The Persistent Maverick Analysis

The Transcendent Maverick
Mark Twain, American humorist and novelist, captured a world audience with stories of boyhood adventure and with commentary on man's shortcomings that is satirical while it probes, often bitterly, the roots of human behavior. Additionally, the many facets of Twain include: his incomparable humor, his revolutionary use of vernacular language, his exploration of the realities of American life, his irreverence and skepticism, his profound grappling with issues of race and his fearless opposition to the injustices and outrages of an imperialistic age. Illuminating a moral prompted by some deep and sincerely felt sentiment, Twain held strong faith in the clarity and cleansing possibilities of the written word. Maverick,
as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, an unorthodox, independent-minded person who refuses to conform to the views of prevailing public opinion and the state, best describes Twain as an individualist who posits societal conformity as a bane through his harsh criticism targeted at state control, fervor religious spirit, societal pressure and war. Evidently at odds with so much established opinion, Twain remains undeterred and continued to voice through his strong opinions, leading to the peculiar artfulness in his writing.
Reading Twain is easy, as smooth as oil and just as slippery; deciphering Twain is difficult and calls for a special sort of cryptography. He was an intellectual seducer who sought ways around his audience's defenses, sly and devious and indirect, proceeding by clues and whispers. Twain’s strong ethos and voice are reflected in the sentences of his essays that are lean, accelerated, cadenced, and charged with imagery. He uses bitter and satirical tone to criticize the deep problems prevalent in the society like religious conformity in As Regards Patriotism, futility and contradictory nature of adult advise in Advice to Youth and the evils of war in The War Prayer. This fully illustrate William Dean Howells’s shrewd analysis of what makes Twain’s diction transformative, even transcendent of its “period”: its “bottom of fury,” its “indignant sense of right and wrong,” its “ardent hate of meanness and injustice” (Howell 8-9). These worthy passions propelled by “his single-minded use of words, which express the plain, straight meaning their common acceptance has given them” he writes, English as if it were a primitive and not a derivative language, without Gothic or Latin or Greek behind it. (Howell 8)
Since Twain's life spanned an era that saw politically inflected religious framework in which morals, conduct, and beliefs took the color of the existing environment resulting in homogeneity and conformity, the overarching theme throughout his body of work is his uneasy, often critical attitude towards a controlled environment in the society and the larger state. Under the surface of this criticism of the societal structure, Twain insists that individuals recognize these flaws and their subsequent consequences of existing norms. Not only this, he wants individuals to break free from these shackles of control and pressure. Twain recognizes such individuals who have the ability to challenge the established beliefs and norms as true “heroes.”
In As Regards Patriotism, perturbed by the encroachment by the state into every sphere of the life of the citizens, particularly, religion Twain expresses his distress when he says, “the state arranges a man’s religion for him, he has no voice in it himself” consequently leading to imposition of manufactured religion and patriotic spirit not developed by the individual’s own premises (“Patriotism” 566). Even more disturbing is the illusion that the manufactured identity creates in the minds of the individuals by defining this as the only accepted norm in the society that they are expected to abide by. Therefore, he emphasis the importance of independent political thought and self-governing citizenship in the opening words of the essay—“If a man can arrange his religion so that it perfectly satisfies his conscience, it is not incumbent upon him to care whether the arrangement is satisfactory to anyone or not (“Patriotism” 566).” His tone can be seen as serving the purpose of warning and educating the public about the inherent problems he perceived. Thus, by representing a central flaw in the social and political milieu of the nineteenth century, Twain aimed to make the public aware and recognize the flaws they subconsciously or consciously ignored.
Further, Twain argues that the state control on individual’s religion not only cripples the very essence of self-governing citizenship but the damage caused is more deep and widespread. By crafting an identical religious identity for the entire mass, the state gives a false sense of security and sows the seeds of conformity in the society as emphasized in Twain’s words in As Regards Patriotism, “The Patriot did not know just how or when or where he got his opinions, neither did he care, so long as he was with what seemed the majority—which was the main thing, the safe thing, the comfortable thing (“Patriotism” 566).” The resultant comfort, conformity and patriotism that stems from state control consequently leads to a blurred line between the personal and national identity of individuals. As a result, an individual begins to perceive the two identities as one and not realizing the significant difference between “shared” and “individual” identity and thus not recognizing his own involvement in the creation of both. The deceptive and misleading nature of the state control not only creates an illusion of the acceptable identity an individual can have but also creates an illusion that personal, political and national identity are one. Twain argued in this essay that, “Men can be trained to manufacture their own patriotism. They can be trained to labor it out in their own heads and hearts and in the privacy and independence of their own premises (“Patriotism” 566).” This complacent attitude of the mass and its inability to differentiate between the two distinct identities troubles Twain as he clearly values those who question and challenge this rigid structure and blind faith in the state power that control their mental universe and identity.
According to Shelley Fisher Fishkin, one of the leading scholars on the work of Mark Twain in American culture and literature, Twain’s writing constantly involves "an entreaty to rethink, reevaluate and reformulate the terms in which one defines both personal and national identity" (Fishkin 20). Twain hopes to coax the human race out of its "timid and suspicious privacy" and into recognition of human equality and of the dignity of self-governing citizenship as illuminated in his essay As Regards Patriotism (Fishkin 20). By persistently shining light onto the overpowering pressure to conform, Twain urges individuals to let go off the inhibitions and illusions of control. Thus, the primary aim of Twain’s writing can be seen as a call to action in order to push the public to challenge the norms.
But, Twain insists that the conformity does not exist only in political dimensions and among adult by can exist in all spheres like the environment of growing youth and the arena of war.
He reiterates the dark satire on society in Advice to Youth when he says, “Build your character thoughtfully and painstakingly upon these percepts, and by and by, when you have built, you will be surprised and gratified to see how nicely and sharply it resembles everybody else’s (“Youth” 564).” Through his advise given to the youth he brings forth the point that conformity that the adults advocate is a fallacy. Additionally in The War Prayer, Twain again illuminates the prevalence of societal conformity through the details of patriotic celebrations, meetings, and ceremonies that attest to the almost universal popularity of the cause for which the country is about to go to war and illuminates the patriotic zeal that unites the populace into a “single-minded mass” (“Patriotism” 566).
This recurring theme of conformity reflects Twain’s anger stemming from the mass blindly abiding by the set political and societal dimensions established in the society. But his writing reveals more about the mind and art of Twain than its clearly anti-war, anti-chauvinistic theme indicates. Through the voice of his character, Twain echoes his own ideals and personality. This attack on conformist attitude paints his desired picture of a world in which he visualizes each individual with a unique identity, and this uniqueness can only come when each individual designs his or her own
identity.