“Letters from the Earth” by Mark Twain took a seemingly dry topic and gave new insight into the possibilities of celestial creation and existence. Truth be told I have not yet read many of his works, so at first, I assumed that my reading would be dry and prolonged. Once I started in, however, I found myself more drawn to the way that Twain had written about the angels and afterlife than I imagined. Twain gives a sense of humanity to the angels, and even lends Satan awareness of his own culpability in banishment. (Twain338) The title of the work itself is explanatory, in which Satan sends private correspondence to his fellow archangels about the time spent on Earth. Satan is appalled at the way God's “experiment” has given notion to such desires about the afterlife. (Twain339) …show more content…
As I continued reading, however, I felt that it was less about being anti-religious and more about being self-aware of our own shortcomings. This doesn't just pertain to religious shortcomings, but also our own social shortcomings. Satan notices this and comments in his letters, “More men go to church than want to. To forty-nine men in fifty the Sabbath Day is a dreary, dreary bore...All nations dislike all other nations...White men will not associate with 'niggers...'” (Twain340) If this were simply a story meant to poke fun at religion, then I felt surely Twain could have left out the problems of society not concerning