Two Views of the River

Samuel L. Clemens, or Mark Twain, if one is to use his much more famous pen name, was known the best for his Regionalist stories about the lives of the American people who lived on or near the banks of the Mississippi River. However, he also did write things that had more of a true and mainstream Realist taste to them, things that did not have his added flavor of dialect and native history. One of these lesser known stories is a memoir he wrote about the Mississippi River after having worked on a steamboat up and down it for years. It is called “Two Views of the River,” and it shows a much more somber view of Mark Twain than what many people usually see.

“No, the romance and beauty were all gone from the river. All the value any feature of it had for me now was the amount of usefulness it could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a steamboat. Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart. What does the lovely flush in a beauty’s cheek mean to a doctor but a ‘break’ that ripples above some deadly disease? Are not all her visible charms sown thick with what are to him the signs and symbols of hidden decay? Does he ever see her beauty at all, or doesn’t he simply view her professionally, and comment upon her unwholesome condition all to himself? And doesn’t he sometimes wonder whether he has gained most or lost most by learning his trade?” (Twain 505).

This excerpt is from the end of the memoir, while the beginning of it describes Mark Twain’s excitement and wonder at the beauty of the mighty Mississippi River from when he had first begun to work on the steamboats, then how his views were rationalized as he learned that all that beauty really was just signs of warning for the steamboat operator, things to be heeded and forewarned of so that the boat could be piloted safely down the river (Twain 505). This feeling, the sentiment of disillusionment, is a sentiment that has probably always existed. Numerous people have experienced it, whether they be farm children moving to the big city with giant hopes of grandeur and prosperity or soldiers heading off to the battlefield hoping for honor and glory without expecting the pain and bloodbath. This makes it relevant to every audience, creating a piece that is timeless and touching at the same time, and thus giving it the label of Realism.

And while this piece does tend to stray more towards the pure Realism characteristics rather than those of Regionalism, it does have its tendency towards Regionalism. After all, the example that Mark Twain uses as the basis for this entire composition is that of himself working on the Mississippi steamboats. The steamboats, while used in many other rivers, were and are something very particular and unique to the Mississippi River, giving this piece its own Regionalist flavor despite its universal truths and somber attitude.

Works Cited

Twain, Mark. "Two Views of the River." GlencoeLiterature. Ed. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 504-05. Print.