In Chapter 22 during Sherburn’s speech to the mob Twain suggests that mob mentality is detrimental to the social system of America and that the average man is a coward by directly addressing the faults of a mob and connecting the idea of a mob to the cowardly theme of hiding from conflict. During Sherburn’s speech he explains to the members of the mob that “you’re afraid you’ll be found out to be what you are-- cowards -- and so you raise a yell, and hang yourselves onto that half-a-man’s coat tail”(Twain 167). In this passage Twain directly address the motives of a mob in order to show its shortcomings. Twain shows that being in a mob is just a form of cowardice disguised as brave action. The direct address serves to call out the individual in the mob and address this individual rather than the group. This rhetoric shows that Twain views the mob not as one group, but a collection of weak individuals. Twain further shows his disdain for …show more content…
the cowardice of mobs when he writes “The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's what an army is—a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their officers”(Twain 167). This statement from Sherburn re-enforces Twain’s anti-mob mentality. By calling out the army as an example of a mob he is making a radical statement about a normally supported institution. Further demeaning the members of the army by saying they only have courage borrowed from leaders and numbers shows how powerfully Twain disagrees with mobs in America. Furthermore, Mark Twain suggests that Southern mobs are mostly made of cowards except for the head of the snake.
Twain displays his beliefs through his character, Sherburn, “But a mob without a man at the head of it is beneath pitifulness.” (Twain 167) Twain reveals his extreme distaste for Southern mobs and their cowardness. He eludes to their cowardness through their inability to mob and lynch people, except for when they attack at night and when the man is not expecting it. Twain must have been exposed to many mobs during his time on the river, and it's more than likely that he got to experience one up close. Mobs are controlled by one emotion, fear. The mob is afraid of their target, the target of the mob is afraid for their lives, and the mob’s men themselves are afraid of each other. They go storming through the swampy woods like a herd of elephants, no real leader, no sense of their direction. Simply stampeding through the swamps by fear. Twain expresses his distaste for Southern mobs through his character, Colonel
Sherburn.
The chapters dealing with the Grangerford and Sheperdson feud allow Twain to satire aspects of civilized culture. The main aspect he satirizes is the feud itself. The Grangerfords being the representatives of civilization, Twain reveals the senseless brutality and needless slaughter involved in their arbitrary concept of honor. For Twain, such a feud goes against his common sense and anything that violated his common sense was crazy. The feud has gone on so long hat the people don’t even know why they are fighting; yet, embedded in the feud are artificial concepts of civilized behavior. For Example, Mr. Grangerford tells Buck that he shouldn’t shoot from behind the bush but he should step out into the road to kill a Sheperdson. Also there is a sense of irony because why would such a civilized family be in a feud that they can’t remember the origin of. Another aspect of it is the Grangeford’s use of hypocrisy. The Grangerfords were “church goers” and in one sermon given by Mr. Grangerford he speaks of brotherly love, this while feuding with a family for a reason they don’t even remember.
“The Convergence of the Twain” is a nonlinear retelling of the Titanic disaster of 1912; however, on a deeper level, the poem explores hubris, downfall, and how fate connects hubris to downfall. Through tone, diction and juxtaposition, the speaker describes the sinking of the Titanic as inevitable and necessary.
The only impulses that Twain intends to stir are a person’s moral compass in an attempt to rid society of their negative outlook toward African Americans. In the Explanatory of the novel, Twain tells the readers that “several different ‘dialects are used,’ which have been written ‘painstakingly,’ based on his own ‘personal familiarity with these several forms of speech’” (Adventures 3). Twain grew up in a setting similar to that of the
Sherburn scorns man for his inability to act bravely without the presence of a mob or the safety of anonymity. This scene is easy to disregard as simply another attack on the illusion of the Southern gentlemen. Sherburn is a respected Colonel who cold-bloodedly murders a harmless drunk. However, upon further exploration, we realize that Twain uses Sherburn’s pompous lecture on human nature to represent his own contempt with the state of mankind. He goes on to say, “A mob don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with the courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers(159).” Twain uses Sherbern’s speech to condemn the people of Bricksville, and to give voice to Huck’s disgust with their horrific behavior. While it’s difficult to applaud Sherburn for his brutal murder of Boggs, it is nevertheless
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain is about the great adventures that Huck finn has with his slave Jim on the Missouri River. The story tells not only about the adventures Huck has, but more of a deeper understanding of the society he lives in. Twain had Huck born into a low class society of white people; his father was a drunken bum and his mother was dead. He was adopted by the widow Douglas who tried to teach him morals, ethics, and manners that she thought fit in a civilized society. Huck never cared for these values and ran away to be free of them. During Huck’s adventure with Jim he unknowingly realized that he didn't agree with society’s values and could have his own assumptions and moral values. Twain uses this realization to show how the civilized and morally correct social values that was introduced to Huck was now the civilized and morally contradicting values.
