Mark Twain's The Awful German Language

These paragraphs mention a couple of immoral aspects of Twain’s life. When he buries his grandmother under the grapevine, he justifies his reasoning through common sense. “The vine needed fertilizing, my aunt had to be buried, and I dedicated her to this high purpose.” This justification is ironic because his deceased grandmother is providing life for the vines. He also refers to the Constitution in support of his actions. “Does that unfit me for the President? The Constitution of our country does not say so.” Irony also occurs when Twain admits that he dislikes the poor. “I regard the poor man, in his present condition, as so much wasted raw material.” This statement is ironic because the office of the presidency swears on oath to support and serve the entire population of the United States. Because of this, the ironies placed in these two paragraphs further bring out the humor of this

He was one of the first to descriptively verbalize southern speech in writing. Not only was it uncommon for people of Twain’s era to write in vernacular, it was new-fangled for him to write about the subject of vernacular itself. It is a difficult task to write about, much less in, a dialect to which one is foreign without appearing foolish. Twain’s ability to both with ease marked him as an authority on the subject.

Even though the book shows immaturity I think the audience it's intended for is old enough to not be influenced by bad behavior in a book. This leads me into my next point The strength of writing of Mark Twain. Mark Twain’s writing is very unique because of the way he studies the background of the people the books are about. One of the best features of the book is the way Mark Twain uses dialect. "No! W'y, what has you lived on? But you got a gun. Oh, yes, you got a gun. Dat's good. Now you kill sumfn en I'll make up de fire." (Twain). As you can see in the quotes Mark Twain has a magical way of writing and giving an accurate picture of how it was in the mid 1800s.

    One of the most notable techniques of realism was the simplicity of its writing and dialogue. Realism usually followed the adventures and life of the common person, therefore in order to accurately portray the average man authors had to drop the fancy words and grammar of romanticism and pick up the simple dialect of daily life. Twain is best known for his ability to replicate dialogue in this way. He would usually break the rules of grammar and spelling to capture the accents of an area, as seen in his story “ The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Cavalier County”. “H'm so 'tis. Well, what's he good for… Well, I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any

Mark Twain has been seriously accused by many including Toni Morrison of being a "racist author," whose writing is offensive to black readers, which spreads cheap slave-era stereotypes.

Time and time again, Tan’s mother’s inability to speak proper English is seen by standard English speakers as a sign that she is unintelligent; they believe that the way she speaks is wrong and therefore the things she has to say are not important. This belief is so pervasive that as a teen, Tan herself used to believe that her mother was not smart because of how she spoke. Because Tan’s mother’s speech did not follow the rules of traditional English, Tan “believed that her [mother’s] English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly, her thoughts were imperfect” (146). Because Tan’s mother speaks in ways that are described as “broken” and “limited”, as a teen Tan felt her mother’s language indicated that her mom was simple minded. However, as Tan grew up, she came to appreciate the beauty and intellect behind her mother’s words. While Tan’s friends comment that they cannot understand a majority of what Tan’s mother says, Tan hears her mother’s speech as “perfectly clear, perfectly natural”, and remarks that “her language, as [she] hear[s] it, is vivid, direct, full of observations and imagery” (146). Tan’s friends seem to hear Tan’s mother’s speech on a surface level; since they cannot understand what she is trying to say, they cannot understand how rich her language is. Just because Tan’s friends do not understand her mother, it does not make the intricacies of how she speaks any less unique. The tendency of standard English

One writing that Mark Twain is not as famous for, but is still a well known piece of work for showing the use of humor in his writings is, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. This work starts off slow without much humor until later on in the writing. The humor picks up as Twain includes bits of sarcasm to the mix. The humor in this short work is not so hidden or subtle as it may have been in some of Twain’s other writings. One example of this sort of dry humor is, “And Smiley says, sorter indifferent like, ‘It might be a parrot, or it might be a canary, may be, but it an't it's only just a frog.’” (Jumping Frog). This shows a side and type of writing that is not usually seen with Twain. Usually the humor in his writings was always sort of hidden away and harder to pick out, but in this work, it is more obvious that he is trying to make it humorous. “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” may not be as widely known as some of Twain’s other work, but it is a good example of how he includes humor into his writings to catch the reader’s attention and to provide some comic relief from, at times, tense situations.

Mark Twain was a world renowned novelist and a beloved American Writer. He wrote things about what was happening in the world around him and is also a huge part of American Literature. Although Mark Twain is a famous novelist his home life, background/achievements, and greatest accomplishments are what made him who he is today.

I awluz liked dead people en done all I could for ‘em.” ( The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain ch.8 pg.64) this quote affects the language because Twain used different spelling for words and example is instead of saying the world don't Twain used ‘doan’ which means the same thing but is spelled differently. This affects the story because the way people in the book say things makes us see them differently. Mark Twain wouldn't have used that type of language if he wrote the story in current time because nobody says and spells things the way Mark Twain did in the book in current time. And now another way the time affects the story is slavery.

Mark Twain is important to American literature because of his novels and how they portray the American experience. Some of his best selling novels were Innocents Abroad, Life on the Mississippi, Huckleberry Finn, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In these books, Mark Twain recalls his own adventures of steamboating on the Mississippi River.

Twain’s use of colloquial, homespun diction to veil Huck’s enlightened views on slavery and racism in the novel, creating an

“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.” (Twain, ix) Mark Twain opens his book with a personal notice, abstract from the storyline, to discourage the reader from looking for depth in his words. This severe yet humorous personal caution is written as such almost to dissuade his readers from having any high expectations. The language in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is completely “American” beyond the need for perfect grammar. “Mark Twain’s novel, of course, is widely considered to be a definitively American literary text.” (Robert Jackson,

Mark twain used strong language to get the reader in the mood. He also used strong language to get the reader to understand how the people talked and how the people were treated. Back then in the time that this novel was written was the time when African Americans were slaves. So Mark Twain had to make this novel as close to the real thing in this time period as he possible get it. So mark used the words that people would use during that time. Mark would also use the words that would a fend someone like calling an Indian an injun. And Mark used then n word instead of calling the African American by their name.

Critics generally agree Mark Twain takes on a goal to hold a mirror to society in order to reflect the problems it contains regarding the hierarchy and power of social groups. As critic Heather Shrum points out, “the flawless family will never be found,” but Twain attempts to promote improvement so that each individual works together as a unit to create a solid unit (2). The role and value of women stand as a key issue for him, thus he displays their typical lifestyles that involve their entrapment in positions of inferiority. The efforts made by Twain go towards a demonstration of how basic principles of these families should be shared by means of all the members. Such becomes a necessity in order for a family to truly

Satire can be used in many ways, although it is not always done in a convincing manner. Only a knowledgeable and creative writer can influence people through this device. Satire often uses humor to show a current problem, and in most cases, it does not provide a solution but is the catalyst for it. Emotions on the topic are prompted and in turn the audience connects with the writer and the conflict at hand. Throughout history authors have wielded the literary devices of satire to convey a message; mockery, irony, overstatement, and understatement can be the most effective by shedding light on an issue in an unusual way.