Mark Twain – Two Views of the River

Before I even read Two Views of the River by Mark Twain, I already knew that it was going to be based on regionalism. I just knew with river being in the title that that was going to be regionalism. Mark Twain, like the frog story that he wrote was really using his imagination in this story also. He was just turning the river into some different, crazy things in his mind. I think once again, Mark Twain is trying to distract all of the people in this time from all of the things that were going on in their lives with the war and all that went along with that that was going on. I thought that this story was a lot easier to follow along with, and the dialect was one that I could actually handle. The best part of this story was just the creative imagination of Mark Twain, and the whole time while reading this story i was just wishing I had half of the imagination he did to write a story like this.

"Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river! I still keep in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steamboating was new to me" (Twain 504). I think this passage right here shows us that there is regionalism in this short story. As it says in our American Literature textbooks, "The writers attempted to show the landscape, customs, speech, and other culture details of that chosen or their chosen region" ("Regionalism" 487). I think this story does show the landscape. Mark Twain takes a piece of landscape and just really describes it in a way that is really creative. I think the other thing is that this river is a landmark that was not only a big deal to him, but also to the people around him and they could really understand where he was coming from. I also saw some points that made me think that this story also had a hint of naturalism writing in it. "Naturalism writers believed that we, humans, are shaped by heredity and environment. Naturalists were also the ones to believed that we were dominated by economic, social, and natural forces" ("Regionalism" 487). "The world was new to me, and I had never seen anything like this at home. But as I have said, a day came when I began to cease from noting the glories and the charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the river's face; another day came when I ceased altogether to note them" (Twain 505). Right here in that last passage was where I saw naturalism. I think that the character really thought that he was being shaped by his environment which was the river, that I do not think he could go on without.



Twain, Mark. "Two Views of the River" American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 504-505. Print.

"Regionalism and Realism." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas FIsher, Beverly A. Chin, and Jacqueline J. Royster. American Literature ed. Coulmbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 487. Print.

"Regionalism and Realism." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas FIsher, Beverly A. Chin, and Jacqueline J. Royster. American Literature ed. Coulmbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 487. Print.