A second and much worse characteristic that Twain hates is peoples general greediness. Mark Twain starts mentioning greediness very early in the book when he talks about Huck’s father, Pap. When Huck found out that Pap was alive, the first thing he went to do was give Judge Thatcher his $6000, because he knew his father would want it all. The greediness of Pap has caused his own son to hide his money from him so he will not take it, showing the lack of respect in their relationship. Even when Pap runs into Huck immediately he asks him is how much money he had on him, and Huck had to hand it over.
Mark Twain’s purpose in “Corn-Pone Opinions” is to inform the reader that it is human nature to conform to the rest of society. According to Twain,”self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is conformity.” (Twain 720). While humans provide opinions, many of them are based from the association with others. Twain claims that it is a basic human instinct to receive approval, mostly that of others. In his essay, Furthermore, Twain is attempting to persuade the reader to stop conforming to what society wants. It is through this process that many individuals abandon their own beliefs and principles.
The benign and malevolent faces of humankind are shown through courage, senselessness, and selfishness. & nbsp; Mark Twain displays good in humanity through depictions of courage in the characters of Huck Finn and Jim. Huck Finn was certainly one of the bravest characters in the book to have faced all of his adventures. When he and Jim happened upon a crashed steamboat, "The Walter Scott", and discovered a ruthless band of cutthroats, Huck had the courage to try and stop them. Huck said, "But if we [Huck and Jim] find their boat we can put all of 'em [the cutthroats] in a bad fix-for the Sheriff 'll get 'em" (Twain 90). Huck had the fearlessness to risk his own life to bring several murderous criminals to justice.
The parallelism that is introduced in the two long sentences that make up paragraph 14 emphasize Twain’s belief in people. He shows that people believe that they are putting time and effort into thinking about politics and deciding what party they belong to when in all actuality they are influenced by those around them. This can be seen when twain states “they read its literature, but not that of the other side” (720). This shows that many people are actually clueless of the whole picture. They only receive information about a single part and make their decision based off of that, without taking the time out to view both sides.
So to speak, no one will judge you for a difference of opinion because most people agree with yours. Once again Twain uses an example that appeals to logos, and can be applied to everyday life. Paragraph eight continues the issue of politics by saying men think with their parties, not their brains. No one will seek out the opposite argument because that isn’t what their party believes, therefore it doesn’t
In "Two Views of the River," an excerpt from Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, Twain comes to the realization of the realities of the river. After a life along the river and knowing "every trifling feature that bordered the great river as" well as he knew his alphabet, (Twain 1) Twain sees the reality behind the "beauty" (1) and "poetry" (1) of the river. A comprehensive analysis reveals Twain's argument questions the value of learning a trade, as his images of "the majestic river" (1) and the peril it may cause for the steamboat, show the comparisons of the beauty and the reality of the river.
The mistreatment of man by man can also be portrayed in the times in which lynching mobs are formed out of fear, prejudice, and selfishness. One of the first instances a lynch mob is talked about is when Huck makes it seem like he is dead and most of the people think Jim kills him. By human nature, Tom showed that as a young boy, man treats man inhumanely for their own benefit. Mark Twain exemplifies in his work, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, that man’s inhumanity to man, is due to the fear, prejudice, insecurity, and selfishness that every man has experienced in society.
In the novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Colonel Sherburn lectures the crowd that desires to lynch him for shooting Boggs, a drunk man who had insulted Sherburn. His speech decries the false courage generated by a large group of insecure individuals as a flaw that plague average men and societies. Colonel scoffs at the idea that the mob will lynch him for his violent deed, saying that they “didn’t bring a man with [them]”, but “brought part of a man” and is “no braver” (Twain 190). Despite being outnumbered, Sherburn attacks the men about their manhood. He proclaims that they are “afraid [they]’ll be found out to be what [they] are –cowards– and so … they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s
In the words of Pap, “You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t [read and write]?” (2). In Mark Twain’s adventure novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn escapes from civilized society to traverse the Mississippi River.
Mississippi Twain tells us of a man with a dream. As imperfection has it this