Mark Twain: Master of Techniqu

A detailed Summary of Mark Twain: Master of Techniqu

Literary analysis, the very mention of them words makes anyone shudder and shudder I did. I had no clue which author I would choose; the fact was I hated non-fiction. I had been forced to read non-fiction since the 5th grade. It was boring, unimaginative, and rather rigid. I searched through my bookshelf and chanced upon a book of short stories by Mark Twain, perfect! Someone from the list, Mark Twain would be better then any because I knew about and had regrettably read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I was not expecting too much from this project, which was now focused on Mark Twain, because I knew that he was a strong non-fiction writer. As I read through his stories, however, I was soon proven wrong as I learned his "shorts" had a more satirical note to them. I didn't know anything about Twain and that was another reason I chose his stories. As I opened the book I found on my shelves I started reading the titles, titles such as The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calveras County and the Diary of Adam and Eve, I soon became interested. The stories that most intrigued me were the ones that, I felt, had the most interesting titles. The tales I ended up commenting on for this project were the "Dia

Through all the specific defining of Mark Twain's writings you can see the little things that make his writings so big, but there is one underlying concept to all of his works - satire. Whatever the type of writing you may think Twain is writing in, you will always find some hint of satire. Satire is one of Twain's most famous attributes in his writings. He was as much an accomplished writer as he was a political cartoonist of his time and he was well known for his jabs at the politics of his era. Even in the stories I chose to analyze, satire is present. In "The Diary of Adam and Eve" he uses satire as he defines the very essence of the stereotypical man and woman. The development of stereotypes has always been pretty "tongue-in-cheek" even in Twain's day. I thought that for him to suggest the first people in existence defined the stereotypes seemed pretty prolific. In "The L1,000,000 Bank Note" satire was used to express the feeling that even with a lot of money, it may not be able to solve your problems. Here was a poor person granted his biggest wish at the moment - a L1,000,000 bank note - and yet he still faced problems acquiring his dreams. In "The Man Who put up at Gadsby's" satire was used to point out that a person could be easily changed. The teacher, who was so used to getting things done quickly, was persuaded to let things transpire after hearing a mere story. It really shows how human nature is never set in stone. In "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calveras County" we realize that by the time we are finished reading it, the entire thing could be false! Satire, in this case, is used to express that people will believe anything they hear despite the person who is telling the story. The information we hear will always hold some truth but how much we could never know. By showing this common element in all of Mark Twain's writing, you can see that he truly was a master of, not only writing, but also of the use of satire in everything he created.

Another very important literary element in Mark Twain's writing is his use of development. From the very beginning of his stories we start right into what is going on. As is the custom with short stories in general we dive right into a central conflict of activity going on. He does this very well and then seems to stretch this conflict throughout the story. Twain is unique in that as we read we learn that this conflict has more and more sides to it, this is especially visible in "The Man Who put up at Gadsby's." We first learn of the storming setting with these two characters then conflict of quickly passing a petition through the American government. As the mini-story begins we find that to "put up at Gadsby's" reduces the sense of urgency to the conflict. Then at the end Twain always seems to add in a surprise ending. In almost every short story I read, he manages to work in a different, sometimes ironical ending. In "The L1,000,000 Bank Note" we were surp

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Approximate Word count = 1977
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: People