现代大学英语精读4 Lesson 15 The Damned Human Race.pptVIP

About the Author Mark Twain (1835-1910) was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, but lived as a child in Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. He took the pen name Mark Twain from the call of the pilots on the river steamers, which indicated that the water was twelve feet deep, a safe depth for a steamer. During his early years, he wrote as a riverboat pilot newspaper reporter, printer, and gold prospector. But then he returned to writing, and became one of the greatest of American writers. Writing Background To have a better understanding of this essay, it is perhaps necessary to go back to the 1890s, a period which was dark and gloomy for Mark Twain. First of all, because of unwise investment, he went bankrupt. And in order to pay off his creditor, he undertook a round-the-world speaking tour aimed at making some money. He had almost completed it when he learned that his favorite daughter, Suzy, hand died. This was a terrible blow for him. Before he could recover from this, his beloved wife, died too. With her death, writing for him was essentially over. He became more and more bitter and his last writings were savagely satirical. Writing Purpose To remedy this deplorable situation, he began to use his pen as a sharp lance first to pierce the boils of human pomposity. However, it is wrong to think that Mark Twain is pessimistic or cynical, he is neither. Behind all the bitterness is a warm and humane heart. Mark Twain does not really believe that human beings are incurably cruel, greedy and wicked. Otherwise he would not have bothered to write those essays. He writes about ugly human traits and dispositions precisely because he thinks human beings are capable of mending their ways if they can open their eyes or their own weakness and understand the conditions that give rise to them and nurture them. In other words, his policy is to frighten in order to enlighten. The Traits of the Essay This slightl