The summary of the life of the life of Mark Twain

陈山山

Mark Twain, the mirror of American, born in the small village of Florida, Missouri in 1835, and died in Hartford in 1910. His 75 years of suffering life has experienced the mostly part of history of American like industrial economic development, Civil War, gold rush and western expansion and so on.

There is no doubt that Twain witnessed the rise and decline of country of America. The most important period of Twain’s life may begin at 1857. He became a cub pilot on a steamboat, that four and a half years in the steamboat marked the real beginning of his education. After decline of steamboat commerce, he left the river country to join the Civil War for two weeks. Then, he went west and succumbed to the epidemic of gold rush in Nevada. Eight months later, broke and discouraged, he accepted a job as reported with the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. In the year of 1864, he boarded the stagecoach for San Francisco. One years later, his first famous work Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was published. Then in 1876, the opportunity came for him to take a distinctly American to look at the world. Upon his return to states, the version of travels, The Innocents Abroad, became an instant best-seller. At the age of 36 Twain settled in Hartford. His best books, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, were published while he lived there.

Although bitterness fed on the man, he was always struggling against difficulty in his whole life. And most important, he brought us lots of spiritual enlightenment in revelation.

第二篇：马克_吐温_从幽默到讽刺_英文2

Mark Twain:from humor to satire

Abstract:Mark Twain, a mastermind of humor and realism, is seen as a giant in world literature. His humor had great impact on the following men of letters; critics also attached significant importance to it and put forward various interpretations. However,humor could no more be found in Twain's later works. On the contrary, it was replaced by bitter satire. Why did Twain change his writing style as well his attitude towards life?What was the cause of this sharp conversion? Focusing on these questions, the paper tries to analyze the basic elements which affected Twain from social influence and personal encounters respectively, aiming at offering rational analysis of this shift as well as making Twain's works readily understood.

I Introduction

Mark Twain, the pseudonym of Samuel

Langhorne Clemens, is the foreruner and

Reputed realist in the arena of American

literature. Because of his remarkable contribution to the

nation, literary critics spoke highly of his achievements.

For instance, these venerable titles‖the Lincoln of

American literarure‖,‖the true father of our national

literature ,‖‖Mark Twain –mirror of America‖ are

used to highlight his pinnacles in literature. His faithful

disciple, Ernest Heming way, more over, onve put it,

―all modern literature comes from one book by Mark

Twain ,called Huck lebury Finn..‖

As far as a literatry giant is concerned, Twain was

remembered by men of letters firstly as a mastermind

of hunmor and then as bitter satiric writer. In other

words, Twain in his writing career experienced a

change from being cheerful and optimistic to despairing

and pessimistic But what cause his shift from humor

to satir? Personally, both social influence and

personal encounters play critical roles in changing his

writing from humor to satire and his attitude toward

life as well

Ⅱ Social influences

Both the American Civil war( happened in 1861

and lasted till1865) and the re-construction after the

war greatly affected Twain‘s writing style. Mark

Twain was born in Florida, Missouri, on30 November

In 1835,into a lawyer family.With the advent of

the civil war, young Twain in 1856 became a steam- boat pilot, a profession about which he wrote thirty years later in the book Life on the Mississippi. Generally speeking, the American people enjoy regarding war experience as their cherished and valuable forture, and Twain was also no exception. As a pilot he actively participated in the civil war in 1857.The cast of characters set before hin in his profession was rich and varied—a cosmos. He took abundantly part in this life, listening to pilothouse talk of feuds, piracies, lynchings,medicine shows, and savage waterside slums, namely, he made himself very much familiar with all walks of life and each coner of the society.Twain, at the very begainning,was actually optimistic about what he saw and what he did .However,he had to leave the river country in the wake of the end of the civil war after four and a half years in the steamboat.In other words, the end of civil war put an end to his life as a pilot. Then he tried soldiering once again for two weeks with motley band of confederate guerrillas who diligently avoided contact with the enemy.Twain quit after deciding,‖I knew more about retreating than the man that invented retreating‖.After that, he made his mind to estabilish his fame by writing. It was proved that his pen was really mightier than his pickax . In 1861 he became a joumalist and adopted ―Mark Twain‖ as his pen name. Four years later,

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Coutry

was published ―Coleman with his jumping frog-bet

stranger$50—stranger had no frog, and C got him

one—in the meantime, stranger filled C‘s frog full

of shot and he couldn‘t jump.The stranger‘s frog

won.‖This sucessful story firmly established his

reputation as a humorist and storyteller.

