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Mark Twain's Life On The Mississippi

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Traveling on the Mississippi can be viewed in many ways. Our perspective on anything can change at a moments notice based on new facts or reasoning. In Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi his viewpoint changes as he learns the river, and becomes more acquainted with it.
In the passage Twain sees the river as a majestic being, and he describes its beauty with descriptive language. “Throughout the long twelve hundred miles there was never a page that was void of interest, never one that you could leave unread without loss…” stated Twain (P1). Since he has just started as a steamboat pilot, the river is new to him, and he is seeing everything for the first time and taking in every new experience as he travels along the river. “The passenger who could not read it was charmed with a peculiar sort of faint dimple on its surface; but to the pilot that was the italicized passage; indeed it was more than that, it was a legend of the largest capitals…” said Twain (P1). As Mark began to learn more about the, river he …show more content…

His viewpoint changes from a naive beginner to and experienced professional because he has learned more about the river and how to read each sign. “All the grace, beauty, the poetry, had gone out of the majestic river!”Exclaimed Twain (P2). Mark Twain has been on the river so much he has grown used to the sights that others find spectacular. Furthermore, he is able to differentiate certain details of the river that tell him what lies ahead. “No, the romance and beauty we’re all gone from the river. All the value any feature of it had for me now was the amount of usefulness it could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a steamboat.”said Twain (P4). No longer does he see the beauty that he first saw when starting out as a steamboat pilot he just sees what will help him navigate the river, and do his

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel written by Mark Twain, is often referred to as a great American novel (Goodreads) due to it’s presence of the culture of the United States prior to the Civil War. Not only does this piece of literature demonstrate the mentality of the American society in the midst of slavery, but it also uses the symbolism of Jackson’s Island and the Mississippi river, one of the world’s largest river systems, to emphasize Twain’s message about morality and religion. Although perhaps not initially apparent, Twain tries to convince readers that civilization masks morality and that hypocrisy often lies within religion through Huck and Jim’s journey down the Mississippi River and their various encounters with other characters

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In the passage from “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” the peaceful and reflective tones illustrate the main character Huck Finn's contrast of life on the shore and the life on the river. Life on shore and life on water both have their different styles of complicated life for Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain uses a very reflective tone throughout the passage when he clearly describes how Huckleberry's life is on the shore and how his life is on water. He also acknowledges how peaceful life seems to Huckleberry Finn when he is away from civilization. The author's diction illustrates the struggles that Huckleberry Finn faces on life on the shore and life on the water.

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When the characters undertake these journeys, they anticipate thrilling experiences but instead have disappointing realizations. For instance, Huck expects the whole trip to be lazily floating down the river, smoking, fishing, and talking to Jim (Twain 130). However, this illusion is soon shattered. As they continue south, Huck encounters many different communities and types of people. Their behavior leads him to an unexpected conclusion about society: “Well, it made me sick to see it…human beings can be awful cruel to one another” (245).

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Title In the excerpt “Life on the Mississippi” the author ,Mark Twain, explains why his viewpoints of the mississippi river changes by describing his experiences. Mark twain changes his viewpoints of the river from seeing it as beautiful to only seeing the problems and bad things of the mississippi. In the early years of steamboating the author thought of the river was beautiful and wonderful. He explains this to us when he says “There never was so wonderful a book written by man”.

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Mark Twain's "Life on Mississippi" is a memoir of Mr. Twain's experiences when he was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. The book is about history and also about his memoir of his moments. Mark Twain basically tells the story of the river, his own personal story with the river, and also about him growing up Its very different compared to Fredrick Douglas, who wrote a memoir of how his life was as a slave. Fredrick uses a lot of narrative to write a paper on abolishing slavery when he tells the reader his journey and battle to become a freeman.

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Within the excerpt Life on the Mississippi, the author Mark Twain, applies imagery in order to portray how his perspective towards his surrounding environment gradually altered as he began to truly contemplate and identify the Mississippi River. By first scrutinizing his surroundings the author emphasizes the magnificence of the river as this was his initial outlook towards the river. This perspective ultimately diminishes as a result of the speaker comprehending the true connotation of the Mississippi River. Nonetheless, the author questions whether acquiring knowledge can truly benefit an individual or impede one from being open-minded to their surroundings. Twains initial depiction of the Mississippi River is quite positive as conveys

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