Stereotypes In Luck, By Mark Twain

“Luck,” by Mark Twain, you are either born with it or born without it; this short story gives insight on how your most idolized idols are just normal, everyday people, how your preconceived opinions of people can make you seem like an awful person, and how your own incompetence can be beneficial to those around you.

Again, your favorite celebrity, whomever it may be, is not some demigod or king but rather a person who has come to achieve things that people in your inner circle have not achieved. The beginning narrator states, about Arthur Scoresby while at a banquet honoring him, “It was food and drink to me to look, and look, and look at that demigod; scanning, searching, noting: the quietness, the reserve, the noble gravity of his countenance; the simple honesty that expressed itself all over him; the sweet
unconsciousness of his greatness,” (cite) The idolization that consumes the first narrator can be understood, to a degree. The idolization is caused by what people see and what people say when they observe it. later in the story you will see a change in narrators that gives the perspective of a clergyman. The difference in narrators points out that humans are not perfect and that people make mistakes that could or could not be beneficial. Here is an example of a mistake that turned out to be beneficial, “An order had come to him to fall back and support our right; and instead, he fell forward and went over the hill to the left. But the name he won that day as a marvelous military genius filled the world with his glory, and that glory will never fade while history books last.”(cite) Going to the left won the battle and made Scoresby a name to be said with great diction.

As a result, even the most intransigent person can be swayed by words and observations combined, “The clergyman at my left was an old acquaintance of mine—clergyman now, but had spent the first half of his life in the camp and field, and as an instructor in the military school at Woolwich. Just at the moment I have been talking about, a veiled and singular light glimmered in his eyes, and he leaned down and muttered confidentially to me—indicating the hero of the banquet with a gesture: ‘Privately—he's an absolute fool.’
This verdict was a great surprise to me.
If its subject had been Napoleon, or Socrates, or Solomon, my astonishment could not have been greater. Two things I was well aware of: that the Reverend was a man of strict veracity, and that his judgement of men was good. Therefore I knew, beyond doubt or question, that the world was mistaken about this hero: he was a fool.” (cite) Because the reverend should only state facts and should have only good judgement, the narrator is willing to believe just about any word that utters out of the clergyman’s mouth. However, does the clergyman actually have good judgement and only speaks facts or is he just jealous that he hasn’t climbed up in rank as fast as Scoresby had done. These are words from the clergyman, “He was actually gazetted to a captaincy in a marching regiment! Better men grow old and gray in the service before they climb to a sublimity like that. And who could ever have foreseen that they would go and put such a load of responsibility on such green and inadequate shoulders? I could just barely have stood it if they had made him a cornet; but a captain—think of it! I thought my hair would turn white.”
(cite)

As I have said, great people are just everyday people and preconceived ideas about people can make you look bad. The use of first person narrative provides a look at what is coming from a character’s mouth. The clergyman spent half of his life as a military instructor and the second half being jealous of one of his students who reached ranks that he couldn't have reached until he was grey and old. Everybody makes choices, some choice could end in disaster, other choice could end in a higher social status.