Mark Twain- "Two Views of the River"

"Two Views of the River" is a small excerpt composed by Mark Twain. Twain effectively captures the element of cohesive detail, often found within Realism literature, as well as a prominent display of human nature and realistic habits. Though simplistic and short, Twain composes the excerpt with a large amount of detail and descriptions, which illustrated his relationship with the river and the steamboats (Twain). He adequately explains how once, he had a strong desire to be where he is now, but now that he is here, he cannot help but ignore the beauty of the river and analyze everything pessimistically (Twain). This illustrates the typical manner in which people want what they cannot have. These two outlooks and attitudes are found so often within human nature, and Twain presents them in a very talented way with his descriptions and use of nature as an analogy.

Nature itself is a characteristic of Realism, and the mixture of Twain's description is strong, formulating details which combine two Realist traits (Campbell). The use of nature to convey themes of human nature, and Twain's emotions and thought processes are also traits of Realism - characters of Realism are usually in explicable relation to nature (Campbell).

Twain also presents himself as a member of the middle-class, which is another correlating factor of Realism (Campbell). Later on, he formulates a comparison to a doctor, another middle-class position, to stress his dismay at the way that people lose the ability to value beauty and similar things (Twain).

In Twain's ability to present an intended idea or lesson through aspects of Realism, he presents a large amount of values and morals in the formation of heroism. The hero of his writing isn't a direct character, but rather the emphasis he stresses on preserving the gratitude and value for which humans place on things in life, especially nature. This hero is also a form of the American Dream, or at least Twain's version of it.

Campbell, Donna M. "Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. 21 Mar 2010. Web. 26 Jan 2011.

Twain, Mark. "Two Views of the River." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus; McGraw-Hill, 2010. 504-505. Print.