The pose that Twain takes to his characters that seem to be striving for excellence is quite unique. In an excerpt from Life On The
Mississippi Twain tells us of a man with a dream. As imperfection has it this man's dream did not come true. But his friend's similar dream , however, did. The narrator tells us through a blanket of jealousy how this man was perpetually annoying, and how, 'there was nothing generous about this fellow and his greatness.'; Like many of Twain's writings this excerpt shows us a man with convictions as he looks at a seemingly good example and puts it under a different light.
Convictions that shine through in what could quite possibly be a realistic situation (in Twain's accounts of them) shimmer with imperfection.
In a part of Roughing It Twain brings us to a camp of three men. Under the inclination that they are all about to die, these men start to ponder what they could have done with the rest of their lives. They all end up making promises to themselves that they fully believe they will not have to keep. Promises of,
'reform'; and 'examples to the rising generation.'; In what would seem to be