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Mark Twain’s books analysis

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in 1835 in Florida, Missouri. The Hailey’s comet marked the entry of the young child into the world. Later in life, he could use it to predict his death. In his words, he came with the comet and that he would go with it. It was a surprise that this eventually happened. He was the sixth child of Jane and John Marshall Clemens. However, out of the seven children, only four survived the harsh childhood conditions as was common at the time. At the age of four, the family relocated to Hannibal, Missouri. The port town greatly influenced his publications such as “Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. The latter book is regarded as the Great American Novel by many literalists. John Clemens served as an attorney and judge. Twain described him as an intelligent and stern disciplinarian. His mother had a natural sense of humor and took care of them compassionately. The parent’s traits can be reflected in his character and books (Wuster).

Hannibal town was majorly dusty and quiet and was surrounded by great depths of forests and natural landscape that formed the setting of his two books named above. The Mississippi river was always lively with rafts, skiffs, and steamboats. Consequently, the boys in the town dreamt of being steamboat pilots. At the time, it was a well-paying job that caught the eye of the boys. His father died of pneumonia when Twain was eleven. As a result, Twain dropped out of school to become a printer’s apprentice. “Well, everybody does it that way, Huck.” “Tom, I am not everybody.”― Mark Twain, Later, Twain worked as a typesetter at the Hannibal Journal that his brother Orion owned. Here, he wrote several humorous sketches that were printed in the newspaper. At eighteen years, he left Hannibal and moved to several cities where he worked as a printer.

In 1856, Twain got a chance to train to fulfill his long term dream. He worked with a riverboat pilot that taught him the ways of the pilot. He learned how to row his boat in the muddy waters. In 1857, he became a cub pilot on the Paul Jones’s steamboat until 1859 when he received his pilot’s license. Twain worked as a steamboat pilot for four years, during which he familiarized himself with the towns along the river. He also learned of their practices and dialect, which would later influence his works. In 1861, the American Civil War broke out, effectively terminating his tenure as a pilot. Driven by loyalty, Twain joined the confederate forces but resigned under two weeks (Wuster).

Mark Twain joined an expedition to the Nevada region, which would later influence his work on “Roughing It”. S. L. Clemens began to use the pseudonym “Mark Twain” while in the Nevada Territory specifically for humorous sketches and travel letters. He maintained his official name for serious pieces. The humorous works garnered more fame than his serious writings. In light of this, he focused his mind on writing humorous pieces. For six years between 1864 and 1870, Twain wrote several articles and humorous letters to newspapers. In 1870, he married Olivia Langdon, who had rejected his first marriage proposal. Twain would later describe the meeting as love at first sight (Click 22). The Longhorns were stern slave abolitionists and immensely influenced his views about slaves. “Who knows, he may grow up to be President someday, unless they hang him first!” Aunt Polly about Tom Sawyer” Twain grew up in Hannibal, which held moderate perceptions about slavery. Twain stated that he never saw anything wrong with it because of the vicinity he was nurtured in. Olivia was a blessing to Twain’s work. Consequently, Mark Twain wrote many letters supporting the antislavery movement (Wuster).

In 1869, he published “Innocent Abroad”. The publication was an instant achievement that made him give up his career as a journalist-reporter and venture into writing short stories and novels. In these publications, he used satire to illustrate the claimed superiority of the Old World in disparity to the familiar American common sense. The satire is also eminent in later works such as “A Tramp Abroad” “The Prince and the Pauper” and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”. Twain’s best works were shaped by his life as a child, youth, and pilot on the Mississippi River. His interaction with these peoples’ culture and dialect influenced his works on the respective books. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” was his most successful best-selling book until his death (Twain).

The 1890s were the darkest part of Twain’s life. First, he was bankrupt at the time and was forced to makeshift to survive. Secondly, his family was sick at this time and was living in Europe. The decade was marked by dark humor, which reflected the sorrow he was going through. His work on “Pudd’nhead Wilson” addressed issues of slavery that were ongoing in the South. Works such as “Tom Sawyer Abroad, ” “Detective, ” and “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc” were among his worst-selling novels majorly because they were written hurriedly to pay back his creditors.

Mark Twain’s story about Huckleberry Finn is a sequel of Tom Sawyer, which is a story packed with adventure and pleasure. Twain uses satire and humor to address the essential issues in 19th century America. Several fundamental themes namely, slavery, lies, betrayal, morality, and true friendship form the core of this great masterpiece (Bin). The author tries to show a biting satire founded on the American South romanticism. The book also points out the way of life of the pre-civil War American society. As one reads through the book, one cannot help but get allured to the way of life of these people. Finn is portrayed as a naive boy in pursuit of freedom who meets a black American, Jim who had run away from his mistress because she had made plans to sell her out (Click 28). The raft serves as imagery of freedom, which they seek throughout their journey. The travels are characterized by trials and dangers that help to strengthen their friendship. “So endeth this chronicle. It being strictly a history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go much further without becoming the history of a man.” The book chose some sympathetic approaches to racism and slavery and was therefore heavily criticized. It was banned in some southern American states (Bin).

Huck was a runaway kid. He was escaping his father, who was constantly beating him, and he sought to free himself from this social injustice. Huck met Jim at Jackson Island, together with whom their journey began. Each of the scenes shows the naivety of Finn towards the issues in society. He describes things in a blunt, straightforward manner. For example, he said that “Humans beings can be awful cruel to one another”. The words describe the situation between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons (Mark). In this world, slavery was accepted entirely. It was a crime for a slave to run away from their home. A slave could only be of service to his master for the rest of his life. Slavery was the order of the day, especially in the South.

Finn and Jim are metaphorically used to portray the minorities in society. Pap reveals the section of humanity that is corrupted. Widow Douglas and Miss Watson represent the proportion of the comity of religious women, while the judge embodies the government that enacts laws. The author uses humor to depict the end of romanticism and the beginning of realism. Huck is an agent of realism, unlike Sawyer. Huck cannot comprehend the tenacity of Tom’s reasoning, which provides the humor. Twain utilizes devices to attack romanticism throughout the novel. For example, the twig snap incident in chapter one is an attack on it. Another theme is the moral compass, which heightens when Huck states that he would rather go to hell than betray Jim. He seeks to rescue his friend, who ironically does not need his help (Mark).

The readers get a chance to drown themselves in the life of the American people of the 19th century. Mark Twain acquired the status of the Great American Humorist from the success of this book. The author is successful in making us understand the issues of racism, slavery, and realism that dominated at the time. “Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.” Slavery and racism were prevalent in the 19th century. Even though, Lincoln had passed abolitionist bills, the country was far from healing. Besides, the aftermath of the war is known as the reconstruction period when the citizens questioned these issues.

Works cited

Bin, Yu. “A Critical Analysis on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Foreign Language Research 2 (2015): 12.

Click, Ben. “Rhetorical Listening, Silence, and Cultural (Dis) identifications in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Revisiting the “Raft Episode” Again, Ugh!.” The Mark Twain Annual 16.1 (2018): 11-28.

Mark, Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 2015.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing, 2018.

Wuster, Tracy. Mark Twain, American Humorist. Vol. 1. University of Missouri Press, 2017.