Samuel Langhorne Clemens was an American writer who is famous for his real- life based stories and diverse thinking. While best known for his humor, exaggeration, and as his pen name Mark Twain, he altered his themes from humorous to serious and maintained his image of a pessimist, as illustrated in his first short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and later in “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg”.

Twain began his writing career as he ventured for gold during the California Gold Rush. As his search for gold began, his interest in other miner’s stories kept his imagination flowing. His first story began when he did not “struck it rich (Warren)” during the California Gold Rush. Instead he met many people and heard many stories about places and events. When he returned home, he brought something better than gold, he came back with knowledge that not many people know of and created stories based on them such as his first break through. Thus, the humorous story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” was published. The short story became well- known and is now considered as one of “Twain’s most distinctive story” (Literary Reference Center).Other short stories are from “his head chock- full of memories of Hannibal” and “the language of the villages”, which are expressed in almost all of his writings (Bloom). His stories portrayed reality in different places around the United States, what he endured when he traveled, and the people he met (Warren) with humor and wit. This appealed to the general audience to enjoy. Humor as the key principle in his oral style, Twain began his writing career as a witty American writer of the nineteenth century.

As the years pass by, Twain switched his theme to a more serious mode. Written in the 1899, “The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg” was the opposite of the previous short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. The plot line for “The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg” is a big scandal in a happy, honest town. In the story, he gives a deep perception into character as the theme develops through dialogue and incident. As a direct result to the themes shown in the short story, he hides his emotions and wrote them into the story, which was formed by his “constantly and pathologically tormented guilt and conscience” (Warren). It is rumored that Twain was going through a rough time in his life and suffered tragic loss of his daughter and this is the reason why he started to view the world more negative and guilt became a more dominant theme. Specifically, in “The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg”, the themes expressed in the story are skepticism about orthodox religion, conscience and guilt, and attraction to mechanistic ideas (Literary Reference Center). Other themes are appearance verses reality, the importance of training or habit, and the evils of human vanity. After much analysis, it can be said Twain blames his daughter’s death on him, and he believes “it is difficult to act well because doing so requires admitting to faults (Magil)”. In general, Twain’s work reveals late nineteenth century American anxieties about literary form and about the integrity of the self in relation to historical processes (Witschi).

Although the stories are unique in their own way, as the years passed, all of Twain’s writings show wit and a clear vision of class distinctions, as well as for his lack of prejudice (Warren). Even though he grew up around discrimination, Mark Twain treated everyone equally and viewed everyone with the same attitude. Even if he has an honest heart, he considered himself a pessimist; the reason for this is because three out of four of his children died before him, his brother died after the care of Twain, and many more accidents he considered his fault created a negative environment for his writing. For his constant tragedies, Twain always wanted to appeal to the general audience and be a success with his writing. Because Twain longed for popular success, he drifted from his original work toward serious because during the time the troubles America faced were more serious than humorous (Bloom). Although appreciated, his work was changed throughout as he lost the humor and wit everyone first had fallen for deeply.

 During the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, Mark Twain began to write humorous, witty stories and ended as a pessimistic, serious writer. In conclusion, Twain created work for the audience and people of America. Satire or pessimism, all his characters face reality by his ironic humor, as in being ironic is negative and also surprising. Whether a lesson in humility and moral realism or a real- life story with a twist, Twain found a way to entertain while teaching many lessons to his audience.

Works Cited

Harold, Bloom. Mark Twain Comprehensive Research and Study Guide

(Bloom’s Major Short Story Writers). New York: Chelsea House Publications, 1999.

“Mark Twain.” Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition (2001).

Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. 26 Jan. 2009 .

Magill, Frank Northen. Masterplots II Short Stories Series (Masterplots II).

New York: Salem P, 1986.

Warren, Robert Penn, and Harold Bloom. Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Mark Twain.

Chelsea House Publications, 1986: 55-82.

Witschi, Nicolas. “Marking Twain, From Beginning to End.” Literary Reference Center.

EBSCO. 28 Jan. 2009 .