FREE ESSAY ON A ROUGH MAN

A ROUGH MAN

Rough, vigorous, hot-tempered and rich is what Mark Twain grew up to be. Born 1835 in
Missouri, Florida he always did what he needed to in order for him to reach his goal.
Even though he dropped out of school at the age of twelve, when his father died, he
accomplished numerous things.
Mark began writing when he took the job of a journalist. The tale 'The Celebrated Jumping
Frog of Calaveras County' was his first success. After a trip by boat to Palestine, he
wrote The Innocents Abroad. As his writing career blossomed, he also became successful as
a lecturer. In 1870 got married, and a few years later he and his wife settled in
Hartford, Connecticut. Huckleberry Finn is Twain's masterpiece, for its use of the
brilliant character and descriptions, showing the humor of man's cruelty to man. 
He also wrote The Gilded Age, 1873, Old Times on the Mississippi, 1875, The Prince and
the Pauper, 1882, Life on the Mississippi, 1883, Pudd'n-head Wilson, 1894, and Personal
Recollections of Joan of Arc, 1896. His later works, such as The Mysterious Stranger,
unpublished until 1916, are not as amusing and more discouraging. He is known as one of
America's finest and most characteristic writers. 
1872 is the year when Roughing It was written. This book was just a personal narrative
and not a history to show-off, nor a thoughtful commentary. It's a record of several
years of exciting migration, and it's intention to help the reader rather than to hurt
him with truth, or fill him with science. In this book there is lots of information about
episodes that happened in the Wild West. There is stories in this book that have never
been told and only been seen in the writers own eyes. There is a great deal of
information in this book and the writer himself says this book can not be helped, but
Twain was never exactly worried about giving his books an artistic framework. The
information that he wrote came out of him naturally. He felt this urge to write and felt
the excitement when he wrote his books. He felt that he was giving everyone a piece of
what made him. 
He liked to live the fast life, that way he could have something to write about. He once
said, The more I caulk up the sources, and the tighter I get, the more I leak wisdom.
Mark didn't expect justification from his readers but tolerance. Trying his luck at
anything and everything was one of his bizarre habits. He writes hilariously about his
many encounters with vigilantes. He knew very well that carrying a Smith & Wesson's was
necessary when traveling in the Wild West. Guns back in the old times were not very
accurate so you had a better chance of catching a cold than actually catching something
to eat with a rifle.
Many people saw Mark as a playboy, the pioneer in letters, and the leader of the herd.
William Dean Howell, Mark Twain's friend, called him the Lincoln of our literature. This
guy knew what he was talking about, not only were Twain and Lincoln both belongings of
the border democracy but through out their lives they continued to look to the Wild West
for the supplying of their imaginations. His work comes from the same roots that made
Lincoln's life the basic American myth. The man who came from nowhere and overcame an
unpromising back ground to come out as one of the nations greatest heroes.
Twain departed for Carson City with his unionist brother, Orion, who had recently been
chosen Secretary of the Territory of Nevada. He moved because he was convinced that his
life as a confederate soldier offered a far greater threat to both to him and the
confederacy than it did to Lincoln's armies. In the spring of 1867 he arrived at New York
and had a growing character of a preacher and an author. At that time he was an unpaid
private secretary but soon became a prospector, a financier, almost a millionaire, a
worker in the mill, and finally a reporter. With the exception of reporting he had no
sort of success in any of these. 
The Mark Twain in this book is basically imaginary, a harmless beginner, uncertain and
clumsy, generous and extremely trustful. Accidents are his destiny and he is regularly
being victimized by his own unique way. One example is the campfire that he sets into a
forest fire. Another example is when him and his two companions were lost in a storm and
were at the edge of dying only to awaken fifteen feet away from shelter in the morning.
All he really wants to be is a successful man but all the circumstances force him to play
the life of a clown. Laughing at himself is one of his trademarks for he did have a good
sense of humor.
In this book Twain gives his imagination free rein, even though it is sometimes filled by
incidents rather than feeling, it is always a visual imagination and never gloomy. He had
the imagination of a novelist not a reporter. Even though the book missing structure, it
has creativity. Twain's imagination usually led him into what was correct. He never
showed his obvious desire to write a humorous book. He also never let it affect his
sympathy or anger towards injustice. The conversational language of Roughing It was
dazzling and usually clean. Twain's language creates the characters and situations.
Twain had ample respect for those who had succeeded even though the law was trying to
hold them down. Desperados were the ones he hated. He did not have positive feelings for
the Noble Red Man/Indians. He also feared the lynch law, had admiration for bankers,
merchants and honest miners. He said that they all represented the civilized point of
view. Where he lived there was not much enforcement of the law so that allowed him to say
and act as he wanted. One could commit murder and easily get away with it. Even if one
did get caught, the jury was composed of fools and rascals - that's the way he put it. He
also believed that every man has a right to think or believe what he wants and they also
have the right to judge in whatever way they wanted. 
If he had to choose from a fixed society under the law or a chaotic environment where
everyone was free to do as they wish, he would choose the civilized world. He felt
sympathy and total compassion towards the Chinese who were discriminated so cruelly in
the Far West. The Chinese were so peaceful, quiet, and free from drunkenness while their
enemies were lazy, brutal, and ignorant. The lack of enforcement in the law caused
extreme pain for those who were peaceful and innocent. He was convinced that the law did
not help the people like they were supposed to, instead they hurt the people more.
Twain mentions his visit to Hawaii as a reporter and his earlier lectures in the last
eighteen chapters of Roughing It. Even though it is a different setting than the Far West
it does not mean it should not be in this book. There are very good stories in this
section of the book, too. There is something missing in these chapters, though, the
comforting of humans. He didn't have much sensitivity. He didn't try to find comfort in
the women of the islands, either. He had too much respect to try anything with the famous
hula dancers. 
In Roughing It the work that he puts forth from his creative imagination can not calm
down the truth of what he sees. He put a lot into this book and paid of for the best.
Mark Twain died in Redding, Connecticut in 1910 but through out his life he accomplished
lots. He will never be forgotten. His life lives on through his works and is he is now
know as one of the nations greatest heroes as well as one of the best.