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At First Glance: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens, was a writer known for his realistic depictions of 19th century American life in works like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He had a varied career as a riverboat pilot, journalist, inventor, and lecturer, but is most celebrated for his novels showcasing the "gritty reality" of his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri along the Mississippi River.

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PatriciaGuzman
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29 views

At First Glance: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens, was a writer known for his realistic depictions of 19th century American life in works like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He had a varied career as a riverboat pilot, journalist, inventor, and lecturer, but is most celebrated for his novels showcasing the "gritty reality" of his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri along the Mississippi River.

Uploaded by

PatriciaGuzman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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In this lesson, we will learn about Mark Twain's life, his most acclaimed

writings and his place as a realist and regionalist writer in this country's
literary history.

At First Glance
Mark Twain, a writer who is often considered the first truly American voice
in this country's literary history, was a man of many adventures. In his
lifetime, which spanned from 1835-1910, Twain could have, at various times,
considered himself an author, an essayist, a humorist, a journalist, a master
riverboat pilot, an entrepreneur, an inventor, a public speaker and
controversial personality, a son, a brother, a father and a husband. Most
celebrated now for his novels The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain's use of authenticity in
voice and writing style created for him and the world a new kind of writing
- writing that revealed to the reader the gritty, and sometimes
uncomfortable, reality of 19th-century life in a changing America.

The childhood home of Twain in Hannibal, MO

Early Years
Here's an interesting fact about Mark Twain: 'Mark Twain' was not the
author's given name at birth. This little boy was actually born Samuel
Clemens. The year was 1835, and young Samuel joined a mother and father
and five siblings in a small village in Missouri. When he was only four, the
family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a very busy town of about a thousand
people. While the move may seem like an unimportant detail, Hannibal
became incredibly special to this little boy. The town, situated on the
Mississippi River, was bustling with steamboat business, minstrel shows,
tradesmen and visiting performance troupes.

Pretty much anything a curious little boy could want, little Samuel had. At
some point along the way, though, Samuel saw a different side of this little
playground. He witnessed a significant amount of violence in disputes
among townspeople and also in the locals' treatment of slaves - by the age
of ten he had already witnessed two deaths. Think about it: Missouri would
be one of the 15 slave states when the Civil War broke out in 1861, so at the
time, slave ownership and trade was an active facet of the economy. On the
one hand, little Samuel had this bright little childhood filled with the kind of
adventure and wonder that you read about in books. On the other hand, he
knew firsthand about the darkness that lay beneath.

Sadly, little Samuel lost his father, a lawyer and a judge, to pneumonia when
the boy was only twelve years old. His mother and four surviving siblings
grew desperate and became nearly destitute. So, his great American
childhood abruptly over, he quit school to begin a lifetime of work. His first
job was an apprentice printer at a newspaper at which he worked in
exchange for a small amount of food. His second job, at the age of 15, was
working for his brother Orion at the Hannibal Western Union as a printer,
writer and editor. So began his writing life.

Clemens got his pen name from his work on steamboats.

Life as a Writer
At the age of 17, little Samuel took off. He left his job at his brother's paper
and spent three years traveling and working as a printer hired day-by-day. In
1856, he boarded a steamboat in Cincinnati intending to go to New Orleans.
Along the route, he informally studied with the steamboat's pilot, whose
intelligence and acuity on the water impressed Samuel. Ultimately, he
stayed on as an apprentice pilot, eventually fulfilling a childhood dream and
earning his own pilot's license. While this may not mean much to you or me,
back then, riverboat pilots were powerful, respected and rich. For Samuel,
who spent his entire childhood watching from the shore, this turn of events
was exciting.

A funny little thing happened to Samuel. Obviously, he had to learn to


navigate the muddy and sometimes cloudy waters of the Mississippi. One of
the most important lessons of piloting was the necessity of testing the
depth of the waters. When one reached a specific measure of depth in the
water, the signal cry to others aboard was 'mark twain,' which meant,
basically, that the waters were safe. Imagine that. A writer finds his name,
and himself, on the riverboat. He made the decision to officially adopt the
pen name as his own.

Unfortunately, the Civil War brought a halt to his time on the river because
travel became quite limited. Twain decided to take off again, spending time
traveling in the U.S. and abroad, and writing various newspapers pieces that
were insightful and humorous. It was during this time that he met and
married his wife Olivia (with whom he would eventually have four children).
It was also during this time that he published his first short story that
gained acclaim: 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County.'

Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain

Works and Style


Twain was one of those guys whose life seems to follow an uncharted path.
While writing for various newspapers, he fancied himself an inventor - he
actually patented three inventions. While traveling the country on the
lecture circuit as a humorist speaker (and what some would now consider a
kind of comedian), he schmoozed with the political and literary elite. In
some places he made quite a bit of money, but he also lost money. The one
constant in his life seemed to be Missouri and those memories of home. So,
he decided to write about it.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, published in 1876, is a novel about a boy


growing up on the Mississippi River. Sound at all familiar? Tom Sawyer and
his buddies get into all sorts of shenanigans. In this novel, which is said to
be set in a town based on Hannibal, Missouri, we meet his sidekick,
Huckleberry Finn.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published in 1885, is the sequel to his first


novel, and is also the work that has garnered the most acclaim. Believed by
many (including Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner) to be one of the
greatest of all American novels, it chronicles Huck's escape from his
unpleasant family situation and his subsequent travels into the South.

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