Masterpieces of American Literature
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Mark Twain's Contributions

The works of Mark Twain, pen name of Samuel Clemens, are considered the bench mark of American literature.

Download Text
Huck & JimJim & Huck find the Walter Scott
                                                                                                Mark Twain
                                                                                                                    Lit. 214
                                                                                                      Prof. Glenn Turner, D.Div
                                                                                                      Elgin Community College

"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. If you read it you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating. But it's the best book we've had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." - Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa, 1935.

William Dean Howells was one of Twain's early admirers, and he wrote the following on Twain's style:

 "So far as I know, Mr. Clemens is the first writer to use in extended writing the fashion we all use in thinking, and to set down the thing that comes into his mind without fear or favor of the thing that went before or the thing that may be about to follow" (PAL website).

Huck Finn concerns itself with a number of themes:

                     ·         The quest for freedom
                     ·         The transition from adolescence into adulthood
                     ·         Alienation and initiation
                     ·         Criticism of pre-Civil War southern life

                                        o   Racism
                                        o   Elitism of planters
                                        o   Ignorance
                                        o   Shallowness of religion
                                        o   Pride
                                        o   Support of slavery

                    ·         Condemnation of literary Romanticism

Twain’s contributions to American Literature include the following (definitions are from PAL):

                    ·         Alienation - the feeling of not belonging - caused by: a. a person, who does something that creates the feeling of not belonging - examples: conscientious objection to war, disobedience (like Thoreau's refusal to pay the poll-tax), or breaking the law; b. society forces a person to do something against one's wishes: drafted for war; not allowed to wear a beard at a job; job discriminations because of alternate lifestyles, etc.; c. a combination of the above. Note: Once a person is alienated, he/she may remain alienated or do something about it, that is initiate a course of action.

                     ·         Initiation - an examination of oneself and to take steps to change the alienated situation.

                     ·         Journey - generally this change is symbolized, in literature, by a physical journey or movement from one place to another - it could mean moving out of home, changing majors or campuses, leaving or joining church, etc.

                     ·         Suffering - during the journey or movement there is some kind of suffering - physical, mental, psychological, etc.[1] This suffering is important to "cleanse" the past; it also suggests that change is not easy, it has its toll.

                     ·         Reconciliation - after a painful journey (self-examination) there comes a reconciliation or removal of the feeling of not belonging. It takes two forms: a. a return to the former place- classic example of the return of the biblical prodigal son, or b a discovery of a new place or situation that gives the initiate a sense of belonging - a divorce and remarriage, for example.

                     ·         Communication - this is an optional step, because not all initiates wish to talk about or share their experiences; however, many do, like Rip Van Winkle in Washington Irving's famous short story.

                     ·         The use of Common Speech –

                     ·         The Common Man as ‘Hero’ –

                     ·         Embedded Humor into Narrative –

                     ·         Story as more than Plot –

Ralph Ellison, whose Invisible Man (1952) is considered one of the greatest American novels  since World War II, explained in an essay what Twain had meant to him and to American literature:

    “Mark Twain … transformed elements of regional vernacular speech into a medium of uniquely American literary expression and thus taught     us how to capture that which is essentially American in our folkways and manners. For indeed the vernacular process is a way of establishing         and discovering our national identity.”


[1] Plato discussed this at length, as did Aristotle in Ars Poetica.  But Twain spun a new twist to the struggle.



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  • Home
    • What is STORY
    • The Elements of Fiction
    • What Is A Short Story
    • Literary Theory Guide
  • Lit. 214
    • Class Presentations
  • Colonial Period
    • Native American >
      • Red Jacket's Speech
      • Story Collections
      • Lyrics, Poems and Chants
    • Spanish Explorers
    • Early Colonial >
      • New England Primer
      • Anne Bradstreet
      • Mary Rowlandson
      • John Smith
      • John Winthrop
      • Colonial Song Lyrics
    • Colonial and Revolutionary >
      • Readings >
        • Ben Franklin >
          • Advice on the Choice of a Mistress
          • Excerpts from The Autobiography
          • A Tale
        • Phyllis Wheatly >
          • Poems
        • Thomas Paine >
          • Common Sense
        • Philip Freneau >
          • Freneau Poems
        • Thomas Jefferson >
          • Writings
        • Jupiter Hammon >
          • An Evening Thought
      • Lyrics
  • Romantic Period
    • Elements of American Romanticism
    • Authors >
      • Washington Irving >
        • Irving's Place >
          • Irving's Place2
        • Irving on the Tale
        • Rip Van Winkle
        • Rip 2
        • Rip 3
        • Poetry
      • James Fenimore Cooper >
        • LOTH Silent Movie
        • Chapter 32
        • Chapter 32 B
      • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. >
        • Selected Poems
      • Ralph Waldo Emerson >
        • Selected Writings
        • Transcendentalism
      • Edgar Allen Poe >
        • Poe's Approach to Fiction
        • Life of Poe
        • Selected Poems
        • "The Raven"
        • The Black Cat
        • The Tell-Tale Heart
      • William Cullen Bryant >
        • Bryants Poems
      • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow >
        • Selected Poetry
      • Margaret Fuller
      • Fanny Fern
      • Herman Melville >
        • Moby Dick
      • Nathaniel Hawthorne >
        • Scarlett Letter Excepts
        • Young Goodman Brown
      • C. Clement Moore
    • Lyrics >
      • Folk / Gospel
      • Parlor Music
      • Music Hall
      • Stephen Foster >
        • Music
      • George Root
  • Civil War Period
    • 1850 - 1861 >
      • Harriet Anne Jacobs
      • Francis Harper
      • Frederick Douglass
      • Songs of Protest, Freedom, Sadness
    • 1861 - 1866 >
      • Julie Ward Howe
      • Emily Dickinson
      • Walt Whitman >
        • Excerpts
      • Abraham Lincoln
      • Louisa May Alcott
      • Misc. Poets
      • Warriors & Memoirs
    • Civil War Songs