Twain uses may elements
in Life on the Mississippi that he
uses in his prose fiction.
Hyperbole and Irony: In typical Mark Twain style, he uses irony and hyperbole extensively throughout Life on the Mississippi. From the beginning to the end of the book, Twain demonstrates a keen awareness of humans and their nature. He is keenly aware of his own shortcomings and the failures of other. He demonstrates this when describing the discovery of the Mississippi River and the explorer La Salle's interactions with the natives: "Then, to the admiration of the Savages, La Salle set up a cross with the arms of France on it, and took possession of the whole country for the king--the cool fashion of the time--while the priest piously consecrated the robbery with a hymn" (19). Twain is aware that America wasn't "discovered," but rather stolen by the Europeans who masqueraded the theft with patriotism and Christianity. Twain lets his audience know that he is not fond of such dealings.
Twain also uses irony and hyperbole to highlight his own shortcomings. When returning to Hannibal, Missouri, his hometown, he interviews a local man who moved to Hannibal after he left about the inhabitants he knew in his youth. At the end of the interview, Twain asks the man about himself. The man replied, "Oh, he succeeded well enough--another case of a damned fool. If they'd sent him to St. Louis, he'd have succeeded sooner" (321). The man, of course, did not realize he was talking to the man he was describing: Twain. Twain's retelling of this indicates that Twain himself thinks he could have been successful sooner if he had the right motivation to do so, and that like all human beings, in many ways he was a fool.
Finally, Twain narrates how he took on his pen name Mark Twain. He tells the story of the highly respected Captain Sellers who was a river pilot veteran who hated Twain and wrote to the paper under the pen name Mark Twain. Twain claims he was one of the only people Sellers ever detested and that he found it an honor that such a great man took the time to think of him, even if the thoughts were negative. To honor the man who hated him, Twain took on the pen name used by Sellers when he died and wrote under the name Mark Twain for the rest of his life.
Anecdotes: Much of Life on the Mississippi is told in the form of anecdotal short stories. Twain tells anecdotes about learning to pilot steamboats, the people aboard these boats, conflicts he had, people he met throughout his time on the river, and other short stories. While the anecdotes work together to tell his larger life long experience upon the Mississippi River, the chapters could easily be read in isolation as short stories.
Native American Myths: Twain understands the importance of Native American culture and folklore on the history of the Mississippi River. He begins telling the history of the river by focusing on the natives who lived near the river when it was "discovered" and ends the book by telling three separate Native American myths that relate to the river: "Peboan and Seegwun," "The Undying Head," "A Legend of White-Bear Lake." Twain knows that the river belongs to the Native Americans as much or more than it belongs to the white interlopers who took over the region.
Allusions to other works of fiction: Twain alludes to three of his novels within the pages of Life on the Mississippi.
First, he directly discusses The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in chapter 3, when he states, "I will throw in, in this place, a chapter from a book which I have been working at, by fits and starts, druing the past five or six years, and may possibly finish in the course of five or six more" (14). Twain then publishes a chapter of the novel for the rest of the chapter.
Second, Twain allude to his novel, or at least where he might have gotten the idea for, Pudd'n Head Wilson. The novel is about two boys who were switched at birth, who the town outcast solves based on finger print technology which the rest of the town always saw as nonsense instead of science. Chapter 31 is titled "A Thumb-Print and What Came of It." In this chapter, Twain retells a probable tall tale told to him by a young friend of his in Bavaria who looked for the killer of his wife and child along the Mississippi River during the Civil War by dressing up as a fortune teller and taking the thumb prints of the soldiers whose fortune he told. The man then compared these prints to the prints of his family's killer and eventually found and killed the murder. This same finger print technology is an essential plot point in Pudd'n Head Wilson.
Third, towards the end of Life on the Mississippi Twain revisits his boyhood home of Hannibal, Missouri, and much of the experiences and places he tells about his hometown seem to be elements within The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain retells several stories from his boyhood where the boys of Hannibal repent for their sins and promise to be better tomorrow, which Tom and Huck often do throughout the two novels. He also discusses the cave close to the town that people visit, much like the cave in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer where much of the action at the end of the novel takes place.
