An Author and his work A Kid in King Arthurs Court Essay Example For Students

An Author and his work A Kid in King Arthurs Court Essay An Author and His Work :A Kid in King Arthers CourtResearch Term Paper An Author and His Work Mark Twainwas born Samuel Langhorne Clemens to John MarshalClemens and Jane Lampton Clemens. He was born onNovember 30, 1835 in a small city called Florida, Missouri,which had a population of one hundred people. I increasedthe population by one percent, he said. It is more than manyof the best men in history could have done for a town (Cox,7) Samuel, however did not live most of his life in Florida, butmoved around throughout his life. His family moved toHannibal, MO when he was four years old and that waswhere he went to school. For the reason that there were nopublic schools in Hannibal at the time, Sam was sent to aprivate school taught by Mrs. Horr. He had to leave thisschool at twelve years of age when his father died. Therewasnt much money left to support the Clemens after JohnClemens died so Sam was forced to be apprenticed to JosephAment. Ament owned a print shop and a newspaper call edHannibal Courier. Here was where Sam would cut the laststrings connecting him to his childhood and become much ofan adult. The apprenticeship led Samuel to fame and fortunein the future and opened his eyes to the world of literature. (Cox, 23) The death of Samuels father had a strong effect onhim. Although he wasnt very close to John, Sam felt guilt thathe hadnt been a better son to his father and promised hismother at the side of Johns body not to brake her heart andto be a better boy. (Cox, 23) His time spent in Aments shopwas not paid, but he was fed and clothed. He learned to settype and sometimes worked as reporter or assistant editor. Clemens found a great interest in reading during this time andhe truly read everything he could get his hands on. He alsobegan enjoying reading a large amount of history. Beingbrought up in a family of slaveholders, Clemens experienceda lot of brutality and injustice toward slaves. He was taughtthat it was completely normal and legal for white men to killniggers over an awkwardly done job and he didnt argue. However, as a little boy, he felt inside that what his father didwas wrong and immoral. Many incidents and adventures withslaves that young Sam witnessed wound up in his booksdecades later. Clemens left Aments shop and went to workwith Orion, his older brother, in 1851. His brother offered topay three and a half-dollars a week but money never seemedto be around. Orion owned a newspaper called the HannibalJournal and he hired both Sam and his younger brother Henryto be typesetters. However, Sam did more than typeset forOrion. He also wrote for the Journal occasionally. Usually hewrote humorous sketches, but sometimes he also wrotesatirical stories, local news reports, and poetry. Samuel firstused the pen name Mark Twain for his letters published in theVirginia City, Territorial Enterprise in 1863. Mark Twain is asteamboaters term meaning 2 fathoms or 12 feet of water. Samuels childhood was probably where many of his ideasand stories all originated. He used his adventures as a boy inmany novels, such as Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Life onthe Mississippi, and many others. There was an adventureeveryday during his life in Hannibal and his friends were justas mischievous as Sam was. The novel A Yankee in KingArthurs Court was strongly influenced by Mark Twains life. Itshowed the battle that was happening inside Twain betweenhis different feelings for slavery. It also showed Marks hatetowards any sort of authority. (Cox, 169) This was probablyprovoked by his early days with his slaveholding family. Hesaw many times as a child what authority could do toinnocent souls and it stayed in his heart for many decades. The Civil War broke out in 1861 and Samuel Clemensdecided to side with the Confederacy unlike his whole family. He joined a volunteering unit and fought with the MarionRangers for some time. Most of this time the small unit wasretreating and Sam said, I could have become a goodsoldier myself, if I had waited, I had got part of it learned, Iknew more about retreating than the man that inventedretreating. (Cox, 49) During his life, Mark Twain always hadsome trouble financially. He had had many jobs, but he wasoften in need of money. When he worked as a pilot on theMississippi, Twain was receiving no pay for he was anapprentice. During this time, he took a job watching freightpiles during the night for some money. He later said I cantrace the effect of those nights through most of my books inone way and another. (Cox, 41) After Civil War began,Samuel had to find a new job for all river traffic was halted. Pekeliling flats of kuala lumpur EssayTwain