Glittering Gold Part 1: The Gold Rush and A Shiny America

In his adventures in the West, Mark Twain recounts tales rich with discovery and diverse characters, in particular he tells of his short-lived experience as a gold miner.  In his tale he casts himself as an eager young man taken in by the excitement and wonder of the Gold Rush.  He confesses “without shame” that he “expected to find masses of silver lying all about the ground,” he expected to “see it glittering in the sun of the mountains summits,” and was surprised in his journey to the mining town that he did not see anything, worrying that he “might possibly have an exaggerated idea about it” and kept his musings to himself (55). 

Upon arriving at the mining town, like the one shown to the right,  he set out on his own in search of the famed gold and silver, hoping, like the eager young man he was, to strike it rich on his first try.  He was not disappointed, not long into his searching he found what he was looking for, shining gold and lots of it.  In true Twain fashion rather than reveal his find to his companions immediately he let it sit and set out finding the perfect time and place for his reveal.  In the meantime he builds “dreams of far away” and comes to “despise the sordid commonplace things” that interested his fellow miners (58).  When he does tell the other miners of what he found he does not come right out with it, instead he builds a story for it, he draws his audience in asking them to think of what they would do with “piles of gold and silver" – all in the guise of supposition of course (58).  When their attention is caught he produces his gold; fool’s gold as it turns out, “granite rubbish and nasty glittering mica” (59).  Twain’s dreams are brought low with that one observation, what he thought was gold, what he dreamed of, what he built his “airy castle” on was nothing.  Just as fast as his dreams were built they vanished and left him “stricken and forlorn” (59). Twain learns a valuable lesson that day: “nothing that glitters is gold” (59).  He then remarks on his, and the general populations, ignorance in “underrating men of gold and glorifying men of mica.”  He says that “commonplace human nature cannot rise above that” (59).  

Through this tale, Twain is not only evaluating his perceptions and recounting his period of disillusionment in the West but also admonishing his readers to more carefully examine the world and people around them.  The late 19^th century was a time of great change in America, the Industrial Revolution, the Gold Rush, Westward Expansion, emancipation, and the invention of things such as the telephone and railway system created what could be considered a glorious time for America.  Twain calls attention to the dark underbelly of the glittering American landscape pleading with his readers to understand that what they see as gold may actually just be “ostentatious glitter” meant to “excite the admiration of the ignorant” (59).  Twain challenges America to “rise above” the ignorance that produces such admiration of men more akin to the rubbish that Twain was drawn to in the mountains of the West. 

Mort, Terry. Mark Twain on Travel.  The Lyons Press: Guilford, Connecticut. 2005. pgs 55-59. Print.

Little Jim Didn’t Get His Dues – A Critical Examination of “A Christmas Fireside” by Grandfather Twain

Mark Twain parodies the Sunday School stories taught to little children in his story “A Christmas Fireside” and calls it “the story of a bad little boy that bore a charmed life.”  In his work he calls attention to a few myths about late 19^th century society, namely that life is fair and that there is a karmic entity that doles out punishments to bad people and that the world works in black and white, good and bad. 

Twains sardonic tone is evident from the start he signs his story as Grandfather Twain, setting up a tone that mocks the “grandmotherly” source of many of the tales he is parodying.  In the story he talks about Jim and sets him in contrast to the “bad Jameses in the books.”  He describes Jim by what he is not and what he does not do or have.  Jim “didn’t have and sick mother …, terrible feeling didn’t come over him …, something didn’t seem to whisper to him, etc.”  Jim was in fact very strange, he didn’t line up at all with the bad boys named James in the Sunday School stories.   Throughout Jim’s life he escapes from the supposed karmic consequences of his actions; how he manages to escape “is a mystery” to Grandfather Twain. 

The stark contrast between Jim and the hypothetical James highlights the myth of fairness and a universal entity responsible for punishment.  Jim does not get punished for what he does; in fact by the end of the story, after axing his family and becoming rich by cheating and “rascality” he becomes “universally respected, and belongs to the Legislature.”  Twain boils down Jim’s life, and everyone’s life, to streaks of luck.  The world is not inherently geared towards punishing the bad and rewarding the good. 

Twain highlights the problematic black and white, good and bad, reward and punishment binary thinking that existed in the Sunday School stories.   He creates a world that exists in reflection of the world he, and everyone, experiences: a world of grays.  In this world that he creates in his story thing reflect the complexities of the world.  His mocking and condescending tone illustrates the grays and seems to call the writers and story tellers that created the black and white world ridiculous and foolish for believing that the world can be broken down so simply, or at least teaching children that the world is such.  

Twain is cynical and sarcastic, as evidence through his writing.  “A Christmas Fireside” shows this well as it calls to question ideas and teachings that had been considered the “norm” for the late 19^th century American culture.