Mark Twain

In the biography Mark Twain: The Divided Mind of America's Best-Loved Writer by David W. Levy it was made clear that Mark Twain was very involved with all the society changes in his time period. Many of his novels have a theme circulating around the different changes and problems in society including slavery and racism. Mark Twain has been through the years preceding the Civil War, the Gilded Age and industrialization, this book explores his attitude and actions during the time period. This book is very good with explaining and going into detail about what happened in Mark Twain’s life in the 18th and 19th century. Mark Twain was born November 30, 1835 in Missouri. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He grew up through many changes in history including the gilded age and industrialization. Levy stated “In many ways Twain was a full and eager participant in the dynamic age into which he had matured, an age of machinery and cities, of steam and electricity, of big business, big money, and big schemes” (7). Mark Twain wrote a book called The Gilded Age in the book he “ created a character named Squire Hawkins, who was lured from Tennessee to a forlorn town in Missouri and who spent his days of dreaming of the riches his family would someday know because of the large tract of land he had acquired back in Tennessee” (16). Mark Twain has written many books that include the themes of racism and slavery. As a kid he was used to be around slaves and play with them. He had no idea that there was something wrong with slavery. Twains books were really telling the story of his childhood. Huckleberry Finn was one of them, it was a story about a boy who had helped a African American get away from the south. When Twain was younger he learned how to sail by traveling up the Mississippi River. That is how Huck Finn helped Tom Sawyer escape slavery. Levy suggests that Mark Twain was a “remarkable writer.” His evidence supports his view, he stated
“He wrote these