American Realism

I chose to read about Mark Twain because he was the only one of the writers I have heard of before so I was interested in reading more about him. After reading his stories I found him to be quite different than the recent American Romanticism writers we read. He seemed to be less interested in nature and religion like the romantics were. He seemed to just tell stories about things more interesting and easier to read. Rather than some of the boring stories we read on American Romanticism. I would say that there was some progression from the romantics and the realists. Romantics focused on nature, religion, and God. Realists focus on real life problems and stay away from nature and religion, this from only reading Twain. But yes, I think progression did occur from these two periods.

I particularly enjoyed reading Twain's "The Story of the Little Good Boy" and "The Story of the Little Bad Boy". I enjoyed the irony in both of them. Their themes are quite similar. I think a good theme for these two stories can be summed up as to life your life with no goals, don't try to please everyone. Do things because you want to, not so you can get in a Sunday book. What is meant to be will be. I think Twain would have been a believer in the old saying, "everything happens for a reason" or "the universe always has a plan". What is meant to happen will happen even if you are the best or worst boy in the world. You can't map out your life by just being good, that doesnt mean something bad won't necessarily happen to you.

I had a hard time determining the difference between to whom and for whom these stories are written for. So therefore in my opinion, I think all of these stories by Twain are written to a common group. And that group is teenagers. I think he is writing to teenagers so they can understand some of the things that can happen in life. Also, there are all types of good and bad teenagers and I'm sure there are times when bad things happen to the good ones and good things happen to the bad ones. I think these stories are for adults, particularly parents and teachers. I think it is for parents and teachers because they need to not sugar coat everything and tell their kids that everything will always be fine when it won't be all the time. That is the idea of to and for whom these stories were written.

For me reading these stories was a nice break from the romantics. It was both suspenseful and easy to read. I got something out of it that I had forgotten about. And that basically is to live life to the fullest. Whether it be a jumping frog, a good boy who wants to be in a Sunday book and dies, or a bad boy who lives life without a care and a bit of luck. Just live your life.


"Thus perished the good little boy who did the best he could, but didn't come out according to thebooks. Every boy who ever did as he did prospered except him. His case is truly remarkable. It will probably never be accounted for." This is a quote I picked from "The Story of the Good Little Boy" I chose this quote because I think it reflects the theme I chose. Being that some great people no matter what they do will never be remembered for their actions. This means that even though the boy helped everyone and did the right thing all the time he will never be remembered for it because he died and never got a chance to be a part of the Sunday book. This reflects why I like Mark Twain, with the twists and twurls in his writing. He always keeps you guessing and hides secret meanings within his words that are just waiting to be found out.