Mark Twains life research paper

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Mark Twain Research Paper

Mark Twain was a very inspirational man. He took moments of deep sadness and depression and made humor out of them to make the reader smile and make his books interesting. But what many people don’t know is that this man took many of the things that happened to him in his life and made books about it. His two most famous books, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer have many points in the story which were based on what happened to him as a kid. But to keep the story interesting to his readers, he also made some differences that kept the story alive. He was very connected to children and how they thought because he was also a kid a heart. Mark’s book, The Prince and The Pauper was a book made for kids more than adults like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer were. Mark Twain was a major inspiration that has changed the way many people write today, and has taught people that surroundings and complications can be a major success in how people view literature.
The life of Mark Twain begins with him being born in a village in Florida, Missouri on November 30th, 1835, which ironically was during the same time as 2
Haley’s comet (Burt 2, Werlock N/P). His real name is not Mark Twain; it is Samuel Langhorne Clemens, which was given to him by his parents John Clemens and Jane Clemens (Werlock N/P). John was a merchant and a lawyer and Jane was a housewife. They moved to Hannibal, Missouri when he was 4 and the town became a main influence for the books that Twain wrote (Werlock N/P). It has been said that at age 12 his father died and he was forced to drop school with a 6th grade education and go work (Burt N/P). He was able to find an apprentice at a printer shop and newspaper shop (Burt N/P). While he was at the shops he learned to read and write which is what sparked his career (Werlock N/P). Since he can now read, his first book he ever tried to read was Joan of Ark (Burt N/P). After he was done with the printing job he decided to become a steamboat pilot (Werlock N/P). This job gave him the experience of American literature and folk tales (Burt N/P). After the civil war was over, he married Olivia Langdon and had 3 daughters and a son (Dendinger N/P). His wife was an inspiration for a lot of his writings because she was mature about everything and twain was still a kid at heart, so they were always arguing and they never saw eye to eye (Dendinger N/P). In 1890 he went into debt and moved to Europe with his family (Dendinger N/P). His books were an inspiration to people everywhere and they said he was “the Lincoln of our literature” (Burt N/P). He was one of the greatest chroniclers of the American Experience, which gave him the title of Father of modern American Fiction (Werlock N/P). People also said that he had a powerful ability to evoke the beauty and promises of America by the way he captured imagery and found humor in horrible 3 situations (Werlock N/P). Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut during Haley’s Comet just like when he was born (Werlock N/P) . It was said that Mark had heart disease that most likely had an effect with his death at the age of only 74 (Werlock N/P).
The time period and events around Mark Twain was a huge influence for his many writings that made him so popular. When the civil war ended his steam-boating career he immediately joined the war as a confederate soldier (Dendinger N/P). This is because all trade on the Mississippi River came to an instant halt causing him to stop making money (Dendinger N/P). The civil war, however made the hugest impact on his life because this is when he wrote his first novel ever in 1873 called The Gilded Age: A tale of today (Werlock N/P). This book is about Mark making fun of the Unions during the post-civil war age (Burt N/P). It was a divided theme of attraction and repulsion of American wealth and power in fundamental ways (Burt N/P). Later in the 1880’s, twain got in touch with his inner child and the stories that were told to him while on the Mississippi River and made a few other extremely popular books that were Masterpieces of American Literature (Burt N/P). One of these books was called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This book was his second novel written and was meant to be read by adults. The adventurous triumph of the little boy gives him ideas to find good over evil in the person of Injun Joe (Dendinger N/P). Tom Sawyer was a big inspiration for him to write his 4th book called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Werlock N/P). Huck Finn is about a young boy that grew up without a father just like Mark Twain did. Only Huck’s 4 father eventually came back as a hallucinogenic drunk so to get away from life’s games he faked his death and finds a run-a-way slave named Jim, who joins him on their adventures down the Mississippi River (Dendinger N/P). It has been said that Tom and Huck were Mark Twain’s good and bad side and used his childhood experiences to write these