Mark Twain
------Mirror of America
Mirror of America
Mirror here means a person who gives a true
representation or description of the country .
Mark Twain was one of literary
giants in human history whose
works often reveal more truth
than many political essays and
therefore his life and works are a
mirror of America.
I. Mark Twain’s Life Career
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel
Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910).
A. Boyhood
He was born in the small village
of Florida, Missouri on
Nov.30,1835.
As Father’s business
failed ,the family had to move
to Hannibal when Samuel was
4,where he spent his
boyhood ,enchanted by the
romance and awed by the
violence of river life and also
the human flotsam washed
up by the river.
B. Early life
Sam had relatively little schooling. After his father’s death,
he had to help the family by taking up odd jobs.
He left school at 13 and became a full-time apprentice to a
printer . At 18, he became a tramp printer .
C. Experiences on the Mississippi River
On his way down the
Mississippi , he ran out of
funds and was persuaded
by a steamboat pilot to
become his apprentice .
He found his life during
this period both instructive
and interesting. Later he
was to say, ”I got
personally and familiarly
acquainted with about all
the different types of
human nature……”
D. Journey West and the birth of
“Mark Twain”
 There were rumors about fortunes to be made in Nevada and
California. He tried prospecting , mining, speculating, but failed .
 It was in Virginia City on February 3,1863,that “Mark Twain” was
born when Clemens, then 27,signed a humorous travel account with
that pseudonym.
 In 1865, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was
published and became an immediate success.
E. Career as a journalist
He took the
trip to
Honolulu as a
correspondent
in 1866.
In 1869, his
travel sketches
were published
under the title
The Innocents
Abroad.
F. His most productive years
He married in 1870,and
moved to Hartford,
Conn., where he lived
his most productive
years (till 1891).
The move was a
turning point in his
life. Tom Sawyer was
written in 1876;
Huckleberry Finn in
1884.
G. Financial difficulties
and personal misfortunes
 He invested largely on
his own printing shop
and became bankrupt.
Heavily in debt ,he
made a lecturing tour
abroad and succeeded
in paying all his debts,
but ruined his own
health. In this period
occurred the deaths of
his son, daughters and
wife.
H. Last years
He dictated his
autobiography .
He died in 1910. Some
of his other major
works are The Prince
and the Pauper and The
1,000,000 Bank-Note .
II. Relevant Literary Background Material
Local Colorism
•The vogue of local color fiction was the logical
culmination of a long, progressive development. It
was the outgrowth of historical and aesthetic forces
that had been gathering energy since early
nineteenth century.
•Local Colorism refers to the elements which
characterize a local culture, elements such as speech,
customs and mores peculiar to one particular place.
• It covers physical setting and those distinctive
qualities of landscape which condition human
Mark Twain
•Local colorists concerned themselves with
presenting and interpreting the local character of
their regions.
•Mark Twain was a typical one of them.
•He dealt largely with the lower strata of society.
•He preferred to represent social life through
portraits of local places which he knew best.
•By quoting from his own experience, Mark
Twain managed to transform into art the
freedom and humor, in short, the finest elements
of western culture.
One of Mark Twain’s
significant contribution to
American literature lies in
the fact that he made
colloquial speech an
accepted, respectable
literary medium in the
literary history of the
country.
Mark Twain loved life and
people and freedom and
justice, felt a pride in
human dignity and
advocated brotherhood of
man. He hated tyranny
and iniquity, despised
meanness and cruelty, and
took his role as a social
critic in a serious and
reasonable manner.
•Mark Twain was a friend of the Chinese.
He was not indifferent either to the Chinese
immigrants persecuted in America or to a
China suffering intense agonies of humiliation
and dismemberment by imperialist powers.
•Mark Twain should be remembered both as a
great literary artist and a great social critic in
the history of the United States.
 III. Questions on Content
 Give brief answers to the following questions.
1 . Why is Mark Twain one of America’s best-loved authors?
2 . Give a brief account of Mark Twain’s experience before
he became a writer.
3 . Why did the author adopt ‘Mark Twain’ as his pen
name?
4 . When did Mark Twain become a
pilot on a steamboat ?
 How long did he stay there?
 What did he learn there?
 What effect did his experience have on
his writing?
 5 . Why did Mark Twain leave the river country?
What did he do then?
 6 . What story did he write that made him
known as the “ the wild humorist of the Pacific
slope”?
7 . Why did the book , the Innocents Abroad , become
an instant best-seller?
8 . Why is Tom Sawyer as sure to
be studied in American schools
today as is the Declaration of
Independence?
9 . Why did Twain
become bitter late in
life?
IV. Figures of Speech
 Mark Twain used a great
number of figures of speech
to make his writing more
vivid, powerful and
persuasive.
 A . Antithesis
a . From them all Mark
Twain gained a keen
perception of the human race,
of the difference between
what people claim to be and
what they really are.

b . A world which will
lament them a day and forget
them forever

B. Euphemism
a . He tried soldering for two weeks with a
motley band of Confederate guerrillas who
diligently avoided contact with the enemy.
b . He commented with a crushing sense of
despair on man’s final release from earthly
struggles
 C .Alliteration
a . “It was a splendid population --- for all
the slow , sleepy , sluggish-brained sloths
stayed at home”

b . “…… and rushing them through with a
magnificent dash and daring and a
recklessness of cost or consequences”

D . Metonymy
 But for making money, his pen would prove
mightier than his pickax.
 E . Personification
 Bitterness fed on the man who had made
the world laugh.
F. Hyperbole / Exaggeration for effect
a . Eternal boyhood
b . America laughed with him.
G. Metaphor
main artery of transportation in the
young nation’s heart
V. Detailed Study of the Text
 Replace the italicized words and phrases
with more formal words or expressions.
 1. this nation’s best-loved author was every
bit as adventurous……
 completely , entirely
 2. Broke and discouraged, he accepted a
job as reporter.
 bankrupt
 3 . That gave to California a name for
getting up astounding enterprises.
 Organizing
 4 . And rushing them through with a
magnificent dash and daring
 Developing, carrying them out at high
speed
 5 . “Well , that is California all over.”
 As its characteristic is
 6 . “Coleman with his jumping frog --- bet
stranger $50.”
 Wagered
 7 . Casually he debunked revered artists
and art treasures.
 Exposed the falsehood of
 8 . He insisted that man drop his religious
illusions
 Cast away
VI. Topic For Discussion
Please make
commentary remarks
on Mark Twain.
VII . Assignment
Write a summary of the life to
Mark Twain within 200 words.
The
End
Thanks