- Published: October 2, 2022
- Updated: October 2, 2022
- Level: College Admission
- Language: English
- Downloads: 41
Mark Twain Few American have had such an outsized impact on American letters as Mark Twain. His novels, commentary, and journalism have made him famous throughout the world. In particular, his razor-sharp wit and satirical prowess won him many accolades throughout the years. He was keenly aware of politics and social trends during his career, and he often skewered them mercilessly. Twain’s most famous work of literature is the Adventures Huckleberry Finn. This novel is both a trenchant social commentary and a satire of those who would use race to divide America. The touching story takes place in a milieu full of schemers and racists. Only the boy and his friend, a runaway slave, represent the best of the United States—men who light out for the country. The rest of the nation is relentlessly skewered. Huck and Jim run into a family who is feuding with another family. A feud is described as follows “. . . a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man’s brother kills him; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in – and by and by everybody’s killed off, and there ain’t no more feud” (150). Even in his autobiography Twain was willing to satirize himself: ” You will never know how much enjoyment you’ve lost until you get to dictating your biography,” he once wrote (NPR). Even in his personal life, Twain was a funny he man. He was born during Halley’s Comet, which appears every 75 years or so. As the return of the comet approached, he said: “ I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.’” This is a great example of a man whose independence of mind and satirical wit made him one of the greats of any age. Work consulted Paine, Albert Bigelow. ” Mark Twain, a Biography” Adelaide Books, 2000. Emerson, Everett. Mark Twain: A Literary Life. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. McChesney, John. “’The Autobiography Of Mark Twain’: Satire To Spare.” NPR. March 15, 2010. http://www. npr. org/2010/11/12/131268307/-the-autobiography-of-mark-twain-satire-to-spare Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Harper & Brothers, 1912