Why you should read more Mark Twain

The short answer to the question of this article is:

 Because many of the things Twain talked about in his writing (honesty, growing up, the true nature of the world vs what we are taught) are still relevant to this day. Twain's cynical eye for the world has allowed him to create many satirical pieces that allow for a good laugh, but also discuss many of the timeless flaws of humanity and the society we have created. Read for a good laugh and a reminder that some things about people never really change.

I bet at this point anyone reading this has for sure heard of, if not read, Mark Twain. Him being one of the most prolific and foundational authors in modern American literature makes this statement of mine honestly a bit redundant. It seems almost every public and private school has made either The Adventure of Tom Sawyer or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn required reading. For me personally, I somehow didn't actually end up reading anything by Mark Twain until I got to college. Though, of course, the first book I read was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I did enjoy this book, and think it has some lessons to offer and is worth a read, It's not why I recommend why people should read more Twain. 

The works that I want to recommend to people are not nearly as well known as the two previously mentioned literary titans. Many of these writings were never even officially published during Twain's life. The writings I want to talk about include No.44, The Mysterious Stranger, the collection of writings in The Bible According to Mark Twain, and a short story he wrote called The Story of the Bad Little Boy. I

First off, let's summarize the first two works quickly and why you should give them a read sometime. No.44, The Mysterious Stranger is a work that Twain had several different versions of that he was never satisfied enough with to publish, but the one with this exact title is considered the best. It follows along with the 16 year old narrator August as a strange boy visits the castle where he is living/working for the print master that has taken residence there. This strange boy exhibits many strange magical powers and causes much chaos for the lives of those within this castle and the surrounding village. There are many funny and honest moments, with August being a 16 year old kid in nearly every sense. He falls in love, says some dumb things, and dosen’t understand some of the things going on around him. When combined with the strangely omnipotent nature of the stranger, the reader is able to follow the narrator as he learns about himself and life. This book provides an interesting look at growing up, the freedom of mind and expression that comes with living in a restrictive, religious society, and the nature of life at its heart. I totally didn't spend an entire semester analyzing this book ( I did) so I could talk about it forever. 

Moving on, The Bible According to Mark Twain is a collection of writings where Mark Twain discusses his views on religion at the time. From Letters From the Earth where he takes on the voice of Satan sending letters back to his old angel friends, to the diaries of Adam and Eve, where he writes from the perspective of these first humans and how they experience life in the Garden of Eden. All in all, the works within this collection all take a skeptical look at organized religion and the rules that it places upon people. Now, I would say that Twain still loved and worshiped God, he just had a lot of issues with the excessive rules and ways in which people who followed God seemed to use their love as a method of controlling others or as a way to deny parts of themselves. Throughout all of the writings within this work, Twain provides an interesting perspective on how religious teachings can influence society, sometimes in ways that seem counterintuitive or nonsensical. Plus, it helps that Twain's sense of humor and cynicism is very prevalent throughout, making many of these works quite funny and entertaining. 

Lastly, now getting to The Story of the Bad Little Boy. This is a short story I found in a collection of other short stories Twain wrote, and it follows the life of a little boy named Jim. It talks about how Jim does all sorts of things that bad kids do, like stealing from the pantry, stealing from his neighbors and teachers, lying to his teachers, etc. All the while these events are described, Twain continually contradicts the reality of these events with the expectations set forth through teachers and society by saying things like " but all at once a terrible feeling didn't come over him" and " the strangest thing ever happened to Jim was the time he went boating on Sunday , and didn't get drowned, and that other time when he got caught out in the storm when fishing on a Sunday and didn't get struck by lighting".

Jim continually gets away with doing things that he was told not to do, and unlike in all of the other books and stories where bad kids get punished, Jim does not. "Why, you might look, and look, all through the Sunday school books from now till next Christmas, and you would never come across anything like this". The reality of Jim's immoral decisions are completely different than the expectations set forth by those around him. Bad kids get punished, so do good. But, Jim does bad and never gets punished. This dissonance between moral teaching and moral reality is something that I think many of us can see all too often within the world around us. It seems that there are many people who get away with crimes just because they're rich or have influence, or sometimes both, or are frankly just lucky. 

The story ends with the line "So you see there never was a bad James in the Sunday-school books that had such a streak of luck as this sinful Jim with the charmed life". Sorry for the spoiler, but the whole work is only a few pages long anyways. I would highly recommend reading it for yourself; I don't think my short description here fully captures the dry humor that Twain creates by directly contradicting expectations in the lines where he describes Jim's bad behavior. But, the fact that this story was written over one hundred years ago and still captures the all too common contradiction of moral expectation vs reality so well speaks both to Twain's expertise as a writer and how relevant his works can be today. 

So, even though Twain may be an author that you are tired of hearing about or think has only written old, dried up literature, I recommend that you read some of his other stuff. Some of the works that were never shoved down your throat in high school. I was surprised about what I found and I hope you will be too. 

Let me know if you find anything interesting!