Mark Twain Essay -- essays research papers fc

Mark Twain was a pilot, a comic lecturer, a humorist, a short story writer, and a novelist, to name a few of his many accomplishments. On November 30, 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain, became the first man of any importance ever to be born west of the Mississippi River. He has become an icon as the American writer. This is because his way of writing cannot be simulated by Europeans or anyone else, due to the fact that the western setting of America creates a whole new atmosphere and style of writing. Mark Twain is a classic American writer that acquired fame by using satire, writing with single-minded use of words, and by writing the way that most people think and speak. Twain writes with single-minded use of words, which is understood to be plain and simple, yet still intelligent, which enhances American literature. He writes what comes into his mind without fear. This is an example from Huckleberry Finn: ... "then comes a h-wack! bum! bum! bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum - and the thunder would go rumbling and grumbling away" ... (Twain 45). This enriches American literature, because it is a clever way, and the only way to make the reader actually seem to hear and feel the sounds the writer is trying to convey. This is an example from Tom Sawyer : "Set her back on the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! chow! ch-chow-wow! chow!". (Twain 15). This dialect can be explained as a familiar speech spoken around us all the time. It is the speech of the illiterate, the preliterate, the children, and the poor people (Bloom 46). This is actually a very intelligent style of writing, for it is difficult for an author to write in a different level of dialect than they actually speak. The reader can tell that this dialect isn’t Twain’s own, since he doesn’t write with it in every part of the book. Huckleberry Finn is supposed to be written from Huck’s point of view. The story is written as he would speak it, so mistakes inevitably appear. However, this single- minded dialect was worked, composed, and written by Twain. It was not done haphazardly (Bloom 46). American literature would not be the same if not for Twain’s ideas for ways of writing in a way that spectacularly conveys the feelings of touch, sound, and sight by the use of single-minded words. Another way that Mark Twain enriche... ...inded words captures the reader’s attention, making them feel almost as if they are in the book themselves. His masterful use of the vernacular portrays the speech of early rural America. Twain’s use of the vernacular lets the reader read more smoothly since they do not have to pay attention to the structural significance of the word. Since Mark Twain was the first truly great western author to define American writing, he has opened the way for many future authors to come. Works Cited Bloom, Harold. Interpretations of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. NewYork: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Clemens, Samuel L. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. NewYork: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1953. Clemens, Samuel L. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. NewYork: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1958. Http://galenet.gale.com/a/acp/netacgi/nph...thor-search.html/&r=1&f=l3;1; + "1647-1".ID. Kesterson, David B. ed. Critics on Mark Twain. Florida: University of Miami Press, 1973. Rasmussen, Kent R. Mark Twain A to Z. NewYork: Facts on File, Inc., 1995. Stapleton, Michael, comp. The Cambridge Guide to English Literature. NewYork: Cambridge University Press, 1983.