In fact, the civil war was a turning-point in

Twain‘s literary career, and it was also a watershed

between his hunmor and satire.Thus, the war experience

For him was an epoch-making event and it had

far-reaching influence upon his writing .We know,

Twain fully and diligently embraced into the steamboat

pilot on the eve of the civil war . Presumably his orginal

pursuit was fight for peace, freedom,and reunification

of the nation and happiness of American people.

At that time, Twain‘s eyes were filled with hops and

opportunities as well as conflicts and fights. He firmly

upheld that he could be self-made and made a fortune

by immersing in the war . However ,only the opposite

was in fact true. It turned out to be that he took

everything for granted at first . Shortly after the war came to an end, it left nothing but cherished remembrances,

which made him extremely upset and disheartened

fortunately, this four and a half years in the steamboat

made himself educated and acquainted with every

possible type of human nature , and most of which made

him ulimately recognized that his pen would mightier

than his weapons.Without hesitation any more, he

began digging his way to regional fame as a corrspondent

and humorist with rich war experience. Due

to his phonographic memories and dsecriptive genius

he made all happened in the war vividly resurfaced.

Scores of successful works gradually set him apart from

the commom men of letters and it eventually made him

a reputed spokesperson for the realism and a

world-wide remarkable humorist in particular.

As a witness of the civil war, Twain saw clearly

the great changes in nation‘s economic development

and political life .With the final victory over the South

the North once again enjoyed its wielding power in

the nation‘s administration. Now the acute confilt at

home was undermined and the American people again.

focused their full attention on re-construction after the war.Because majority of the slaves were emancipated, the slave-based economy of the defeated South had its prosperity became rootless.in this case, clusters of groundless southern poor whites and the newly freed slaves headed directly or indirectely for the newly-liberated cities to seek opportunities.It may be called the ―Gold Rush‖ rejuvenated, or rather,it was so-called the ―American Dream‖ by some critics. Twain also could not help rushing to the west to will his American dream.He once believed the idea of development and industrialization since it would modernize the young country and encourage the enterprising spirit of American who had long been famous for it. He was firmly enthralled by such fever, so once again he held an optimistic attitude towards

the post-westward expansion. He drew much inspiration from the unparalleled and magnificent event and spoke highly of its decision-makers and its people. Social consciousness roots in social being. As a kind of social consciouness literature should reflect the then social reality in which it firmly roots. Being a

realistic literati, Twain gradually noticed the darkness and he finally found the difference between what he saw superficially and what they really were in-depth; he also found the difference between what people claimed to be and what they really were. He realized that people became amoral and the ruling classbecame impotent in the course of material prosperity. Althogh both the civil war and the re-construction after the war (aftermath of the westward expasion) enable him to familiar with people from all walks of life,to be rich in writing materials which led him to become American ambassadoralt large, and to acquire an international reputation as humoristcum-frontier-philosopher; on the other hand ,it also tallked him into observing deliberately the side-effect of industrialization and the darkness of the society.Namely, the material fulfilment only brought about spirit vacancy. Because his deep sorry and increasing dissatisfactiontoward these phenomena,Twain could not be humorous and opptimistic any more. On the contrary,Twain in his later works shifted from an

optimist to a misanthrope,from humor to satire.For

instance,in his later works, The Glided Aged and

Pudd‘ndiead Wilson, he intensely and fiercely satirized the rampant evills and darkness of the society. Unlike

the experiences of war and the westward expasion

that made him became quite optimistic, the corruption

and in justice made him became extremely pessimistic

He failed to find ways to eradicate the exacerbated

Social disease; he held a helpless ande elusive attitude towards life.Thus, Twain became doubtfull about the

idea of development and skeptical of the goodness of

human nature. In Following the Equator and To the

person Sitting in Darkness ,he severely condemned the nation‘s imperia and aggressive behavior to other

countries, especially the Spanish-American War.since

the publication of The Mysterious Stranger in 1916

until his death in 1910,he maintained a bitter satire and

Skepticism to large degree. The Man That Corrupted

Hadleyburg and What is the Man are representatives

of this sort.

