Mark Twain, "Turning Point"
In "The Turning-Point of My Life," Mark Twain confesses that "the most important feature of my life is its literary feature" (Twain, ii). Although Twain's literary output is perhaps best remembered for fiction like Huckleberry Finn, "The Turning-Point of My Life" is a work of non-fictional memoir. However "The Turning-Point of My Life" utilizes a specific literary device to accomplish much of its storytelling goals. This is the literary device of irony, which can be loosely defined as saying one thing but meaning another, while expecting the reader to note the two different senses and react, frequently with laughter. Irony is, of course, not invariably funny -- many tragedies, like the story of Oedipus, are built upon a larger ironic structure which hardly makes us laugh. But the most important thing, according to literary scholar Wayne Booth, is that the author and reader both recognize that irony is taking place: as Booth writes in The Rhetoric of Irony, "the whole thing cannot work at all unless both parties to the exchange have confidence that they are moving together in identified patterns" (Booth 13). Therefore, in examining "The Turning-Point of My Life," it is important to realize that Twain is to some extent playing a rhetorical game with the reader, and the reader's job is to recognize the game in order to understand Twain's real meaning.
In order to establish what the rhetorical device of irony is, and the way that Twain uses it, let us look at an incident that Twain recounts towards the middle of "The Turning-Point of My Life." This is an autobiographical piece not a work of fiction, however, as Ben Tarnoff has noted, "ironic narcissism...
Mark Twain The two institutions that Mark Twain attacks and ridicules in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- that will be critiqued in this paper -- are religion and government. There are multiple examples of Twain's brilliant use of his narrative and dialogue to illustrate how he really feels about religion and about government. The novel that Twain produced has been used in schools all over the United States because of
Huck even sounds more like Jim than the other characters in the work in terms of his dialect, and the fact that he pretends Jim is his father underlines the degree to which the two of them are bound in a relationship. The NAACP national headquarters' current position endorses the book: "You don't ban Mark Twain-you explain Mark Twain! To study an idea is not necessarily to endorse the
The funeral [for Jean] has begun...The scene is the library in the Langdon homestead. Jean's coffin stands where her mother and I stood, forty years ago, and were married; and where Susy's coffin stood thirteen years ago; where her mother's stood five years and a half ago; and where mine will stand after a little time." A little time indeed: Twain died on April 21, 1910. Another health issue: Twain on
Mark Twain's realism in fully discovered in the novel The adventures of Huckleberry Finn, book which is known to most of readers since high school, but which has a deeper moral and educational meaning than a simple teenage adventure story. The simplicity of plot and the events that are described in the book look to be routine for provincial life of Southerners in the middle of the 19th century. But
Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson," by Mark Twain. Specifically, it will trace the different types of irony that Twain used in the book. What are they, and why did Twain use them? Twain's use of irony throughout Pudd'nhead Wilson vividly illustrates Twain's feelings on race, religion, and small town America, and helps bring his characters to life. IRONY IN PUDD'NHEAD WILSON Be virtuous, and you will be eccentric." - Mark Twain The story
Mark Twain's use of Social Commentary and Satire was received by African-Americans How African-Americans received mark twain's use of social commentary and satire Mark Twain (real name Samuel L. Clemens) is famous for his masterpiece Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which was the sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In this essay, I examine the reception of African-Americans to satire and social commentary within the work. This is, therefore, a question
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