The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain - Literature Assessment
Instructions:
In response to your reading of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, respond to FOUR of the following questions here.
1.) What is the "ancient glory" of the town? What are some of the many ways Twain elaborates on this glory?
The ancient glory of Hadleyburg is plainly the pure honesty of the people, and the town’s inability to become corrupted or plotted against itself. This glory is described as ancient because Hadleyburg has kept its virtuous reputation “unsmirched during three generations”, as parents instilled the value of honesty in their children, and those in their children, and so forth for many years. The author of this story elaborates on the …show more content…
The narrator makes it very clear to the reader that they view the town as appearance-based, a place full of people who only care about a spotless reputation and how the rest of the world sees them. The first textual example is “a mean town, a hard, stingy town,” where the author is referring to the deeper description of Hadleyburg. The narrator uses this quote to explain how Hadleyburg may seem like an utterly perfect community with core values and strong morals, but underneath they only care about the way they look and how to keep a chaste name. The second example in the text is “the public method is better. Think what a noise it will make!” The narrator shows his opinions of the town through the dialogue of the people, for a town is only like the residents of it. This particular example involves the Richards couple, who decides to make a public scene only to cause more attention and make a greater appearance. They don’t care about practicality of solving the mystery efficiently, but rather making as much good press about it as they can, which is shallow and frankly dishonest. The third example is “by the next morning the name of Hadleyburg the Incorruptible was on every lip in America.” This quotation refers to how the people of Hadleyburg took advantage of the money-bag mystery and spread the word to towns over. The narrator could have written that the citizens kept the commotions quiet, but instead wrote that they spread word of people’s honesty as far as they could. The entire country was talking about Hadleyburg and hoping for more updates. The last example is “the town thought that they had the look”, which tells the reader that the men and women of Hadleyburg were impressed with themselves and were obsessed with carrying the newest trends. They care about their appearances, as clearing indicated by this
Instructions:
In response to your reading of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, respond to FOUR of the following questions here.
1.) What is the "ancient glory" of the town? What are some of the many ways Twain elaborates on this glory?
The ancient glory of Hadleyburg is plainly the pure honesty of the people, and the town’s inability to become corrupted or plotted against itself. This glory is described as ancient because Hadleyburg has kept its virtuous reputation “unsmirched during three generations”, as parents instilled the value of honesty in their children, and those in their children, and so forth for many years. The author of this story elaborates on the …show more content…
The narrator makes it very clear to the reader that they view the town as appearance-based, a place full of people who only care about a spotless reputation and how the rest of the world sees them. The first textual example is “a mean town, a hard, stingy town,” where the author is referring to the deeper description of Hadleyburg. The narrator uses this quote to explain how Hadleyburg may seem like an utterly perfect community with core values and strong morals, but underneath they only care about the way they look and how to keep a chaste name. The second example in the text is “the public method is better. Think what a noise it will make!” The narrator shows his opinions of the town through the dialogue of the people, for a town is only like the residents of it. This particular example involves the Richards couple, who decides to make a public scene only to cause more attention and make a greater appearance. They don’t care about practicality of solving the mystery efficiently, but rather making as much good press about it as they can, which is shallow and frankly dishonest. The third example is “by the next morning the name of Hadleyburg the Incorruptible was on every lip in America.” This quotation refers to how the people of Hadleyburg took advantage of the money-bag mystery and spread the word to towns over. The narrator could have written that the citizens kept the commotions quiet, but instead wrote that they spread word of people’s honesty as far as they could. The entire country was talking about Hadleyburg and hoping for more updates. The last example is “the town thought that they had the look”, which tells the reader that the men and women of Hadleyburg were impressed with themselves and were obsessed with carrying the newest trends. They care about their appearances, as clearing indicated by this