The Story of the Good Little Boy / Bad Little Boy

These are two of the most interesting MT stories in my opinion because they are dripping with irony. Just by the title, you have a preconceived notion of how the stories are going to go, especially since I think most of us had not idea about MT's dark side.

The Story of the Good Little Boy is concise: boy is good, boy helps people, boy follows Sunday school teachings to a T, boy has bad thing happen to him, boy dies. The end! Righteousness is punished. In The Story of the Bad Little Boy, the boy is a total jerk and does awful things to everyone, grows up, murders his family, and becomes a respected politician. Sinfulness is rewarded.

Now, this could be categorized under the theme of Luck, but could just as easily fall under Training, in the sense that training ISN'T everything, that you can be trained to do the right thing but still find yourself unrewarded. MT must have had little respect for Sunday school teachings and organized religion in general.

There I go, off on religion again. It's just one of my favorite MT themes! His views on religion in this story fascinate me. Thoughts?

The Diaries of Adam and Eve

Tom Sawyer aside, The Diaries of Adam and Eve are my absolute favorite writings by Twain. I think they are absolutely hilarious and I have recommended them to pretty much anyone and everyone. Mark Twain must have been fascinated by Adam and Eve, for he mentions them often in many of his other writings, fictional and essays alike. But in their own diaries, they really shine.

Funny enough, The Diaries of Adam and Eve are less about religion than much of his other stories, which is quite ironic since you'd think it would be one of the ultimate religious stories. Twain's Diaries are more about love and, in my opinion, the relationships between men and women in general. Twain clearly loved Olivia and was amused by stereotypical womanly personality traits, such as chattering incessantly. Adam claims to be annoyed by Eve but he eventually admits that life is more fruitful (get it?!) with Eve in his life, obnoxious as she can sometimes be. The pair contrasts yet complements. Their diaries, in typical Twain style, are also true to Man and Woman form: Adam writes concisely and not as often whereas Eve's diaries are wordy and ornate with copious amounts of often erroneous details. Both have an immense amount of subtle humor.

The stories of Adam & Eve also has my absolute favorite line ever written by Twain: "Wheresoever she was, there was Eden." I don't think anyone has ever written such a powerfully romantic line. I believe that Twain was talking about Olivia in that line, for she was his very own Eden.

Was It Heaven? Or Hell?

Mark Twain's short story "Was It Heaven? Or Hell?" has stuck with me, though we read it nearly two months ago. I even used it as one of the main components in my final video project. It's such a strong stance on religion and one that I can really get behind.

The crescendo of the piece is when the doctor lectures two aunts about their morals and their souls. They adamantly believe that lying for any reason is sinful and would cause them the loss of their own souls. The doctor asks if they would lie to help someone - to ease their pain or to save a friend's soul. They stand strong that they would still never tell a lie, even to save someone else's soul. The doctor then poses the question: What kind of souls do they have? Why are their souls worth saving but no one else's? It's selfish to always look out for yourself and no one else! In fact, it's sinful, which makes them hypocrites. I love that the doctor yells at them to "Reform! Tell lies!" If their lies help people, I'd like to believe that God would forgive them. I am Catholic, after all, and we believe in forgiveness!

I'm so glad that Twain wrote this piece. He and I often see eye-to-eye when it comes to organized religion. The thing I have been the most surprised about in this class has been that Twain writes about religion so much. Since my previous knowledge of Twain includes mainly Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, I was shocked to learn that religion is such a major theme in his writings.

4/12/2010 Readings

I can't begin to pick my favorite of these three essays: "The Turning-Point of my Life," "A Scrap of Curious History" and "Bible Teaching and Religious Practice." Well, the second one was not my favorite but it's a toss up between the former and latter.

In "The Turning-Point of my Life," Twain explains that the crossing of the Rubicon was the turning point because he, like so many others, was a result of that action. This first part of his essay really made me stop and think. You could drive yourself mad, living life thinking that way! "If only my grandpa had spotted the RIGHT 'girl in the green dress' then maybe I wouldn't have naturally meaty thighs." Obviously it is true that everything is an effect of something and a cause of something else, but Twain's portrayal of the crossing of the Rubicon really drove that home.

The second part of "The Turning-Point of my Life" had much more to do with Twain, describing how his case of the measles lead him to be the literary figure he became. I could easily connect with that, because had I not been bullied and teased in high school, I would not have become chemically addicted to exercise and had I not spent 2-3 hours in the gym nearly every day for four years, I would have broken my jaw, hip, and right knee when I was run over by a Range Rover my sophomore year of college. My doctor told me that my love of exercise saved my life. Funny how fate works!

"A Scrap of Curious History" interested me less than the previous reading because I had no personal connection to the stories mentioned, but one of the last paragraphs really pulled at my heart strings: "He was hanged. It was a mistake." I also appreciate the comparison between France and America and that Martyrdom is universal.

I was particularly excited by "Bible Teaching and Religious Practice" because my final project focuses largely on Twain's view of Religion. The analogy between the Bible and a drug store tickled my funny bone but had me nodding along thinking, "So true, so true." I am Catholic but not a particular fan of organized religion. I believe that religion should be between a person and God and that there's no need to brag about going to church three days a week, mainly because the worst people in my town are all the people who go to church every Wednesday and Sunday and look down on those who don't. One girl who tried to steal my now ex-boyfriend by doing the most dreadful of things actually told me that I was going to hell because I swear like a sailor. Apparently do not covet thy neighbor's wife didn't mean anything to her?

People pick and choose which parts of the Bible to adhere to and it makes no sense to me. Interpretations are different too. Twain's description of the witch fiasco drives that home. People thought they were ridding the world of people who offend God but shouldn't murder of those people offend God? I am totally on Twain's side here.

Pudd'nhill... I mean... Pudd'nhead Wilson

I cannot get the title of this story correct. I keep calling it "Pudd'nhill Wilson" because there is a fabulous little sandwich / chocolate shop in Greenville that my family loves stop at for lunch on our way to our lake house. I feel like I'm going to embarrass myself in class today by slipping up and referring to Mark Twain's piece at Pudd'nhill!

Now that that's out of the way, I am ready to discuss Pudd'nhead Wilson. First of all, for most of the book I was wondering why Twain chose to title the book Pudd'nhead when most of the story was about Roxy and "Tom." It wasn't until the last few chapters that I had the lightbulb moment.

I found the end quite satisfying, but predictable. I rarely fault anything for being predictable though - I hate that criticism about chick flicks, in particular. Hello! You're at a chick flick! Of course they're going to end up together! But, I digress. I was immensely pleased that "Tom" was sold down the river rather than be locked up in the slammer - having to be a slave after spending 23 years treating them so poorly was simply poetic.

The legal bits bored me compared to the rest of the story, to be quite honest. The twins weren't my favorite characters either. I much preferred the scenes with Roxy in them, because I found her terribly interesting. I also wish there was more of "Chambers" in the story - I felt like he was barely in it, except for the fact that he wasn't really Chambers!

The biggest surprise to me in this piece is that it is much more plot-driven than Twain's other Mississippi writings and he really doesn't go off on tangents and side-stories like in other books. It made for a fast and simple read.

All in all I enjoyed Pudd'nhead Wilson very much and continue to marvel at Twain's use of dialect. Anyone who wants to learn an accent needs to just pick up Pudd'nhead Wilson and read Roxy's monologues out loud again and again!