernism*. New York: Viking, 1991.
3. ↑ https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2  Quinn, Edward. *A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms*. 2nd ed., Facts On File, 2006.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1  Hans-Peter, Wagner. *A History of British, Irish and American Literature*. Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2010.
6. ↑  Cuddon, J.A. *The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory*. Penguin, 1999.
7. ↑  McDonald, Gail. American Literature and Culture 1900–1960. Blackwell Publishing, 2007.