Life On The Mississippi: Figurative Language

Figurative language and the use of literary techniques have been used for hundreds of years to improve writing style and to begin focus to the central idea of a story. In an excerpt from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, a narrator tells about their experience with life on the Mississippi river, and how the river seemed to capture many moods and reflects the different aspects of his life as he came to face it. Throughout the passage the narrator uses striking imagery to characterize the river as a being which seems to speak to those who have learned its language. The passage focuses on the idea that knowledge can remove the beauty from life which is developed by the contrasting imagery of the river as the protagonist learns more about