Mark Twain Research Paper

Mark Twain is widely known as “The Father of American Literature”. Twain’s childhood experiences and beliefs toward society have helped shaped his unique writing style. One of Twain’s most famous works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, tells the story of a mischievous boy living in nineteenth century America (Stanley 1). Although sometimes controversial, Twain’s literary works are considered to be the foundation of great American literature.. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer displays Mark Twain’s interesting beliefs and memories of his childhood. The main character, Tom, is reminiscent of Twain’s early life near the Mississippi River. ). Mark Twain experimented with a variety of different jobs in the writing field before becomingone of

Mark Twain worked in the newspaper business for about 30 years (Stanley 3). While working for a newspaper business in Virginia City, Twain got into some trouble because he displayed a bad temper and his writing was seen as being reckless (“Mark Twain”). In addition to writing, Twain was also a printer. As a printer, he traveled to several major cities in the United States, including Chicago and New York (“Mark Twain”). While working in the newspaper business, he took the opportunity to travel frequently, and many of his travels were by water. He learned to plot a river boat on the Mississippi river during this time (Stanley 3). Twain wrote a lot about his accounts of river traveling, including his experiences in Europe, the Middle East, and American West (Stanley 3). His travel accounts were generally very well received by 1865 (“Mark Twain”). At age twenty-two, he set out to the Amazon River with hopes of making a fortune there (“Mark Twain”). Twain enjoyed spending his time on the river as a steamboat river captain and

Mark Twain was born in the frontier village of Florida, Missouri, where frontier journalism had become tradition (“Mark Twain”). A few years later, his family moved to Hannibal, Mississippi, which Twain used as a model for the fictional town of St. Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Stanley 2). Hannibal was somewhat of a rough place to live, but it also had a soft side that made it an enjoyable place for Mark Twain to grow up (Fredericks). According to Twain himself, Hannibal was a town where “everybody was poor but didn’t know it, and everyone was comfortable and did know it” (Stanley 2). This shows that the people of Hannibal were content with their lives and therefore didn’t consider themselves poor With this being said, Twain enjoyed playing with kids who were of a lower class than himself and he was fascinated by slaves and less-fortunate children (Fredericks). Hannibal is the place where Mark Twain developed his never-ending adoration from the Mississippi river (Stanley 2). As a young boy, he played near the river and was extremely intrigued by the steamboats that he saw. Young Twain even constructed rafts for himself to mimic the steamboats (Stanley 2). He developed a strong appeal for the river and everything that it represented. In The Encyclopedia of World Biography, Twain is said to have been “fascinated by