|
Mark Twain is the pen-name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, one of the greatest representatives of American critical realism of the second half of the 19th century. He is known as a great humorist and satirist.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in a lawyer’s family in a very small town called Florida in Missouri. The family soon moved to Hannibal on the banks of the Mississippi River and there Samuel Clemens spent his boyhood.
When Samuel was twelve, his father dies and the boy had to earn his own living. He changed several professions: he was a typesetter in a district newspaper, a printer and journalist in the office of the Hannibal Journal. While Samuel Clemens was a printer, he began to write for newspapers, sending travel letters to them.
In April 1857, while on the way from Cincinnati to New Orleans, Clemens apprenticed himself as a river pilot on board a Mississippi steamboat. It was one of Sam Clemens’s dreams as a boy to pilot a steamboat. He was licensed two years later and continued in that profession until the Civil War closed the river (1861). It was at this period of his life that he made his first attempt at literature having written a number of sketches based on his experiences as a pilot. He signed his articles Mark Twain, i.e. “sounding two”, a term used by the sailors to show the depth of the river. That meant for the boat to move ahead (twain = two).
The breaking out of the Civil War stopped the traffic on Mississippi and Clemens was out of job. His brother had been appointed as Secretary to the Governor of the State of Nevada, and Sam decided to go with him.
About this time silver had been found in Nevada, and a lot of fortune-seekers went to this area. Sam decided to try his luck too. He spent six years in Nevada, digging gold. He found no silver. On rainy days when the mines stopped working Sam wrote sketches which were published in the Territorial Enterprise, a daily paper of Virginia City. It was while working for the Enterprise that Clemens’s career as a journalist really began. Here the writer’s pen-name appeared for the first time.
In 1864 Twain went to San Francisko where he worked for the Golden Era and the Californian newspapers.
Here Mark Twain began to wrote sketches and stories. In 1865 Mark Twain won national fame with his story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
In 1886 Alta California proposed Mark Twain to write a series of letters, and he went to Europe for the first time. Thus a series of letters was written as Mark Twain’s first important book The Innocents Abroad (1869) – a tale of a tour in Europe and the East made by a group of Americans on board a steamer. The work was a great success. It is very interesting because European scenes and customs are viewed through the eyes of an “innocent” American. After that Mark Twain got the reputation of the most famous American humorist.
Before the book appeared Mark Twain had met Olivia Langdon, whom he married in 1870. In October 1871 Mark Twain moved to Hartford which remained his home for the happiest years of his life. The years 1874 to 1885 were very productive. In that period he published the following works: The Guilded Age (1874), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), A Tramp Abroad (1880), The Prince and the Pauper (1882) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).
In 1889 Mark Twain wrote A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur. It is a biting satire on the political and social system of day against the background of a fantastic plot placed in England of the 6th century.
Mark Twain went abroad several times and visited different parts of the world. Three honorary degrees were given to Mark Twain by American universities, and in 1907 Oxford University in England gave him an honorary Doctorate of Letters. His last novel The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg was published in 1899. Mark Twain attacks the hypocrisy and corruption of contemporary society in it.
In the last years of his life Mark Twain wrote several political articles and pamphlets. Till his dying day Mark Twain did not stop his literary activities and continued working on his Autobiography.
| 11.3. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
|
Mark Twain’s famous novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer won the hearts of millions of readers, both young and old. Mark Twain wrote about his book as follows: “Most of the adventures in this book are real. One or two were my own experiences, the rest of boys’ who were my schoolfriends. Becky Thatcher is Laura Hawkins, Tom Sawyer is largely a self-portrait but Tom Blankenship, who lived just over the back fence, is the immortal Huckleberry Finn who slept on doorsteps in fine weather and in empty hogsheads in wet. John Biggs was the real, flesh and blood version of Joe Harper, the Terror of the Seas. My book is mainly for boys and girls to enjoy, but I hope, men and women will also be glad to read it to see what they once were like”.
