Mark Twain

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Mark Twain

• A Mirror of America

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Mark Twain, a man who makes the world laugh is
saddened by his family tragedies and his doubt
about life and the future
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Mark Twain, the creator of American boyhood and
American language
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Mark Twain and China today
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Mark Twains world
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The Mississippi Valley
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Clara
Jean
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Susy
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Mark Twains Family
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Features of Mark Twains Generation

• 1. Boom and bust
• 2. Wealth and fame
• 3. Business conquering spiritual cultivation
• 4. Science and technology ( oil, railroads, steel
  and coal)
• 5. Henry Fords Model T car of the 1900s
• 6. Modern commercialization ( salesmen)
• 7. Advertisement ( newspapers)
• 8. The Gold Rush

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Money can change people overnight.
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• Henry Fords Model T car, which transformed
• America, and American way of life
• Mobility of population
• Personal freedom ( a moving home)
• Highway and super highway
• Fast food and fast drinks
• Enhancement of individualism

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The first American transcontinental railroad
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Stories about money The 30,000 Bequest The
1,000,000 Bank Note The Man That Corrupted
Hadleyburg The Gilded Age
On the Mississippi
Mark Twain, the businessman Publisher Inventor Spe
aker Newspaper reporter Writer Social critic Gold
rusher River pilot
Mark Twain, the greatest writer The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Mark Twains literary contributions

• 1. American literature---from local to national
• 2. Lecture platform---public entertainment
• 3. First-person narrative in American literature
• 4. Use of common language
• 5. Description of American blacks ( Jim)
• 6. The continuous act of running away from
• civilization in American literature ( Huck
  Finn)
• 7. The creator of American Boyhood ( Tom Sawyer
• innocent, good-hearted, easy to get along
  with,
• Puritan, honest, humorous, witty, country
  wisdom)

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A critical reading of Huck Finn

• 1. Setting The Mississippi River
• 2. Characterization Huck and Jim
• Huck---trying to run away from the
  civilization by pretending
• to be killed, and flowing down the river to
  the unknown
• Jim --- escaping from the slave system to buy
  freedom for his
• family
• 3. Conflicts the civilized and the savage
• the heart and the mind
• freedom and slavery
• the white and black
• Death and rebirth ( water
  hog killing )