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Mark Twain: America’s Master Storyteller

“Anyone who can think of only one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination .” - Mark Twain

Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, he adopted the pen name of Mark Twain. His family later moved to Hannibal, the fictional town of St. Petersburg in his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Missouri was a slave state, so Twain was familiar with slavery, a theme he would explore in his later writing.

At age 11, Twain was forced to leave school when his father died. He worked for several years as a printer’s apprentice before his subsequent jobs took him across America. He went on to become a river boat pilot, journalist, editor, lecturer, and writer.

1835-1910 Mark Twain was praised in his obituary published in The New York Times as “the greatest American humorist of his age,” and author William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature.” Twain opposed imperialism and was a supporter of civil rights.

The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Regionalism

Movement


1. Historical

2. Literary

Context


1. Introduction

2. Rising action

3. Climax

4. Falling action

5. Dénouement

Plot


1. Innocent eye

2. Stream of consciousness

3. First person

4. Omniscient

5. Omniscient limited

6. Omniscient objective

Point of view

Types of Point of View in Fiction

First person

Point of view


1. Frame tale

2. Epistolary tale

Style: Structure


1. Place

2. Time

3. Weather conditions

4. Social conditions

5. Mood or atmosphere

Style: Setting


1. Tall tale genre

2. American East

3. American West

Style: Satire


1. Events

2. Characters

Style: Tall tale


Dialect

Style: Diction


Animals

Style: Anthropomorphism


1. Individual

2. Developing

3. Static

Characters

Types of Characters in Fiction

1. Mark Twain

2. Simon Wheeler

3. Jim Smiley

4. The Stranger

5. The Fifteen-Minute Nag

6. Andrew Jackson

7. Dan’l Webster

Characters


1. Type – External

– Internal

2. Kind – Man vs. man (physical)

– Man vs. circumstances (classical)

– Man vs. society (social)

– Man vs. himself (psychological)

Conflict

Conflict in Fiction

1. Type

2. Kind

Conflict


1. Culture clash

2. Deception

3. American culture

Theme


mark twain: america’s master storyteller - … · mark twain: america’s master storyteller...

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