The plot is full of adventures of smart youngsters and is full of sparkling humour. With Tom’s adventures we learn about the life on the Mississippi and that of the provincial town of the USA in the 19th century.
Tom Sawyer, a plain American boy, lives with his younger brother Sid and aunt Polly in St Petersburg, a remote town on the banks of the Mississippi river. Sid is an obedient boy, and he is satisfied with his school and the life of the little town. Tom is quite the opposite of his brother. His close friend is Huck Finn, a boy left by his drunkard of a father. Tom does not like school because of the teachers who beat the pupils. He misses lessons, plays tricks on his teachers, fights his brother Sid. Tom is tired of aunt Polly who wants to make a decent boy out of him. From books about Robin Hood, robbers and hidden treasure Tom Sawyer has created an imaginary world which differs from the one he lives in. The novel combines the elements of realism and romanticism. The realistic picture of a small town with its stagnant life is compared with the romantic world of Tom and his friends. The author praises humanism, friendship, courage and condemns injustice, narrow-mindedness and money worship.
| 11.4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
|
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a story of a little tramp. His father is a drunkard. When he becomes so violent that Huckleberry fears him, the boy runs away from him. Huck finds a canoe and gets into it and paddles to an island on the other side of the river. He thinks he is alone on the island, but he meets there a young Negro slave Jim. Huck is glad to see him because he always considers him to be his friend. But when he learns that Jim has run away from his owner, he is very sad because it is a sin to help a runaway slave. But Huck promises not to tell anybody about him.
Huckleberry and Jim are the main characters of the book. They sail down the Mississippi, passing big and small towns, numerous villages and farms. The author and his heroes critically view everything they see. They seldom meet good people. Most of all they come across are robbers, murderers, rogues. They do not wish to earn their living honestly.
The white boy and young Negro become very good friends. They help each other in all the troubles. Huck finds Jim to be kind, brave and good man.
Mark Twain compares the friendly relations between Huck and Jim with the corruption they see in the towns and villages on the shores.
It is to Twain’s credit that he has depicted Jim as an honest, kind, sincere and selfless man at the time when the Negroes were considered inferior to the white people. From the time Jim enters the story in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the book becomes a social novel. It is a judgment of a certain epoch in America.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain uses his wit and humour to show the social evils of his day. The novel marked the growth of Mark Twain’s realism.
Mark Twain began writing as a humorist, but later became a bitter satirist. Towards the end of his life he grew more dissatisfied with American mode of life. In his later works his satire becomes very sharp.
| 11.5. O. Henry (1862-1910) |
|
O. Henry is one of the most popular shot-story writers. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in Greensboro, a little town in North Carolina.
His mother died when he was little. His father spent all his time on inventions of various kinds. His aunt had a private school and she encouraged him to read. His favourite authors were: Brontёs, Walter Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Byron and others. His schooling was short. He left school when he was fifteen and worked in his uncle’s drugstore as a clerk. At nineteen Porter went to Texas.
He changed a variety of jobs, working as a cowboy, miner, clerk and then a teller of a bank. While working at a bank Porter was falsely accused of embezzlement and he left the bank. He went to Houston where he worked for a Houston newspaper and founded a humorous journal, which he called The Rolling Stone. He worked on the newspaper for nearly a year. Then William Porter had to return to the Texas capital Austin to start trial for the embezzlement at the bank. He was not guilty. However, the case was so confused that he considered it better not to go there and he went to South America,
In 1897 he returned to his dying wife to the USA and was arrested on the old charge, tried and sentenced to imprisonment. He spent five years in the Ohio State prison. While in prison he started writing stories. He used the pen-name of O. Henry – from the name of the captain of the prison guard, Orrin Henry.
When O. Henry was released from prison, he went to New York where he continued writing stories. The first of his volumes of short stories was Cabbages and Kings (1904). It was followed by The Four Million (1906), The Trimmed Lamp (1907), Heart of the West (1907), The Voice of the City (1908), The Gentle Grafter (1908), Roads of Destiny (1909), Options (1909) and Strictly Business (1910). The years of hard work and privations had undermined the writer’s health and he died in 1910.
