Mark Twain, Writing Analysis

Although Mark Twain created his characters with harsh racist ideals, these ideals are

exactly what made Twain's writing so true to life. Twain used realism in his writing to shock and educate his readers. Before Twains writing, literature was thought to be more of an entertainment rather than an education. People wanted to hear fantasy depicting a perfect world with a fine line between the good and the bad. When people began to read some of Twains writing such as The Adventures of Huck Finn, readers were distraught when they realized that they themselves, along with rest of society, held much of the same ideals as the so called "bad men" depicted throughout the book. Also, Twain paid close attention to detail in his writing. With this detail he was able to draw the reader into the book and immerse themselves into the story. This also helped to make the story more realistic. Furthermore, Twain wrote in the vernacular of the time. Although this was not grammatically correct, it gave the characters life and allowed the reader to familiarize themselves wit!

h the characters. This way, when the character does something that the reader doesn't understand, the reader may stop to ponder why they would do tha

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Through these true to life descriptions, Twain was actually able to change, if only just slightly, the sociology of a nation. By using phrases such as, "the white town drowsing in the sunshine of a summer's morning… and the fragrant town drunkard asleep in the shadow… but nobody to listen to the peaceful lapping of the wavelets against them," Twain brings the town in Life on the Mississippi to life (Twain 496). And although these depictions verbal and physical abuse may have been unsettling, they did an excellent job of bringing out some of the more shady parts of society. Life on the Mississipi: The Boys' Ambition. While many preferred not to discuss such topics, Huck Finn, a loveable juvenile delinquent from the south, shoves the ugliness of slavery right into the readers face (Huck Finn). Never the less, it truly put the finishing touches on the realistic aspects of his writing. Along with real locations, he brought with him real tragedies of domestic life.

Similar to realism, Twain uses extensive amounts of detail to emirs his reader in the story. And this included some of the most disgusting aspects of society.

Realism shows up in almost all of Twain's literary works. This is not because he wrote some wildly fantastic story that excited a nation. In much of Twains writing he had his characters speak rough, uneducated speech patterns.

One of Twain's most useful, and most controversial tools is his use of the common speech of the time, also know as the vernacular. In Roughing It Twain describes the storm as "the white glare of the snow bed enabled us to discern the smooth sugar-loaf mounds made by the covered sage bushes, and just in front of us the two faint groves which we knew were steadily filling and slowly disappearing wheel tracks (Twain 503).

Approximate Word count = 1097
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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