books. Another big influence for Mark twain was his wife. She was very orthodox and he wasn’t which caused controversy. She was often thought as reason for his genius ideas (Burt N/P). As time went on he started to lose his artistic vision. It was said to be because of progressive imbalance between his celebration of life’s vitality and more cynical rejection by people (Burt N/P). During this time period of his life he wrote Pudd’n Head Wilson (1894) which was one of his dark toned and bitter books that explores miscegenation (Burt N/P). After this he just kind of went down hill and lost his artistic vision, but is still today a very popular artist in the educational world. The story that Mark Twain wrote called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn he based most of the book on his life with all the similarities he included in the text. One of the similarities was how Huck and Mark both did not last long in school. Huck Finn was taken out of school by his father because his father because he believed that school was not needed. So Pap, Huck’s father, went to court to receive custody of him so he could spend all of Huck’s money and spend it on alcohol. On Mark Twain’s side of dropping at of school, he was also pulled out of school because of his dad. His dad died when he was 13 so he only got a 6th grade education. Once he was pulled out of school he was forced to start working to make money for the family. 5
Another similarity between mark twain and Huck Finn is that they both spent a good bit of their lives on the Mississippi River. After Mark was done working in the printer shop he began work as a steam boat pilot for trade and travel. Although this all that stopped when the civil war began. Huck Finn left his dad and decided to travel down the Mississippi River with a slave named Jim and had adventures together. There was proof of his travel down the river from a quote out of the Elements of Literature book on page 422 that said “I laid down in my canoe to smoke a pipe” said by Huck Finn. A final similarity between Huck Finn and Mark Twain was that they both did not like slavery. Mark Twain felt guilty about slavery and felt like they should be treated equally as white people. Huck Finn felt the same way about slavery. When he found Jim, the escaped slave, on the island he ran away to also, he didn’t turn him in because he felt like it would be wrong. So in the end they became friends and decided to travel down the Mississippi River together and have an adventure of their own. Even though Mark Twain and his book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were very much in common, they were also very different. One difference was that Huck Finn was not raised by his mother he was raised by a widow. The widow was basically his mother and father because his father was a drunk and was very abusive and wasn’t involved with his life till Huck was older, but Huck didn’t seem to care that his dad was never around because of the way Pap treated him. Evidence shows in the Elements of Literature book on page 420 a quote in which supports Huck’s Feelings about his dad, “Pap he hadn't been seen for more than a year, and that was 6 comfortable for me; I didn't want to see him no more. He used to always whale me when he was sober and could get his hands on me; though I used to take to the woods most of the time when he was around”. But with Mark Twain, he did have a mother who raised him but he didn’t he didn’t have a dad because he died when he was young. Another difference was that Huck had a dad and Mark’s dad died. The huge difference between the story and Twain’s life was that Huck faked his death to get away from his drunk and crazy dad. A third difference is that Huck Finn had money because he was being raised by the widow so the state gave him money and Mark had to make his own. Once Mark Twain’s father died he had to immediately drop school and go make money for his family or they wouldn’t survive. But with Huck Finn, he didn’t have to make money because the state gave him money since he didn’t have a mom and basically didn’t have a dad. So even though Mark Twain added a lot of similarities to his book from his life, he made some differences too the book to make the story interesting. So in conclusion, Mark Twain’s life was a huge inspiration to him and how he wrote his books, and because of that many people look at him as a genius. He took sadness and made funny, humorous moments out of them. Especially in Huck Finn when he talks about his drunken father who beats him and uses the money Huck has to buy beer and whiskey. Also how his orthodox wife made an impact on Mark’s childish actions and inspired him to write. Even today Twain’s literature and style of writing is used in the classrooms by students and teachers, and also by writers. Even though he had a rough life by taking care of his family because of the death of his 7 dad, he still rose above the complications. This is how Mark Twain inspired others, by showing people that those surroundings and hardships are how people view literature through imagery.