O. Henry worked out the various kinds of the short story: the monologue, the dialogue, the adventure story, the anecdote, the psychological story. O. Henry wrote about 150 stories with a New York background. His stories depict the lives of people belonging to different layers of society from businessmen to beggars. Most of his stories are romantic portrayals of the lives of shop girls, poor artists, unhappy lovers. Social criticism in O. Henry’s stories is very mild. The writer’s interst is not in the social scene but in some unusual incidents on the lives of his heroes.
O. Henry’s stories are based almost entirely on plot. Mood and character are of less importance. He was an entertainer, his aim was to amuse and surprise his readers rather than to analyze a human situation. Nevertheless his stories attract the readers to this day. He is still a living author. His love for humanity, for the common people, his critical attitude towards injustice appeal readers. O. Henry’s works had a great influence on American literature of the 20th century. The most popular O. Henry’s stories are:
- The Ransom of Red Chief in which two crooks kidnap a boy for ransom cannot stand his pranks and are forced to pay his father two hundred and fifty dollars to get rid of him;
- The Gift of the Magi, the story of Jim and Delia, a young couple, whose only treasures are Delia’s beautiful long hair and Jim’s gold watch. Jim sells his watch to buy Delia a comb for her hair, and she sells her hair to buy a chain for his watch;
- A Service of Love, the story about a young couple, Joe Larrabee and Delia Caruthers, who love each other very much. Each has a favourite hobby. He likes drawing, and she likes music and plays the piano. Soon they lack money to pay for their lessons, so Delia is going to give music lessons, and Joe too decides to earn money. Delia pretends to give lesson’s to a general’s daughter and Joe pretends that he has sold a sketch. One evening Delia comes home with her right hand tied up with a rag. When Joe sees the bandage, the truth comes out that they have been working in the same laundry. They are happy because Joe says: “When one loves one’s Art no service seems…”;
- The Last Leaf is about an old painter, Behrman, who is a failure in art. He protects the two young artists, two girls, Sue and Johnsy. Johnsy gets very ill and believes she will die when the last leaf of the tree falls down. The old painter saves Johnsy by painting on the wall the last leaf.. But he catches cold and dies of pheumonia;
- The Cop and the Anthem, in which a tramp does everything possible to be arrested and put to prison because winter is approaching and he is homeless.
O. Henry’s stories are related with skill, humour and feeling.
| 11.6. Jack London (1876-1916) |
|
Jack London, the famous American novelist and short-story writer, was born in San Francisco, California, on January 12, 1876. He was the son of astrologer William Henry Chancy and Flora Willman. When Jack was eight months old, his mother left Chancy, and married John London, whom the boy grew to love more than his own father. Jack took his foster-father’s name and this is one by which history remembers him.
London called his childhood years the hungriest period of his life. So hungry was he that once he stole a piece of meat from a girl’s lunch basket. Years later he wrote about his childhood: “I had been poor. Poor I had lived. I had gone hungry on occasion. I had never had toys or playthings like other children. My first memories of life were pinched by poverty. The pinch of poverty had become chronic… And only a child, with a child’s imagination, can come to know the meaning of things it has long been denied”.
But soon Jack discovered the world of books. In 1885, he was borrowing books from the public library and read everything he could. He read books of adventure, travel and sea voyages. But as John London was often out of work, Jack had had to work since his early childhood to help his father support the family. He got up at 3 a.m. to deliver newspapers, after which he went to school. After school he delivered evening papers. On weekends he worked as a porter or on an ice wagon. Because of financial difficulties, Jack got only a grammar school education. At the age of 13 he continued working as a newspaper boy and performed some other odd jobs. When he had some spare time from his work, he spent in the waterfront. The sea attracted him.
