Mark Twain And Sarcophagus Analysis

Mark Twain was a river boat pilot on the Mississippi River for a while before he wrote books, while Dr. Richard Selzer joined the faculty of Yale as a professor of surgery from 1960 to 1985. These two have been successful with within topics of how they wrote their books, focusing on Two Views of the Mississippi and Sarcophagus, these included: the audiences they were writing to and explanation of their topics, but they also had contrasting factors such as: the atmosphere they created, the imagery given, and the structure of their essays.
Twain and Selzer wrote these towards an audience of people who don’t deal with it normally. Mark Twain explained that “This sun means that we are going to have wind tomorrow; that floating log means that the river is rising, small thanks to it” (2). He describes what the signs are that pilots look out for. Selzer pointed out to the audience “David inserts a metal tongue depressor which bears a light at the tip. It is called a laryngoscope” (2). He describes the instrument …show more content…
Twain describes the difference between passenger and pilot as “In truth, the passenger who could not read this book saw nothing but all manner of pretty pictures in it, painted by the sun and shaded by the clouds, where as to the trained eye these were not pictures at all, but the grimmest and most dead earnest of reading-matter.” (1). Talks about how pilots see it compared to passengers. Selzer’s piece says, “Roy and I go to change our bloody scrub suits. We put on long white coats. In the elevator, we do not speak.” (5). When he must go meet the family and tell them about how the patient has died, the medical team needs to look presentable. If surgeons went with bloody clothing, it would horrify a family and make them think there has been death, even if there has not. They are closer to being in expert in their field since they did this for quite a while before or during the time they were