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1、文学巨匠：马克吐温Literary Giant: Mark TwainContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I. Introduction2II. Literature Review.3III. Mark Twain and American Literary81. Mark Twains Masterpieces and His Writing Style.82. The Influences of Mark Twains Writings.11IV. The Real Connotation of Mark Twains Writings.12V. Different
2、Views about Mark Twain.14VI. Conclusion.14References.15Literary Giant: Mark Twain Abstract: Mark Twain, a mastermind of humor and realism, is seen as a giant in world literature. His humor had great impact on the following men of letters. He usually wrote about his own personal experiences and thing
3、s that heknows from firsthand experience. His writing influence many people from younger to the older and from the social lower and high society. In his writing, we can find the freely topic and chitchat, and also the deeply thinking about the course of the human civilization. He is not only commonl
4、y but also distinguished. However, humor could no more be found in Twains later works. On the contrary, it was replaced by bitter satire. His satire and humorous style of his writing is deeply liked by readers, so he is considered an outstanding humorist and satirist. Critics also attached significa
5、nt importance to it and put forward various interpretations. But what is the great feat of the Mark Twain? What is his writing style as well his attitude towards life? Focusing on these questions, the paper tries to show Twains two elements from social influence and personal encounters respectively.
6、 This essay essentially analyzes his important writings, compared him with other writers in same period and described his attitude for Chinese workers and the women. The first point is aiming at showing his great contribute and huge influences in literature. The other point is clarifying the great i
7、mage of the Mark Twain from the other side.Key words: literary giant; humor; satire摘 要：美国幽默大师和现实主义作家马克吐温被称为是一个世界文学巨匠,他的幽默对其后辈文人产生了巨大的影响。他通常写关于他的个人经历和他从第一手经历中所感受到的事情。他的作品影响着每一个人，从年轻人到年长一代，从社会底层到社会名流。在他的作品里，可以读到十分随意的、家常的话题；也可以读到其对人类文明进程的深刻思考。他的作品风格既是大众的、又是高雅的。然而,幽默在马克吐温后期的作品里非但消失殆尽反而被辛辣讽刺所取代,他的讽刺风格也深为
8、读者的喜爱，因此他被喻为是一个杰出的幽默大师和讽刺文学作家。对此，批评家亦高度重视并提出了不同的观点。那么马克吐温的伟大之处在那里呢?他的写作风格和生活态度又如何呢？紧紧围绕上述问题,本文从社会影响和个人遭遇两个方面体现了他的写作风格和人生态度。本文还着重分析了他的一些代表作，并将他与同时代的作家进行了分析比较，描写了他对中国劳工以及对妇女的态度，一方面旨在体现他在文学方面的伟大功绩和巨大影响，另一方面从侧面进一步阐明了他的巨人形象。关键词：文学巨匠；幽默；讽刺IIntroductionAs the important part of American literature, Mark Twa
9、in is considered as an American icon. But most important, he is the man with many credit who giving American literature its voice. He is Mark Twain: A Life, carefully crafted to help us experience the restless, complex, enormously gifted Samuel Clemens, as a living, breathing, three-dimensional bein
10、g.Samuel Langhorne Clemens, more widely known by the pen name of Mark Twain, was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835. At the age of eighteen he left school and began his three-year restless travel. One of Twains best books, Life on the Mississippi, is built around his experiences at this
11、 time. When the Civil War began, he went west with a group of confederate volunteers to Nevada and California. He earned his first recognition as a writer in 1865 with his short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Cleavers County. In 1867 he was went to Europe, later published as a book called Inno
12、cents Abroad. In 1870 he married, then came Twains most productive years as a novelist. During the following period he published several books of satire and travel. In 1895, at the age of sixty, mark twain lost all of his money through unwise investment. He refused to become despondent, however, and
13、 set out on a lecturing tour around the world. Then his daughter died, his wife suffered a nervous breakdown and even his own health was falling. All these disastrous events led him to pessimism. His last writings for instance, What Is Man, The Mysterious Stranger etc. at the age of seventy-two he w
14、as awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature by Oxford University. Three years later he died in Connecticut.Mark Twain is an outstanding humorist and satirist. In his writing, we can find the free topic and chitchat. It is also have the deep thinking about the course of the human civilization. He i
15、s not only commonly but also sophisticated. Mark Twains development both as a writer and a human being, His literature explored questions of freedom, independence, and identity. During his lifetime he strongly criticized the racial discrimination in his writing. With the writers of that same period,
16、 they both deeply criticized the capitalism institution, but the different with them is Mark Twain usually think about how we can prevent the institution which is created by human beings. Mark Twain also has the great contribution in emancipation of black slave.During Mark Twains life, he deeply sym