But family affairs went from bad to worse: John London was seriously injured, and now Jack had to provide for his family. He found work in a cannery. His pay was very low, and he had to work overtime, standing at his machine for 18 and 20 hours a day. For several months he continued working there but then he joined the oyster pirates and was a sailor on board a schooner bound for Japan. In 1893 he returned to San Francisco. The only job he could find was in a jute mill where he earned one dollar for ten hours a day. After a day’s work at the factory Jack was very tired and sleepy, but it was at this time that he managed to publish his first story: the newspaper San Francisco Call offered a prize for a descriptive article. Jack’s mother made him try for it. The attempt was successful. The first prize was given to Jack London’s Story of a Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan (1893). His success in the competition turned his thoughts to writing, but he had to earn his living. He got a job at a power plant, but soon he left the plant and joined an army of the unemployed. He tramped from San Francisco to Washington. Like many others he was arrested and spent a month in jail.
These hardships influenced his outlook. He began thinking of the necessity of improving his education. In 1896, after 3 months of preparatory study, he entered the University in California, but left before the year was up to support his mother and foster-father by working in a laundry, At the same time he decided once again to try his skill in literature. Working day and night, Jack London wrote poetry, essays and stories, sending them to magazines, but receiving only rejection letters.
Then gold was discovered in the Klondike and Jack set sail for the Alaskan gold fields. He hoped to get money to be able to devote himself to literature. London mined no gold during his year’s stay in the Klondike, but his contacts with many different people and his observations gave him a lot of material for many stories.
In 1889 he arrived home to find his father dead.
Jack returned to day labour, and at the same time he was trying to continue his literary work. He felt that in order to become a writer there were two things he had to acquire: knowledge and skill in writing. His reading continued: Kipling and Stevenson were his literary gods. At the cost of tremendous hardships his efforts were rewarded with success. His story To the Man on Trail (1898) was published in the Overland Monthly. In the course of the next four years London published his collection of northern stories – The Son of the Wolf (1900), The God of His Fathers (1901), Children of the Frost (1902), A Daughter of the Snows (1903) and The Call of the Wild (1903), which brought the writer wide popularity.
London knew the North very well. He had met his characters in real life and knew their aspirations and troubles very well; that’s why all his personages are so realistically depicted.
In 1902 Jack London visited the capital of England. Out of that experience came the terrible picture of poverty, one of London’s most popular books – The People of the Abyss (1903). The writer drew a realistic picture of the misery and suffering of the poor people who lived in the slums of London. The Russian Revolution of 1905 influenced London greatly and London to a better understanding of class struggle. His new outlook was expressed in his books The War of the Classes (1905), The Iron Heel (1907) and Revolution and Other Essays (1910).
The years 1905-1910 were the highest point in his political activity.
In 1905 Jack London went on a lecture tour of the country, and made a voyage to the Hawaii. On the deck of his yacht the Snark he began writing Martin Eden, the finest novel he ever wrote.
The years of 1906-1909 were the prime of London’s creative work. He wrote some of his best works: The White Fang (1906), The South Sea Tales (1907), Martin Eden (1909) and many other works that brought the author great fame.
Many novels of his later period show that he made a compromise with those whom he had exposed in his previous books. These were his new works The Valley of the Moon (1914), and The Little Lady of the Big House (1916).
During the sixteen years of his literary activities Jack London wrote 19 novels, 18 books of short stories and articles, 3 plays and 8 autobiographical and sociological works. He expresses widely differing views of life. However, Jack London must be judged by the books in which he showed all his great talent, the books which brought fame to London’s name all over the world.
On November 22, 1916, Jack London was found dead near Santa Rosa, California. Doctors explained his death as an overdose of morphine. It is believed that it may have been taken deliberately as during the year 1916 London felt very ill. He suffered from an incurable disease.
