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Rough, vigorous, hot-tempered and rich is what Mark Twain grew up to be. Born
1835 in Missouri, Florida he always did what he needed to in order for him to
reach his goal. Even though he dropped out of school at the age of twelve, when
his father died, he accomplished numerous things. Mark began writing when he
took the job of a journalist. The tale 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County' was his first success.
After a trip by boat to Palestine, he wrote The
Innocents Abroad. As his writing career blossomed, he also became successful as
a lecturer. In 1870 got married, and a few years later he and his wife settled
in Hartford, Connecticut. Huckleberry Finn is Twain's masterpiece, for its use
of the brilliant character and descriptions, showing the humor of man's cruelty
to man.
He also wrote The Gilded Age, 1873, Old Times on the Mississippi, 1875,
The Prince and the Pauper, 1882, Life on the Mississippi, 1883, Pudd'n-head
Wilson, 1894, and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, 1896. His later works,
such as The Mysterious Stranger, unpublished until 1916, are not as amusing and
more discouraging. He is known as one of America's finest and most
characteristic writers.
1872 is the year when Roughing It was written. This book
was just a personal narrative and not a history to show-off, nor a thoughtful
commentary. It's a record of several years of exciting migration, and it's
intention to help the reader rather than to hurt him with truth, or fill him
with science. In this book there is lots of information about episodes that
happened in the Wild West.
There is stories in this book that have never been
told and only been seen in the writers own eyes. There is a great deal of
information in this book and the writer himself says this book can not be
helped, but Twain was never exactly worried about giving his books an artistic
framework. The information that he wrote came out of him naturally. He felt this
urge to write and felt the excitement when he wrote his books. He felt that he
was giving everyone a piece of what made him.
He liked to live the fast life,
that way he could have something to write about. He once said, The more I caulk
up the sources, and the tighter I get, the more I leak wisdom. Mark didn't
expect justification from his readers but tolerance. Trying his luck at anything
and everything was one of his bizarre habits. He writes hilariously about his
many encounters with vigilantes.
He knew very well that carrying a Smith &
Wesson's was necessary when traveling in the Wild West. Guns back in the old
times were not very accurate so you had a better chance of catching a cold than
actually catching something to eat with a rifle. Many people saw Mark as a
playboy, the pioneer in letters, and the leader of the herd.
William Dean
Howell, Mark Twain's friend, called him the Lincoln of our literature. This guy
knew what he was talking about, not only were Twain and Lincoln both belongings
of the border democracy but through out their lives they continued to look to
the Wild West for the supplying of their imaginations. His work comes from the
same roots that made Lincoln's life the basic American myth. The man who came
from nowhere and overcame an unpromising back ground to come out as one of the
nations greatest heroes.
Twain departed for Carson City with his unionist
brother, Orion, who had recently been chosen Secretary of the Territory of
Nevada. He moved because he was convinced that his life as a confederate soldier
offered a far greater threat to both to him and the confederacy than it did to
Lincoln's armies. In the spring of 1867 he arrived at New York and had a growing
character of a preacher and an author.
At that time he was an unpaid private
secretary but soon became a prospector, a financier, almost a millionaire, a
worker in the mill, and finally a reporter. With the exception of reporting he
had no sort of success in any of these. The Mark Twain in this book is basically
imaginary, a harmless beginner, uncertain and clumsy, generous and extremely
trustful. Accidents are his destiny and he is regularly being victimized by his
own unique way.
One example is the campfire that he sets into a forest fire.
Another example is when him and his two companions were lost in a storm and were
at the edge of dying only to awaken fifteen feet away from shelter in the
morning. All he really wants to be is a successful man but all the circumstances
force him to play the life of a clown. Laughing at himself is one of his
trademarks for he did have a good sense of humor.
In this book Twain gives his
imagination free rein, even though it is sometimes filled by incidents rather
than feeling, it is always a visual imagination and never gloomy. He had the
imagination of a novelist not a reporter. Even though the book missing
structure, it has creativity. Twain's imagination usually led him into what was
correct.
He never showed his obvious desire to write a humorous book. He also
never let it affect his sympathy or anger towards injustice. The conversational
language of Roughing It was dazzling and usually clean. Twain's language creates
the characters and situations. Twain had ample respect for those who had
succeeded even though the law was trying to hold them down. Desperados were the
ones he hated.
He did not have positive feelings for the Noble Red Man/Indians.
He also feared the lynch law, had admiration for bankers, merchants and honest
miners. He said that they all represented the civilized point of view. Where he
lived there was not much enforcement of the law so that allowed him to say and
act as he wanted. One could commit murder and easily get away with it.
Even if
one did get caught, the jury was composed of fools and rascals - that's the way
he put it. He also believed that every man has a right to think or believe what
he wants and they also have the right to judge in whatever way they wanted. If
he had to choose from a fixed society under the law or a chaotic environment
where everyone was free to do as they wish, he would choose the civilized world.
He felt sympathy and total compassion towards the Chinese who were discriminated
so cruelly in the Far West.
The Chinese were so peaceful, quiet, and free from
drunkenness while their enemies were lazy, brutal, and ignorant. The lack of
enforcement in the law caused extreme pain for those who were peaceful and
innocent. He was convinced that the law did not help the people like they were
supposed to, instead they hurt the people more. Twain mentions his visit to
Hawaii as a reporter and his earlier lectures in the last eighteen chapters of
Roughing It.
Even though it is a different setting than the Far West it does not
mean it should not be in this book. There are very good stories in this section
of the book, too. There is something missing in these chapters, though, the
comforting of humans. He didn't have much sensitivity. He didn't try to find
comfort in the women of the islands, either. He had too much respect to try
anything with the famous hula dancers.
In Roughing It the work that he puts
forth from his creative imagination can not calm down the truth of what he sees.
He put a lot into this book and paid of for the best. Mark Twain died in
Redding, Connecticut in 1910 but through out his life he accomplished lots. He
will never be forgotten. His life lives on through his works and is he is now
know as one of the nations greatest heroes as well as one of the best.
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