Mark Twain 2

Mark Twain had many experiences in his life that affected his writing and his writing styles. He is one of the best rationalist writers of the time. His stories are very important to our past and to our culture. Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri and he had the name Samuel Clemens (Meet). Hannibal is located near the Mississippi River. He stories are about life in Missouri (Meet). His father died when he was eleven and he was forced to go into schooling and be an apprentice to help out with his family (Meet). When he was twenty one, Clemens finally completed his life goal to become a river boat captain (Meet). He got his name Mark Twain while he was on the boat (Meet). The word twain means two. When the boat was loading and unloading cargo, the boat would rise and fall with the weight of the cargo. When the boat would be at level of two, the crew would yell Mark Twain. Twain loved the sound of it and he changed his name to it. During the Civil War, the Mississippi was closed off for commercial traffic (Meet). Twain moved out to Nevada to find money from gold (Meet). He settled in San Francisco (Meet). Here he started writing. The story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" helped him to get his name out in the literature world and made him famous (Meet). He also wrote about his travels (Meet). Twain's later life had many tragedies in it (Meet). He lost a lot of money and important people in his life died on him (Meet). He became bitter after those hardships.
Mark Twain's life as a riverboat captain influenced his life and writings. He wrote about the life and the surroundings one and off of the riverboat. His descriptions of the world around him make him a rationalist author. Regionalism is a type of literature that pertains to the life around the author and depicts real aspects of the environment (Campbell). Twain is very descriptive in his writings. He described the shore of the river as, "Densely wooded, and the somber shadow that fell from this forest was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail that shone like silver; and high above the forest wall a clean- stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun" (Twain, 504-505). This shows regionalism because he describes the area around him in great detail and he respects the land around him. Twain uses an analogy of the different sides of the river to describe two different sides of society. I think this because he decibels the side of the river as two totally different things (Twain). One side is beautiful and the sun rises on that side and sun rises give hope to people who see it (Twain). On the other side, it is dark and no hope (Twain). It represents the blacks and the white of society. Blacks do not have much hope because of hte way whites treat them. Twain has the river represent the small difference between them because they are all people (Twain). Mark Twain was a great regionalism author that gave a nice analogy to a problem that faces our country even today.

Campbell, Donna M. "Regionalism and Local Color Fiction." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 20 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Feb. 2011.

"Meet Mark Twain." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 496. Print.

Twain, Mark "Two Views of the River." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 504-505. Print.