Mark Twain 3
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 write
Another example of satire is in Twain's first novel, The Gilded Age. This book is filled with a lot of sharp satire that "satirizes almost every aspect of 19th century political and social mores." (Rasmussen 419). The whole idea of this book was focused on satire. People liked this book so much that there were constant cries for a sequel (Kesterson 71). Surely enough, the sequel to The Gilded Age , called The American Claimant was written. It is about a democratic English noble, Lord Berkeley, who comes to America prepared to give up inherited Aristocratic privileges for republican equality. However, the American society is obsessed with grasping for what he wants to cast off (Rasmussen 419). For example, Lord Berkeley came to America for hope of less authority from the government, however, the Americans were stuck on the idea that giving the government more power would be better for them in the long run. This acute example of satire is directed at the people of America whom wish to go back to the old traditions of England. Twain uses satire in this book to make the American people question why they would come to the "land of freedom" if they were planning on turning around and giving the government more authority than necessary. Another way that Mark Twain enriches the heritage of American literature is by his style of writing in the vernacular, which means to write the way that people think and speak (Kesterson 14). The vernacular portrays the word in the purest sense of its original meaning. The vernacular symbolizes American writing because nobody else on earth would talk in that way besides the early American settlers. An example from Huckleberry Finn is : " I reck'n I could eat a hoss. I think I could. How long you ben on de islan' ?" (Twain 46). This style is done by writing without worrying about spelling or context, and rather just writing the way that the speech sounds. This style of writing is uniquely American, because the famous European authors did not write that way since the people of Europe didn't speak that way. Another example from this book is: " Say, who is you? Whar is you? Dog my cats ef I didn't hear sumf'n." (Twain 5). Europeans had never spoken like this or heard of it before Mark Twain. The vernacular enhances American writing solely because it is uniquely early America
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Approximate Word count = 1577
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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