Mark Twain Research Paper

Mark Twain was a sarcastic American icon in a white suit and a love for cigars, author of such timeless classics as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He was known in his day for his books and stories, his lectures, writing travel articles, and such sayings as: “I have been on the verge of being an angel all my life, but it’s never happened yet” (Twain 13), or “Man is the only animal who blushes, or needs to” (Twain 145) He came far in his life, from a barefoot Missouri farm boy to one of the greatest wits and household names America has produced. Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The name change provides another layer to the often skewed record of Twain’s life. Some say that it was due to his deserting the Confederate service a

All the young boys that grew up in many a Mississippi port town dreamed of becoming a river pilot. Those pilots had status and glamor, much like famous football players today. Sam trained hard and well, filling notebook after notebook with information on the great river. An amazing feat of memory, each pilot had to memorize every blessed inch of that river. The depth, the dangers, all of them had to be committed to memory. The river was divided into two lanes, so one lane would be memorized going up. Thousands of miles memorized, nice…then pilots had to turn around and memorize the other lane. The fact that anyone would be able to do it seems amazing, but many did and became worthy of the admiration that they

Visiting—and mocking—such historically revered sites as the Sphinx, Jerusalem, Galilee—and exposing them, their people, and his fellow passengers for what they really were, his articles were humorous. They were compiled into a book titled The Innocents Abroad that is still popular amongst classical book lovers to this day. This is a characteristic description of the relics in many churches that were littered across their travels: “But isn’t this relic matter a little overdone? We find a piece of the true cross in every old church we go into, and some of the nails that held it together. I would not like to be positive, but I think we have seen as much as a keg of these nails” (Twain 105-106). In addition to The Innocents Abroad, Twain had flexed his creative muscles enough that he was ready to write his greatest classic: The Adventures of Huckleberry