Ⅲ Personal encounters

As I mentioned foregoing,social influence assered

predominat significance over Twain‘s coversation

from humor to satire. It is no exaggeration that social

influence of his day,dominantly affected his attitude

towards life, his outlook of society, his writing style

and so on and so forth .However, there is another

element, his personal tragedies which also can‘t be

ignored when we tried to analyze his writing style.

Regarded as a giant in both American literature

and world literature, Twain encounted countless

personal hardships and sufferings.It is likely that Twain

is more famous for his personal tragedies than as a

humorist and a representative of realism. It is no wander

that he had to change his humor into satire after ex-

periencing unexpected personal sufferings and

tragedies . In the firstly place, his father died when he

was only twelve and which directly brought about the

end of his found education. However ,Twain we

kown was born in a period that the two sides were

fighting at throat and when the confilt ended the west

was still wide open. The nationwide aftermath of

westward movement once again full of chances and

opportunites and he therefore was utterly delighted with the fresh land and invigorated by the poineering spirit.Chances are that his father‘s death did not make difference upon hin emotion.Life was bright for hin, filled with its mysteries alarmed by its terrors,and amused by its contrast. Thus he was able to laugh with

lightness as great humorist in the Pacific slope. However,when the aged Twain ultimately realized that the material wealth only resulted in corruption and injustice instead of man‘s morallity improvement,his humor and laugh were replaced by bitter sneer and satire .In the second place,When he bacame sophisticated he was once again haunted in the consistent deaths of his loved ones;his borther Henry was killed by

a steamboat explosin; his eldest daughter Susy died of

spinal meningitis; Mrs Clenments succumbed to a heat attack in Florence; and youngest daughter Jean an

epileptio drawned in an upstairs bathtub.Such trgic

encounters Twain experienced is really like the de-

cription in Mark Twain Mirror of A merican ―Bit-

terness fed on the man who had made the world

laugh .The moralizing of his eariler writing had been

well padded with humor .Now the gloves came off

with bitter satire‖ .The last but not the least reason why Twain turned humor into satire in his later works is that the total failure of his type-setting and pub- lishing company in 1894 .The failure in bussiness and the deaths of loved ones made Twain maintained a bitter skepticism in his later part life .Twain felt so de- spaired and frustrated that he was deeply invovled in skepticism and predestination .Just as he put in his own autobiogrph;‖…they vanish from a world where they were of no consequences;where they achieved nothing ;where they were a mistake and a failure and foolishness,where they have left no sign that they have existed-a world which will lament

them a day and forget them forever.‖

In the word ,Mark Twain ?s later years was full of

total failure in frequent fiinancial speculation-the speculation

both in type-setting and publishing companies

and his personal bereavement-the beloved ones died

one after anther.Unlike Shakespeare still could write

out some comedies after his forur greatest

world-known trgedies Twain changed his writing

style into bitter satire after making the worle laugh by

his humor .his last years were filled with acute

pessimicm,strong skepticism and bitter staire.Twain died

on April 21,1910, at age of sevety-five.

Ⅳ Conclusion

To sum up , fundamentally ,Twain is a great

humist.He once said ―there are several kinds of stories‖

But only one difficult-the humorous,. So to be

humorous in his writing I venture to say is his lifelong

pursuit .it is also undeniable that Twain is the only

giant who had brought both local colorism and humor

to world fame. Meanwhile he once claimed that he

was a serious writer and was actively concerned with moral ideas in many ways. On this point, Twain was by no means shallow or frivolous and we can‘t simply call him a humorist or an ironic writer .in fact, most

of Twain‘s works are the combination of both humor and satrie and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

was a case in point.On the one hand ,it is his master-

piece as a humorist while the novel also can be eyed as a satire on sentimentality and Romanticism on the

other.Roughly speaking Twain‘humor deeply rooted in social changes and his personal sufferings .When he thought life was bright for him and full of chances

and if everything went smoothly , he was quite optimistic and hunmorous . However ,when he found the

darkness corruption, injustice and personal tragic encounters he had to withstand in paticular , he became

firstly serious and the bitter ironic.It follows

therefore that we should take these elements into

considerations when analyzing Twain‘s writing characteristics reality and the unpredictable personal tragedies directly and eventually resulted in his change from humor to satire