17、pathized with Chinese, in the early year he reported the cases about Chinese workers who under the white discriminates was suffering, the imperialism was guilty in China. “The efforts for Mark Twain later save the Chinese child laborers not only the image of a great father in childrens heart!” said
18、the expert Sue Wenqing, the expert of researching Mark Twain in Connell University in U.S.A.II. Literature Review1. Mark Twains Experiences and Writings An Introduction to American Literature from Newcomers to Naturalists mentioned: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, more widely known by the pen name of Mark
19、 Twain, was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835. As the Civil War broke out, his work put an end. He went to the west, in there, he began to attract attention as a writer of newspaper sketches, he searched the name “Mark Twain” to sign his early pieces, and “Mark Twain” meant the second
20、mark or twelve feet deep, and enough water to float any steamboat. In 1864, he published The Saturday Press of New York on the 18th of November. His experiences Twain recorded in The Innocents Abroad (1869). Its success gave Twain enough financial security to marry Olivia Langdon in 1870. They moved
21、 next year to Hartford, where the family remained, with occasional trips abroad, until 1891. Between 1876 and 1884 he published several masterpieces. In Tom Sawyer (1881), the author originally intended for adults. In The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Edward VI and a little pauper changed places. Li
22、fe on the Mississippi (1883) contained an attack on the influence of Sir Walter Scott, whose romanticism have caused according to Twains measureless harm to progressive ideas. Huckleberry Finn (1884) was first considered adult fiction. Later Twain wrote in The Man That Corrupted Hadley burg (1900).
23、The books such as The Tragedy of Puddhead Wilson (1884) and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1885) are in it. The travel book Following the Equator (1897). His essays appeared in various newspapers and in magazines, including the Galaxy, Harpers, the Atlantic Monthly, and North American Review
24、. In his Sandwich Islands letters (1873), Twain described how the missionaries and American government have corrupted the Hawaiians, Queen Victorias Jubilee (1897) presented the pomp and pageantry of an English royal procession, and King Leopolds Soliloquy (1905) revealed in a dramatic monologue the
25、 political evils caused by despotism. Twains finest satire of imperialism was perhaps To the Person Sitting in Darkness (1901).As we think, the very beginning of his journalistic was deeply influencing his writing in later even in his thought. His unfortunate childhood and his special experiences ma
26、de him experienced and humorous, bumpy and rough careers made him more mature, he touched the more darkness and bitterness of society than the others. Mark Twain was an outstanding humorist and satirist, in his writing; we can found not only the free topic and chitchat, but also the deeply thinking
27、about the course of the human civilization. He was not only commonly but also sophisticated.From the source about Mark Twain we knew he was born two months prematurely, so underweight and unattractive that his own mother said: “When I saw him I could see no promise in him.” As a boy, he was an uneas
28、y soul who walked in his sleep, a poor student who daydreamed rather than studied until he dropped out of school at the age of 12.” In 1885 he gave the world “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” the novel from which, Ernest Hemingway once said, “all modern American literature comes.” The critic P. A
29、bel said: “Twain was ably and an old man, but never was he a man.” After read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and some literatures, I think Mark Twain uses a child protagonist for two important reasons. The first of these involves an implied comparison between the powerlessness and vulnerability
30、of a child and the powerlessness and vulnerability of a black man in pre-Civil War America. Huck and Jim frequently find themselves in the same predicaments: each is a bused, faces the threat of losing his freedom, and is constantly at the mercy of adult white men. As Hucks moral quandaries make cle
31、ar, however, Jim is also vulnerable to Huck, who occupies the lowest rung of the white social ladder. The second, Twain uses a child protagonist to dramatize the conflict between societal or received morality, and a different kind of morality based on intuition and experience. To accomplish this goa
32、l, Twain shows that conclusions: “right and wrong is based on logic and experience, it is often stand at odds with societys morals.”2. Mark Twains Humanism and SympathyMark Twains development both as a writer and a human beings, his literature explored questions of freedom, independence, and identit
