马克_吐温_从幽默到讽刺_英文2.doc

Mark Twain:from humor to satireAbstract:Mark Twain, a mastermind of humor and realism, is seen as a giant in world literature. His humor had great impact on the following men of letters; critics also attached significant importance to it and put forward various interpretations. However,humor could no more be found in Twains later works. On the contrary, it was replaced by bitter satire. Why did Twain change his writing style as well his attitude towards life?What was the cause of this sharp conversion? Focusing on these questions, the paper tries to analyze the basic elements which affected Twain from social influence and personal encounters respectively, aiming at offering rational analysis of this shift as well as making Twains works readily understood.IIntroduction Mark Twain, the pseudonym of SamuelLanghorne Clemens, is the foreruner andReputed realist in the arena of American literature. Because of his remarkable contribution to thenation, literary critics spoke highly of his achievements.For instance, these venerable titles”the Lincoln of American literarure”,”the true father of our nationalliterature ,”Mark Twain mirror of America” areused to highlight his pinnacles in literature. His faithfuldisciple, Ernest Heming way, more over, onve put it,“all modern literature comes from one book by MarkTwain ,called Huck lebury Finn.” As far as a literatry giant is concerned, Twain wasremembered by men of letters firstly as a mastermind of hunmor and then as bitter satiric writer. In other words, Twain in his writing career experienced a change from being cheerful and optimistic to despairing and pessimistic But what cause his shift from humor to satir? Personally, both social influence and personal encounters play critical roles in changing his writing from humor to satire and his attitude toward life as well Social influences Both the American Civil war( happened in 1861 and lasted till1865) and the re-construction after the war greatly affected Twains writing style. Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri, on30 November In 1835,into a lawyer family.With the advent of the civil war, young Twain in 1856 became a steam- boat pilot, a profession about which he wrote thirty years later in the book Life on the Mississippi. Generally speeking, the American people enjoy regarding war experience as their cherished and valuable forture, and Twain was also no exception. As a pilot he actively participated in the civil war in 1857.The cast of characters set before hin in his profession was rich and varieda cosmos. He took abundantly part in this life, listening to pilothouse talk of feuds, piracies, lynchings,medicine shows, and savage waterside slums, namely, he made himself very much familiar with all walks of life and each coner of the society.Twain, at the very begainning,was actually optimistic about what he saw and what he did .However,he had to leave the river country in the wake of the end of the civil war after four and a half years in the steamboat.In other words, the end of civil war put an end to his life as a pilot. Then he tried soldiering once again for two weeks with motley band of confederate guerrillas who diligently avoided contact with the enemy.Twain quit after deciding,”I knew more about retreating than the man that invented retreating”.After that, he made his mind to estabilish his fame by writing. It was proved that his pen was really mightier than his pickax . In 1861 he became a joumalist and adopted “Mark Twain” as his pen name. Four years later,The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Coutrywas published “Coleman with his jumping frog-betstranger$50stranger had no frog, and C got himonein the meantime, stranger filled Cs frog fullof shot and he couldnt jump.The strangers frogwon.”This sucessful story firmly established hisreputation as a humorist and storyteller.In fact, the civil war was a turning-point inTwains literary career, and it was also a watershedbetween his hunmor and satire.Thus, the war experienceFor him was an epoch-making event and it hadfar-reaching influence upon his writing .We know,Twain fully and diligently embraced into the steamboatpilot on the eve of the civil war . Presumably his orginalpursuit was fight for peace, freedom,and reunificationof the nation and happiness of American people.At that time, Twains eyes were filled with hops andopportunities as well as conflicts and fights. He firmlyupheld that he could be self-made and made a fortuneby immersing in the war . However ,only the oppositewas in fact true. It turned out to be that he took everything for granted at first . Shortly after the war cameto an end, it left nothing but cherished remembrances,which made him extremely upset and disheartenedfortunately, this four and a half years in the steamboatmade himself educated and acquainted with every possible type of human nature , and most of which madehim ulimately recognized that his pen would mightierthan his weapons.Without hesitation any more, hebegan digging his way to regional fame as a corrspondentand humorist with rich war experience. Due to his phonographic memories and dsecriptive geniushe made all happened in the war vividly resurfaced.Scores of successful works gradually set him apart fromthe commom men of letters and it eventually made hima reputed spokesperson for the realism and aworld-wide remarkable humorist in particular.As a witness of the civil war, Twain saw clearlythe great changes in nations economic developmentand political life .With the final victory over the Souththe North once again enjoyed its wielding power inthe nations administration. Now the acute confilt athome was undermined and the American people again.focused their full attention on re-construction after the war.Because majority of the slaves were emancipated, the slave-based economy of the defeated South had its prosperity became rootless.in this case, clusters of groundless southern poor whites and the newly freed slaves headed directly or indirectely for the newly-liberated cities to seek opportunities.It may be called the “Gold Rush” rejuvenated, or rather,it was so-called the “American Dream” by some critics. Twain also could not help rushing to the west to will his American dream.He once believed the idea of