Hyperbole and Irony: In typical Mark Twain style, he uses irony and hyperbole extensively throughout Life on the Mississippi. From the beginning to the end of the book, Twain demonstrates a keen awareness of humans and their nature. He is keenly aware of his own shortcomings and the failures of other. He demonstrates this when describing the discovery of the Mississippi River and the explorer La Salle's interactions with the natives: "Then, to the admiration of the Savages, La Salle set up a cross with the arms of France on it, and took possession of the whole country for the king--the cool fashion of the time--while the priest piously consecrated the robbery with a hymn" (19). Twain is aware that America wasn't "discovered," but rather stolen by the Europeans who masqueraded the theft with patriotism and Christianity. Twain lets his audience know that he is not fond of such dealings.
Twain also uses irony and hyperbole to highlight his own shortcomings. When returning to Hannibal, Missouri, his hometown, he interviews a local man who moved to Hannibal after he left about the inhabitants he knew in his youth. At the end of the interview, Twain asks the man about himself. The man replied, "Oh, he succeeded well enough--another case of a damned fool. If they'd sent him to St. Louis, he'd have succeeded sooner" (321). The man, of course, did not realize he was talking to the man he was describing: Twain. Twain's retelling of this indicates that Twain himself thinks he could have been successful sooner if he had the right motivation to do so, and that like all human beings, in many ways he was a fool.
Finally, Twain narrates how he took on his pen name Mark Twain. He tells the story of the highly respected Captain Sellers who was a river pilot veteran who hated Twain and wrote to the paper under the pen name Mark Twain. Twain claims he was one of the only people Sellers ever detested and that he found it an honor that such a great man took the time to think of him, even if the thoughts were negative. To honor the man who hated him, Twain took on the pen name used by Sellers when he died and wrote under the name Mark Twain for the rest of his life.
Anecdotes: Much of Life on the Mississippi is told in the form of anecdotal short stories. Twain tells anecdotes about learning to pilot steamboats, the people aboard these boats, conflicts he had, people he met throughout his time on the river, and other short stories. While the anecdotes work together to tell his larger life long experience upon the Mississippi River, the chapters could easily be read in isolation as short stories.
Native American Myths: Twain understands the importance of Native American culture and folklore on the history of the Mississippi River. He begins telling the history of the river by focusing on the natives who lived near the river when it was "discovered" and ends the book by telling three separate Native American myths that relate to the river: "Peboan and Seegwun," "The Undying Head," "A Legend of White-Bear Lake." Twain knows that the river belongs to the Native Americans as much or more than it belongs to the white interlopers who took over the region.
Allusions to other works of fiction: Twain alludes to three of his novels within the pages of Life on the Mississippi.
First, he directly discusses The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in chapter 3, when he states, "I will throw in, in this place, a chapter from a book which I have been working at, by fits and starts, druing the past five or six years, and may possibly finish in the course of five or six more" (14). Twain then publishes a chapter of the novel for the rest of the chapter.
Second, Twain allude to his novel, or at least where he might have gotten the idea for, Pudd'n Head Wilson. The novel is about two boys who were switched at birth, who the town outcast solves based on finger print technology which the rest of the town always saw as nonsense instead of science. Chapter 31 is titled "A Thumb-Print and What Came of It." In this chapter, Twain retells a probable tall tale told to him by a young friend of his in Bavaria who looked for the killer of his wife and child along the Mississippi River during the Civil War by dressing up as a fortune teller and taking the thumb prints of the soldiers whose fortune he told. The man then compared these prints to the prints of his family's killer and eventually found and killed the murder. This same finger print technology is an essential plot point in Pudd'n Head Wilson.
Third, towards the end of Life on the Mississippi Twain revisits his boyhood home of Hannibal, Missouri, and much of the experiences and places he tells about his hometown seem to be elements within The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain retells several stories from his boyhood where the boys of Hannibal repent for their sins and promise to be better tomorrow, which Tom and Huck often do throughout the two novels. He also discusses the cave close to the town that people visit, much like the cave in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer where much of the action at the end of the novel takes place.