Mark Twain's significant impact upon American literature cannot be denied; he was a humorist, newspaperman, lecturer and novelist. This paper will discuss the life of Mark Twain and analyze how his life affected the attitudes and themes found in his works. First a brief overview of the author's life will be presented, next his works will be used to illustrate specific examples of his writing technique and novel themes. A conclusion will discuss why Twain, the man who did so much to entertain a nation of readers, felt so bitter and disillusioned at the end of his life-time of hard work.
In his autobiography, published posthumously, Mark Twain tells the reader that he speaks from the grave "so that I can speak thence freely, because a man wishing to write a book about the privacies of his life - one which he knows will be read while he is still alive - shrinks from speaking his whole frank mind - a wholly impossible effort for a human being" (Twain xxvi).
Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri in 1835. Twain drew on his boyhood along the Mississippi River for characters and incidents in his best work. For example, he says in his Mississippi Writings that while all the incidents described therein happened either to him or to a friend he knew, Tom Sawyer is a "combination of the characters of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture" (Twain Preface). Twain's formal schooling ended early, after which he learned the printing trade. After writing for the Hannibal newspapers, he became quite an adventurer, leaving for New York, St. Louis and Philadelphia. He gained a good deal of street experience during his many travels as a young man, and one of the best reasons he is able to attract a wide audience for his books is that he is able to draw characters from many different classes of people. This ability came from not being above socializing with all types of people. As Nigey Lenno...