33、y. During his lifetime he strongly criticized the racial discrimination in his writing.In the February 1901 North American Review, Mark Twain published “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” perhaps his most popular and influential anti-imperialist essay. It was an acid indictment of the brutalities th
34、e British, French, German, Russian and American capitalist governments were committing all over the world. The “Person Sitting in Darkness” is Mark Twains ironic term, borrowed from the Gospel According to Matthew and used by the Christian missionaries when referring to the “savage” “heathen” “unciv
35、ilized” populations of the lands the imperialists were conquering. The author condemned the casual atrocities of Lord Kitcheners British troops in South Africa, who routinely bayoneted unarmed surrendering Boers, as well as those committed by the American forces in the Philippines, which did the sam
36、e to the Filipinos. He also pointed out that the Americans had openly proclaimed they were adopting “Kitcheners Plan” concentration camps for their opponents. At the same time, Mark Twain denounced the multinational plundering and dismemberment of China, which had provoked the Boxer Rebellion. The m
37、ismatched is attempt of the Chinese people to drive the imperialist murderers, who introduced mass opium production and trafficking out of their country. In a November 1900 speech he had already proclaimed “I am a Boxer”. The author charged the American Board of Foreign Missions with looting pauper
38、peasants in China, and condemned the missionaries as part of the “Blessings-of-Civilization-Trust”, that deals in “Glass Beads and Theology, and Maxim guns and Hymn Books, and Trade Gin and Torches of Progress and Enlightenment, patent adjustable ones, good to fire villages with, upon occasion.” At
39、the end of his essay, Mark Twain proposes a flag for the United States” new “Philippine Province”. It reminded “we can just have our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.” “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” attracted a good deal of att
40、ention, and eventually set off a storm of controversy. Even within the Anti-Imperialist League, reaction to Mark Twains essay was mixed. Though the League reprinted it as a pamphlet it had the widest circulation of any League publication. League censors excised significant passages, included the aut
41、hors quotation from the New York Sun on the prevailing squalor in the slums of Manhattans Lower East Side, as well as his bitter condemnation of the activities of Christian missionaries in China.When I read Mark Twains works, I found that his attitudes toward the colored ethnic groups were not coher
42、ent. For example, in many cases, his attitude toward the Indians was impersonal and he expressed moral support to their unfair experiences. But, we could also saw that the author would show, intentionally or unconsciously, the superiority complex of his race and his culture when he described the ima
43、ges of Indians. There were similar instances when Mark Twain portrayed the black and Chinese. Demonstrating is the association of histories and texts according to the Chinese images in Mark Twains texts. “Man is a marvelous curiosity. When he is at his very, very best he is a sort of low grade nicke
44、l-plated angel, at his worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm.” Mark Twain grew to despise the injustice of slavery and any form of senseless violence. He was opposed to vivisection and acted as Vice-President of the American Anti-Imperialist League
45、 for nine years. Through his works he illuminates the absurdity of humankind, ironically still at times labeled a racist. Though sometimes caustic “of all the creatures that were made he is the most detestable,” as a gifted public speaker he was a much sought after lecturer. “Information appears to
46、stew out of me naturally, like the precious cottar of roses out of the otter.” -From his writing Preface to Roughing It (1872). He is the source of numerous and oft-quoted witticisms and quips including “Whenever I feel the urge to exercise I lie down until it goes away” “If you dont like the weathe
47、r in New England, just wait a few minutes” “Familiarity breeds contempt and children” “The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes” and “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” Twain is a master in crafting humorous verse with sardonic wit, and though with biting criticism at times he d
48、isarms with his renderings of colloquial speech and unpretentious language. Through the authentic depiction of his times he caused much controversy and many of his works have been suppressed, censored or banned, but even into the Twenty-First Century his works are read the world over by young and old alike. A prolific lecturer and writer even into his seventy-fourth year, he published more than thirty books, hundreds of essays, speeches, articles, reviews, and short stories, many st