Jack London is one of the most popular writers in the world. He is still widely read, It is his realism and humanism that keep his writings living and fresh today as they were at the beginning of the 20th century.
| 11.7. Martin Eden |
|
Martin Eden is an autobiographical novel in which London tells of his struggle to overcome his lack of knowledge and to turn himself from a plain sailor into an educated person. But this is a social novel as well. It shows the fate of a young man from the common people who becomes a famous writer and gets into the privileged in society.
The main characters of the novel are Martin Eden, Ruth Morse and her family. Martin saves in a hand-to-hand fight with a group of hooligans a young man named Arthur Morse. Arthur introduces Martin to his family, and he falls in love with his sister Ruth. Martin thinks the Morses to be the realm of spiritual beauty and intellectual life, and he considers Ruth to personify all these qualities.
It becomes Martin’s desire to be her intellectual equal and to join the society she belongs to. He decides to educate himself to be worthy of Ruth. Martin Eden studies grammar, reads a lot of books. His swift development surprises and interests Ruth. She realizes that she is in love with Martin, but her parents have other plans for her. When Martin runs out of money he sets out as a common sailor in a ship bound for the South Seas. While on board, a great idea comes to his head – to become a writer. That is a career that will help him to win Ruth.
On his return to Oakland, Martin devotes every minute of his time to writing and studying. He works from early morning till dark and sends the manuscripts to various magazines. His first stories are returned by the publishers, but he keeps on sending them.
In the meanwhile Martin and Ruth are engaged to be married. It is a great blow to Ruth’s parent because Eden is a rough sailor.
Wishing to have encouragement in his work, Martin shows some of his stories to Ruth. But she has little faith in his power as a writer. Ruth persuades him to give up writing and accept a job at her father’s office.
But Martin continues sending his stories to various magazines. His visits to the Morses convince him that he has been under the wrong impression about the high society. He begins to understand that Ruth also shares its narrowness. Under the pressure of her parents Ruth breaks off the engagement. She agrees that they are not made for each other. It is a terrible blow to Martin, and he stops writing. But he continues to send his old rejected stories to the publishing houses. And soon they are accepted, one after another.
Through unbearable hardships Martin manages to realize his dream. He becomes a famous writer. His stories and novels are now in great demand. Eden becomes rich and popular, but he is not happy. When he gets into high society he understands how shallow and hypocritical these people are. He can’t understand that those who despised him before his books became popular, now invite him to dinner.
The Morses, hearing of Martin’s brilliant career, are not against his union with Ruth. She even visits Martin to reconcile with him. “She is aware of her humiliation but she does not care. However all her efforts are in vain. The charm of love is gone. There is nothing in common between the youth, who was madly in love with Ruth, and the famous writer, tired, exhausted and indifferent. He cannot bring himself to feel sympathy for Ruth and is as unresponsive as a stone”.
Martin feels awfully tired. He refuses to write another word. Martin thinks there is no cure for him except to escape from this world and sail on a liner to the South Seas.
Before his departure he feels that it is useless. The only thing he wants is rest, and finally he understands that only death will give him peace, and he commits suicide, he drowns himself.
Having developed the best traditions of the American realism of Mark Twain, O. Henry and others, Jack London became one of the most significant classics of world literature. His talented, realistic works were highly appreciated by many progressive-minded people all over the world, and they inspired his contemporaries and many writers who came after him.
Домашнее задание:
Questions on the topic 11 “Realism in American Literature”
- When did the trend of realism come to the American literature?
- What was the difference between works of romanticist and realists?
- What new themes appeared in literature due to realism?
- Name the representatives of realism in America.
- What did the pen-name of Mark Twain denote?
- What was the name of the first serious book by Mark Twain?
- In what genres did Mark Twain write?
- Who are the target audience of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?
- What important social issues are depicted in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
- What kinds of stories did O. Henry work in?
- What characterizes O. Henry’s stories?
- Name the most famous stories of O. Henry.
- What genres did Jack London work in?
- Describe in one sentence what Martin Eden is about.
|
|
|
|
|
|
RSS
