The Father of American Literature Mark Twain The Father of American Literature

Samuel Langhorne Clemens: 1835-1910. (Tom Su thinks he looks cool)

Halley’s Comet and Mark Twain

Halley’s Comet was visible in the sky the night he was born.

So What? Halley’s Comet is only visible every 75 years, the odds of seeing it twice in a lifetime would be very low. It has been doing this for over 200,000 years (or more!) Early man had no idea what this comet was. The earliest record of the comet dates back to China, 240 years before Jesus Christ was born.

They first wrote about the comet on this stone. It’s really, really old!

Twain’s Death and Halley’s Comet I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' Twain died on April 21st, 1910. Halley’s comet was visible the same day!

Twain was born in this ugly old house, November 30th, 1835.

Uh, Why does he have two names? He actually has more! Twain used many ‘pen names’ during his writing career. His real name: Samuel Langhorne Clemens His famous pen name: Mark Twain

What is Twain’s Background? Like most great writers, they have tragedy and hardship. Twain’s father died when he was 11. At age 12, Twain begins work as a printer. Twain did not attend college. Instead, he educated himself in public libraries. During his travels, he met a steamboat captain, Horace E. Bixby. Twain learns this man gets a lot of money! (what would equals to 434,400 rmb in Chinese currency) Twain decides to be like this man.

Steamboats!

Does Twain Become a Steamboat Pilot? Yes! It was not easy. He had to study for more than two years and memorize 3,200 km of the Mississippi river so that he could find all different ports and stops. While training, Twain asked his brother, Henry to work with him. On May 21st, 1858 Twain had a horrible nightmare. He dreamed of his brother dying in a steamboat explosion. Twain wrote about this dream in his journal. On June 21st, 1858, Twain’s brother dies in a steamboat explosion.

Twain Blames Himself! For the rest of his life, Twain felt guilty about Henry’s death. If only he had paid more attention to his dream, he felt, Henry would have lived. This dream convinced Twain that humans have ‘psychic powers’ and so he became interested in PARAPSYCHOLOGY and wanted to prove humans are able to use ‘precognition’

PARA WHAT? PRECOG WHO? Precognition: This is also called E.S.P. or EXTRA SENSORY PERCEPTION. In other words, we can tell the future!!!! Using the scientific method, Twain believed he could prove humans could see into the future. Experiments were made to see if this was true. Sure enough, some amazing things happened:

THE PRECOGNITION TEST: DID TWAIN REALLY SEE INTO THE FUTURE?

The Experiment: Take Two People. Stick person A in a room without noise or sound. Person B is in a room next door. Person B looks at cards. He selects one of them.

CIRCLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE Let’s say Person B takes the card with the shape of a circle. He is then asked to look at the card and say, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE

After twenty minutes: Person B enters the room with person A. The cards are all placed in front of person B. Person Be is then asked: “Choose the card you feel person A was looking at the most.”

THE RESULTS: NEARLY 90 percent of time, the subject accurately chose the card!!!

Twain the MYSTIC As a result of all of his studies about parapsychology, Twain used a lot of these mystical motifs in his stories! In fact, Twain’s story, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, was about time travel, creating the alternate history genre!

Why is he famous? The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) made him instantly famous in America. The story was based on his own childhood. It is still known today as THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL. Twain is also called , “THE FATHER OF AMERICAN LITERATURE.” Huckleberry Finn was the second part to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) His stories are truly about the American way of life. No writer has ever talked about America like Twain could.

The Motifs in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Crime Showing Off Trading The cirucs

Symbols The Cave The Storm The Treasure The Village

The Hypocrisy of Society Freedom Superstition THEMES Being Mature The Hypocrisy of Society Freedom Superstition

MORE TOMORROW! BEGIN READING TONIGHT!