The Impact of Mark Twain on American Culture
Mark Twain said “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Mark Twain’s career as a successful author began during the Civil War, where he published many successful articles in popular newspapers such as the New York Times. After the Civil War, America had undergone great social, economic, and political changes. Among these changes Mark Twain contributed most to the assimilation of realism in American literature. Mark Twain’s experience as a steamboat pilot contributed to the writing of his two most popular books The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which Ernest Hemingway said was “The one book from which all modern American Literature came” …show more content…
Mark Twain's book Roughing It(1872) is a comedic story about the travels of young Mark Twain through the West which is full of the many sketches of his misadventures Railton claims in his online article that “the book was written and advertised as a companion to the eastward moving Innocents Abroad” (Railton, 2007). His Novel The Gilded Age is a satire on American manners, which provides an explanation of political corruption. This book coined the term the Gilded Age. His book A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court(1889) is about an engineer named Hank Morgan, who receives a blow to the head, which magically transports him back in time to England during the reign of King Arthur. When Morgan realizes he is in the past, he impresses everybody with his modern knowledge of engineering. Another popular book of his The Tragedy Of Pudd'nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins (1894) is about two boys, one who is born into slavery and another who is born to be the master of a house. The two boys look very similar but live very different lives. His book Following the Equator is a travelogue where Twain shares his experiences of interactions he had with people from different cultures all over the world. Welland claims in the book The life and times of Mark Twain “When Mark Twain was fifty, he holds a correspondent: Yes, the truth is, my books are simply autobiographies. If the incidents …show more content…
Railton states in a recent article that when this novel first came out in 1876 it was “Comparatively a failure…sold less than 24,000 copies in the book’s first year”(Railton, 2007). This novel is a child’s adventure story. The whole adventure begins with Tom playing hooky and avoiding going to school, but he witnesses a murder and seeks out to find the murderer to get a reward. The tone is very humorous as it shows the childish behavior of Tom and all the trouble he manages to get himself into when he is a kid , but the mood changes as the story progresses to be a very suspenseful murder story. After the success of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer continued with a similar idea for a book and wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which later was proven to be just as successful. Railton claims that “Tom Sawyer led directly on to the greatness of Huckleberry Finn and MT's other fictions of childhood” (Railton,
Mark Twain said “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Mark Twain’s career as a successful author began during the Civil War, where he published many successful articles in popular newspapers such as the New York Times. After the Civil War, America had undergone great social, economic, and political changes. Among these changes Mark Twain contributed most to the assimilation of realism in American literature. Mark Twain’s experience as a steamboat pilot contributed to the writing of his two most popular books The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which Ernest Hemingway said was “The one book from which all modern American Literature came” …show more content…
Mark Twain's book Roughing It(1872) is a comedic story about the travels of young Mark Twain through the West which is full of the many sketches of his misadventures Railton claims in his online article that “the book was written and advertised as a companion to the eastward moving Innocents Abroad” (Railton, 2007). His Novel The Gilded Age is a satire on American manners, which provides an explanation of political corruption. This book coined the term the Gilded Age. His book A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court(1889) is about an engineer named Hank Morgan, who receives a blow to the head, which magically transports him back in time to England during the reign of King Arthur. When Morgan realizes he is in the past, he impresses everybody with his modern knowledge of engineering. Another popular book of his The Tragedy Of Pudd'nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins (1894) is about two boys, one who is born into slavery and another who is born to be the master of a house. The two boys look very similar but live very different lives. His book Following the Equator is a travelogue where Twain shares his experiences of interactions he had with people from different cultures all over the world. Welland claims in the book The life and times of Mark Twain “When Mark Twain was fifty, he holds a correspondent: Yes, the truth is, my books are simply autobiographies. If the incidents …show more content…
Railton states in a recent article that when this novel first came out in 1876 it was “Comparatively a failure…sold less than 24,000 copies in the book’s first year”(Railton, 2007). This novel is a child’s adventure story. The whole adventure begins with Tom playing hooky and avoiding going to school, but he witnesses a murder and seeks out to find the murderer to get a reward. The tone is very humorous as it shows the childish behavior of Tom and all the trouble he manages to get himself into when he is a kid , but the mood changes as the story progresses to be a very suspenseful murder story. After the success of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer continued with a similar idea for a book and wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which later was proven to be just as successful. Railton claims that “Tom Sawyer led directly on to the greatness of Huckleberry Finn and MT's other fictions of childhood” (Railton,