development and industrialization since it would modernize the young country and encourage the enterprising spirit of American who had long been famous for it. He was firmly enthralled by such fever, so once again he held an optimistic attitude towards the post-westward expansion. He drew much inspiration from the unparalleled and magnificent event and spoke highly of its decision-makers and its people. Social consciousness roots in social being. As a kind of social consciouness literature should reflect the then social reality in which it firmly roots. Being arealistic literati, Twain gradually noticed the darkness and he finally found the difference between what he saw superficially and what they really were in-depth; he also found the difference between what people claimed to be and what they really were. He realized that people became amoral and the ruling classbecame impotent in the course of material prosperity. Althogh both the civil war and the re-construction after the war (aftermath of the westward expasion) enable him to familiar with people from all walks of life,to be rich in writing materials which led him to become American ambassadoralt large, and to acquire an international reputation as humoristcum-frontier-philosopher; on the other hand ,it also tallked him into observing deliberately the side-effect of industrialization and the darkness of the society.Namely, the material fulfilment only brought about spirit vacancy. Because his deep sorry and increasing dissatisfactiontoward these phenomena,Twain could not be humorous and opptimistic any more. On the contrary,Twain in his later works shifted from anoptimist to a misanthrope,from humor to satire.Forinstance,in his later works, The Glided Aged andPuddndiead Wilson, he intensely and fiercely satirizedthe rampant evills and darkness of the society. Unlikethe experiences of war and the westward expasion that made him became quite optimistic, the corruptionand in justice made him became extremely pessimisticHe failed to find ways to eradicate the exacerbated Social disease; he held a helpless ande elusive attitude towards life.Thus, Twain became doubtfull about theidea of development and skeptical of the goodness ofhuman nature. In Following the Equator and To theperson Sitting in Darkness ,he severely condemned thenations imperia and aggressive behavior to othercountries, especially the Spanish-American War.sincethe publication of The Mysterious Stranger in 1916until his death in 1910,he maintained a bitter satire andSkepticism to large degree. The Man That CorruptedHadleyburg and What is the Man are representativesof this sort. Personal encountersAs I mentioned foregoing,social influence asseredpredominat significance over Twains coversation from humor to satire. It is no exaggeration that social influence of his day,dominantly affected his attitudetowards life, his outlook of society, his writing style and so on and so forth .However, there is another element, his personal tragedies which also cant be ignored when we tried to analyze his writing style.Regarded as a giant in both American literatureand world literature, Twain encounted countlesspersonal hardships and sufferings.It is likely that Twainis more famous for his personal tragedies than as a humorist and a representative of realism. It is no wanderthat he had to change his humor into satire after ex-periencing unexpected personal sufferings andtragedies . In the firstly place, his father died when hewas only twelve and which directly brought about theend of his found education. However ,Twain wekown was born in a period that the two sides werefighting at throat and when the confilt ended the west was still wide open. The nationwide aftermath ofwestward movement once again full of chances and opportunites and he therefore was utterly delighted with the fresh land and invigorated by the poineering spirit.Chances are that his fathers death did not make difference upon hin emotion.Life was bright for hin, filled with its mysteries alarmed by its terrors,and amused by its contrast. Thus he was able to laugh with lightness as great humorist in the Pacific slope. However,when the aged Twain ultimately realized that the material wealth only resulted in corruption and injustice instead of mans morallity improvement,his humor and laugh were replaced by bitter sneer and satire .In the second place,When he bacame sophisticated he was once again haunted in the consistent deaths of his loved ones;his borther Henry was killed by a steamboat explosin; his eldest daughter Susy died of spinal meningitis; Mrs Clenments succumbed to a heat attack in Florence; and youngest daughter Jean an epileptio drawned in an upstairs bathtub.Such trgic encounters Twain experienced is really like the de- cription in Mark Twain Mirror of A merican “Bit- terness fed on the man who had made the world laugh .The moralizing of his eariler writing had been well padded with humor .Now the gloves came off with bitter satire” .The last but not the least reason why Twain turned humor into satire in his later works is that the total failure of his type-setting and pub- lishing company in 1894 .The failure in bussiness and the deaths of loved ones made Twain maintained a bitter skepticism in his later part life .Twain felt so de- spaired and frustrated that he was deeply invovled in skepticism and predestination .Just as he put in his own autobiogrph;”they vanish from a world where they were of no consequences;where they achieved nothing ;where they were a mistake and a failure and foolishness,where they have left no sign that they have existed-a world which will lamentthem a day and forget them forever.”In the word ,Mark Twain s later years was full oftotal failure in frequent fiinancial speculation-the speculation both in type-setting and publishing companiesand his personal bereavement-the beloved ones diedone after anther.Unlike Shakespeare still could writeout some comedies after his forur greatest world-known trgedies Twain changed his writing style into bitter satire after making the worle laugh by his humor .his last years were filled with acute pessimicm,strong skepticism and bitter staire.Twain died on April 21,1910, at age of sevety-five. ConclusionTo sum up , fundamentally ,Twain is a great humist.He once said