Comparison and contrast in academic contexts

Mark Twain is undisputedly one of the most prolific writers of all times. With an uncanny inability to see things as they were combined with an exceptional sense of humor, Twain's popularity transcended time and space. While all his writings left some impression on the readers, his travel books were so outstanding that they created a genre of their own. "The Innocents Abroad" and "A tramp abroad" were two important books that belonged to this genre with "A Tramp Abroad" being the less popular of the two. If Tramp was less successful than Innocents, it was primarily due to Twain's setting of standards with his other travelogues.

If ever an attempt to compare and contrast the two books is made, it is highly recommended that we start with the Innocents. The reason for this is obvious. 'Innocents' came before Tramp made its appearance and was definitely the more celebrated of the two books. 'Innocents' was derived from Alta letters but significantly changes were made to mitigate traces of resemblance with the source. New sections appeared which included the one on Paris and Egypt and the Sphinx. Apart from that, in this book his audience was the more sophisticated people on the Eastern side which was one reason why Twain removed coarse phrases such as "slimy cesspool" and "bawdy house" that appeared all too often in Alta letters. In Innocents which, is actually about Twain's highly disappointing trip to Europe, the author also tried to use expressions and comments that would appear less harsh even if the intent was just as cunning. For example in talking about the pilgrimages and the Holy Land, Twain was more careful since he was hoping to reach an audience that preferred sophisticated commentary and did not appreciate religion being the target of humor or satire. The theme of the book was clear from its sub-title that read "The New Pilgrims' Progress."

Innocents' popularity is grounded in the structure of the book. The entire book has a sense of shape and design that makes it much better that the succeeding Tramp that lacked structure and was too loose to keep the readers interested. Innocents on the other hand boasted a design that gave book its strength and its theme was made clear from the very beginning when Twain wrote that the book suggested "to the reader how he would be likely to see Europe and the East if he looked at them with his own eyes instead of the eyes of those who had traveled in those countries before him." The fact that Twain presented a funny picture of Europe is all too obvious, what is however even more interesting in the reality that's hidden in his often blatantly satirical observations. Twain's main purpose was to highlight the fact that reality is often different from our expectations.

The disappointment, the sudden bursting of excitement bubble, the disbelief that reality could actually be so ordinary were some of the things that Twain talked about in this book. He explains that nothing that he saw in Europe was what it was made out to be. The Parisian gardens, or the Arabian stables or the Holy Land itself were all nothing but misinterpreted products created by false stories yearning and anticipation. Twain felt that even Jesus Christ wouldn't want to visit the Holy Land again since it was so disappointingly ordinary. The author gets a sense of revenge by exploring and denouncing the myths surrounding Europe:

After years of waiting, it was before me at last. The great face was so sad, so earnest, so longing, so patient. There was a dignity not of earth in its mien, and in its countenance a benignity such as never anything human wore. It was stone, but it seemed sentient. If ever image of stone thought, it was thinking. It was looking toward the verge of the landscape, yet looking at nothing -- nothing but distance and vacancy. It was looking over and beyond everything of the present, and far into the past. It was gazing out over the ocean of Time -- over lines of century-waves which, further and further receding, closed nearer and nearer together, and blended at last into one unbroken tide, away toward the horizon of remote antiquity. It was thinking of the wars of departed ages; of the empires it had seen created and destroyed... [Chapter 58]

In the Innocents, the narrator is presented as a naive explorer who turns into a skeptic by the end of the book. Twain couldn't possibly believe that someone would create such exquisitely romantic pictures of Europe and its numerous sights when in reality they were less than ordinary. For example Twain's visit to the Sea of Galilee made Twain lash out at other visitors who give birth to all those myths about the Sea. He found it to be "a lake six miles wide and neutral in color; with steep green banks, unrelieved by shrubbery; at one end bare, unsightly rocks, with (almost) invisible holes in them of no consequence to the picture; eastward, 'wild and desolate mountains' (low, desolate hills, he [William C. Grimes] should have said); in the north a mountain called Hermon, with snow on it; peculiarity of the picture, 'calmness'; its prominent feature, one tree." And then adds, "No ingenuity could make such a picture beautiful -- to one's actual vision" (chapter 48).

Innocents still presents a balanced view of Europe for while the author attacks many places for their sad reality, he also tries to give a more pleasing account here and there. The views do not conflict because he creates the pleasing picture in a way that makes the disappointing reality easy to bear and puts the latter in context.

'A tramp abroad' on the other hand suffers from many weaknesses, the most prominent being its lack of structure. There is no clear design or plan that the author could follow through. The book is a series of chapters narrating author's experiences as he traveled with Mr. Harris in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. What made it different from Innocents were its three themes which were not always followed but nonetheless gave book some spine. The first was exploring Europe on foot which was not the case in the Innocents. Secondly, the author also wanted to learn something about European art and thirdly, he wanted to learn German language at which he failed miserably.

Unlike Innocents, Tramp is anything but spontaneously witty. The humor appears 'forced' at most occasions and the author's reputation as a humorist often clouds his ability to make an unbiased observation. In Chapter 44 for example, the narrator along with Mr. Harris observe the view from Mount Blank by telescope: "the grand professional summits of the Cisalpine Cordillera, drowned in a sensuous haze; to the east loomed the colossal masses of the Yodelhorn, the Fuddlehorn, and the Dinnerhorn...." The parody and exaggerated remarks give the book an aura of artificiality which was something we never encounter while reading the Innocents. Even Twain himself admitted this when he said to Twichell: "I have made the burlesque of Alp-climbing prodigiously loud, but I guess I will leave it so." [1]. Even his biographer Albert Bigelow Paine had to acknowledge that in A Tramp abroad, "very often he does not laugh heartily and sincerely at all, but finds his humor in extravagant burlesque." [2]