uses this to show that a king is just as good as anyslave and that the only thing that separates him from a slaveis his title. He says in his book there is nothing divinerabout a king than there is about a tramp, after all. He is just acheap and hollow artificiality when you do not know he is aking. But reveal his quality, and dear me it takes your verybreath away to look at him. The major theme of this novel isthe authority and aristocracy issue, but there are other smallthemes hidden under Twains humor. One such theme is thetheme of work. Twain discusses work and pay in thisstatement The law of work does seem utterly unfair butthere it is: the higher the pay in enjoyment the worker getsout of it, the higher shall be his pay in cash also. Thecharacters in this book were introduced and describedthrough their actions and through dialogue. The maincharacter, Hank Morgan, was almost absolutely a believablecharacter. Only a couple of his tra its wouldnt be verybelievable. One being that he didnt go crazy as soon as hefound out what had happened. If he was a real person, I dontthink he would just accept the fact that he was in the sixthcentury so quickly. I think that his other traits were prettymuch acceptable. He had normal human being traits likebeing panicky and he wasnt all good or all evil. There wereparts of him that werent angel-like. For example, he never justproved somebody wrong; he always had to make the personfeel low and defeated. The other characters, like Sandy andKing Arthur, werent really believable. Compared to what isconsidered normal now, they were actually not realistic at all. However, the story takes place in the sixth century where thecharacters would be more realistic than if compared to what isconsidered normal now. Despite the fact that it was sixthcentury, I still wouldnt be able to imagine real people beinglike King Arthur or Sandy. They were stereotypical just like allthe knights, Merlin, Clarence, and the other characters. Thisnovel wasnt biographical at all. It showed Twains view oncertain issues, but it did not describe Twains life. The onlything that might have been at all autobiographical, was thefact that Hank Morgan didnt fit in with his surroundings andwas trying to change everything around him. Maybe Twainfelt that he was surrounded by people who couldntunderstand him. Maybe he only felt secure with several of hisfriends just like Hank thought only certain men were worthyin the sixth century. Hank Morgan was finally returned to thenineteenth century after war broke out in Camelot. During thatwar, nineteenth century science and fifty-four y oung menstood against all of Englands knights and won a flawlessvictory. Hank was injured and Merlin cast a spell on him thatbrought him back to nineteenth century. Twains purpose inwriting this novel was to show the contrast between the sixthand nineteenth centuries and to show the reader that similarproblems exist in both these times. He also brought up somevery serious social issues in a humorous way. This novel istruly a work of genius. I enjoyed reading the book a lot. It wasexciting and humorous and the plot was really amusing. Iespecially admired the way Twain wrote the same things thatwouldnt be interesting if they werent written the way theywere. The way Twain described how Hank wasuncomfortable in the armor was an example of how as simplea matter as that can be written so that it sounds interestingand amusing. The way Twain put humor into sixth centuryeconomy when talking to Dowley about wages was alsoexcellent. He showed how ignorant the sixth century menwere concerning e conomy. To them, the higher the wages,the better, and it doesnt matter what the prices are. No matterhow hard Hank tried to show that if prices are high, thenwages mean nothing, Dowley couldnt understand. Just inBibliography:Works Cited: Clemens, Samuel Langhorne. Websters American Biographies. Pg. 207 Clemens, SamuelLanghorne (Mark Twain, pen name). Biography OnlineDatabase. Online. America Online. http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=13667. 6Feb.1999 Cox, Clinton. Mark Twain: Americas Humorist,Dreamer, Prophet. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1995. Hunter,Frank O. Twain, Mark. The World Book Encyclopedia, 1998ed., Volume 19. Pg. 528-530 Kunitz and Haycraft. Clemens,Samuel Langhorne. American Authors: 1600-1900. Pg.159-161 Mark Twain in Hartford 28 May, 1995. Online. AmericaOnline. www.courant.com/news/special/twain. 6 Feb. 1999Meltzer, Milton. Mark Twain: A Writers Life. New York:Franklin Watts, 1985. Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee inKing Arthurs Court. New York: Signet Classic Twain, Mark.Biography Online Database. Online. America Online. http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=3500. 6Feb.1999