Old Times on the Mississippi
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (pen name Mark Twain) was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. In 1839 the Clemens family moved to Hannibal, Missouri" (Chew). This "location was well suited for steamboat landings"(Rasmussen 188) because it was on the Mississippi. Twain was a steamboat pilot for several years, and by the time he started to write "Old Times," he had been away from the river for over ten years. It is then understandable to think that Twain might, in writing "Old Times," tend to be more than a bit un-realistic. After all, as the saying goes, "absence makes the heart grow fonder." Throughout the story he "focuses on the romanticism and heroism of steamboating" (Rasmussen 344). However, at the end, he does come back down to earth by showing the true realism of steam boating. From the beginning of "Old Times," Twain is in an "Ah, those were the good ole' days" tone. Twain explains that the number one goal, the "one permanent ambition" (McMichael 238) of the boys in the small riverside town where he grew up, was "to be a steamboat man" (McMichael 238). The reason for this had to do with the popularity of the steamboats in the townspeople's eyes. Twain's village was always very quiet and lifeless, until a stea
But these were only daydreams--they were too heavenly to be contemplated as real possibilities (Twain 328). This was due to the fact that the Mississippi River's shape was always changing. Basically, they all wanted a job on one of the boats, so that they could gain of all of the attention of everyone in the town. He says: "a day came when I began to cease from noting the glories and the charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the river's face; another day came when I ceased altogether to note them. Next, Twain describes the same scene through the eyes of a pilot. He does this in an effort to get the Godly status that he thought the job brought since he was a child. Adults recognize the hardships that go along with any job, however, Twain never comments on these. I knew that boats ran all night, but somehow I had never happened to reflect that somebody had to get up out of a warm bed to run them. He never distances himself from the childhood fantasies with a bit of reality, until later in the work. Children of today see the bright red fire engines, the ladders, and the Dalmatians; they hear the sirens, and think that it is all a show. There is the world of inexperience (or innocence), and experience. Many children of today do not see the other side of the job. This is Mark Twain's, "Old Times on the Mississippi.
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