Mark Twain is an important writer in the history of American literature. His four famous writers are Uncle Tom's Cabin, Huckleberry Finn's Adventures, The Prince and the Poor, and The Grocery Shop. These works not only have high literary value, but also have a profound discussion and reflection on social and human issues.
What are Mark Twain's works
1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The whole story describes the adventures of three naughty and lovely children Tom, his close friend Huckleberry and Tom's girlfriend Becky in the town of St. Petersburg on the Mississippi River. It depicts the hero Tom Sawyer in detail, showing a spirit of pursuing freedom and daring to explore.
Mark Twain, from the perspective of the third person narrator, wittily satirized the hypocritical and vulgar social customs and various people in the society at that time, described the society before the Civil War in detail, and criticized the hypocrisy and staleness of the whole society.
The plot of the novel is vivid, with ups and downs, especially the description of the psychological activities of the characters, which fully shows the nature of children. This work is highly readable, vivid, interesting, humorous and moving, but also does not lose acrimonious satire, full of Mark Twain's western literary style. He integrated a large number of simple and bright spoken dialects, and used humorous and ironic language art forms to make the characters in the book more three-dimensional and vivid, so that readers can participate in them to think about the social situation.
2. Million Pounds
Millions of Pounds is a short story written by American writer Mark Twain in 1893. It tells the story of Henry Adams, an American securities trader, who accidentally got a million pounds after he was exiled to Britain because of falling into the sea. He used his intelligence and the influence of the money to turn from poverty to millionaires.
This novel is one of Twain's representative works in the middle of his creation career. The author adopts the double line narrative technique, sets up layers of suspense in the plot development, and also uses a variety of writing techniques, such as contrast, slightly exaggerated cartoon techniques, the combination of satire and humor, to expose the world's attitude towards money and criticize money worship.
3. The Stolen White Elephant
The most distinctive feature of the novel is the stolen Siamese white elephant. When the border dispute between Great Britain and Siam occurred, the King of Siam sent a gift to the British Queen for compensation, A white elephant with a long family name: "Hassan Ben Ali Ben Salin Abudala Muhammad Moisai Ahanmor Jamsaijue Gibhoi Dulipu Sudan Abu Budpur." A white elephant called "Jiangbo Jumbo".
Mark Twain's creative characteristics
1. Humorous satire
When Mark Twain began to write, it was the era when American humorous literature was extremely prosperous. The root of this kind of literature was the oral literature in the west, which was characterized by grotesque and extreme exaggeration. In general, the works of this period are characterized by relaxed and lively humor.
Even those satirical works criticizing the current evils are full of humor and humor. Humor but not sharp, humor but not bitter is the product of Mark Twain's combination of humor and mild satire. During this period, he not only wrote funny and humorous works with ease, but also began to write humorous and satirical works criticizing the current situation.
2. Child psychology
Mark Twain is also very concerned about the spiritual world of children. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a novel written entirely for children. It fully shows the unique characteristics of joy, fear, and the pursuit of excitement in childhood. It gives a very detailed description of the innocent, lively, and free character of children. The language is vivid and lifelike.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain skillfully combines the realistic description with the romantic lyric fantasy, and organically combines the subtle child psychoanalysis, humorous satire and sharp political comments, so that the combination of art and reasoning reaches a perfect state, and readers can also gain thinking and inspiration when reading.
Mark Twain's classic quotes
1. Whenever you find yourself on the side of most people, you should stop and reflect.
2. Sometimes truth is more absurd than fiction, because fiction is carried out under certain logic, while reality often has no logic to speak of.
3. When truth is still putting on its shoes, lies can travel half the world.
4. The only way to keep healthy is to eat something you don't want to eat, drink something you don't want to drink, and do something you don't want to do.
5. The violet leaves its fragrance on its ankle, which is forgiveness.
6. Don't give up your fantasy. When the fantasy is gone, you can still live, but you are still dead.
7. Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
8. It's better to shut your mouth and look like a fool than to ask people to confirm that you are a fool.
9. Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you to their level, and then hit you back.
