Mark Twain’s Humorous Satire in Running for Governor Essay

Abstract pick out duet, a mastermind of irritability and realism, is seen as a jumbo in world literatureerature. His zany mockery had salient impact on the following men of letters critics also attached significant importance to it and arrange forward various interpretations. Noticeably, his humor? ous satire finds full expression in his famous short story, rail for governor. In it, with humor and satire, he exposed the honest features and fabrication of American democracy.The paper tries to analyze the prefatory elements which affected chump duos humorous satire, aiming at offering rational analysis of this humorous satire in streamlet for Governor as well as making bitstocks whole kit readily understood. Key words Mark Twain realism humorous satire hypocrisy American 106 I A -5039(2012)03-0206-02 1009 1 Introduction Mark Twain, the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835, is the forerunner and reputed realist i n the arena of American literature.He is an American writer and humorist, whose best work is characterized by broad, often irreverent or grip satire. His work is also known for re? alism of place and lecture, unforgettable characters, and hatred of hypocrisy and oppression. Beca character of his remarkable contri saveions to the nation, literary critics spoke highly of his achievements. For instance, these venera? ble titles the Lincoln of American literature, the true father of our national literature, Mark TwainMirror of American are used to spotlight his pinnacles in literature.Samuels humor, if only in order to funnily make others laugh, I dont think at that place would not have such a daimyoMark Twain on the literary scene in todays world. Moreover, with his particular creative spirit and rather elegant races language, especially his excellent humor and satire, he is deeply praised by American people. Mark Twain wrote many short stories and these stories profoundly analyz e and expose short? comings and ugliness of capitalist society. As for humorous satire, Running for Governor is a representative short story.The story creates an unreal independent nominee who suffers a series of nasty and shameless slander to expose the hypocrisy of American Democracy and the rottenness and depravity of the cap? italist system under the guise of American Democracy. Mark Twains penetrating and remarkable portray of Bourgeois politicians profoundly reveals the hypocrisy of burgess democratic electoral system. Therefore, Running for Governor is an excellent humorous satire works, which is ideological and instructive. 2 Mark Twains sidesplitting Satire in Running for Governor.In Running for Governor, at the beginning of the story, Twain wrote A a few(prenominal) months ago I was nominated for Governor of the massive state of New York, to run against Mr. John T. metalworker and Mr. Blank J. Blank on the independent ticket. I somehow felt that I had one crowing ad vantage over these gentlemen, and that wasgood character. 1 Three specific characters appear, I is the indepen? dence Partys candidate, who is an adept and honest man with sim? ple thoughts, The Republican candidate Mr. John T. metalworker, and the Democratic candidate Mr. Blank J. Blank. People advance to talk about his usual first-person narrative method.This narrative method which he was so handy to use that it become a major fine style he created. It strengthens the ex? change on Twains thoughts and feelings with the readers, and make Twain feel freedom to mobilize all language delegacy to gain hu? morous and satirical effects. In American literature, Twain is not only a great humorist, but also an eminent master who developed a remarkable style of his own colloquialism. His greatness lies in blending of humor with lively language. In the first rumor perjury, after Mr. John T. Smith and Mr. Blank J. Blank had well-founded accusations on me, they ve? hemently said Mr.Twain owes it to himself, as well as to the great people whose suffrages he asks, to clear this matter up. Will he do it? These three words the great people are full of topical anestheticism, also with humor to demonstrate my rivals extraordinary skills2. His words are colloquial, cover and direct in effect, and his sentence structures are simple such as will he do it, but humorously sati? rize officialdoms true features. His humor is not only of witty remarks pestering at small things or of farcical elements making people laugh, but a kind of artistic style used to criticize the social injustice and satirize the decayed romanticism.3 Influences of Mark Twains Humorous Satire Twains works, both in content and form, with more American characteristics, demonstrate Americans thoughts and feelings and reflect the manifold movements of American society by using their own language and rotund their own stories.Twains life is difficult, but he wrote a large number of literary works. From the spiritually empty and nothing-to-do people, to the unscrupulous politicians, -12-05 2011 -01-05 2012 , , 206 2012 ? 02 ?to the rulers of money and the rulers of spiritual morality became the objects of Twains ruthless ridicule, biting satire and criticism.As a distinguished master of humor and irony, Twains humor with his unique style, a combination of smart ideas with the art of satire have a practical significance for us to understand social, institution? al and human legacy in 19th century and help to separate the evils of American society today.The autonomous status of American literature as a national lit? erature can hardly be questioned nowadays, but once American lit?erature had a special intercourse to the British tradition. During 19th century, this period, American literature strongly tended to view the course it was taking as divergent widely from the English tradition while trying to give expressions to awareness informed by local in? fluence.Of the thr ee writers Eliot chooses as the landmark of the coming of age of American literature to be found, in his opinion, at the moment when American writers were first acknowledged to be influencing other literature, one is Mark Twain. He is justly renowned as a humorist but was not always appre?ciated by the writers of his cartridge holder more than that. Successive genera? tions of writers, however, recognized the role that Twain played in creating a truly American literature. His success in creating this plan but evocative language precipitated the end of American rever? ence for British and European cultures and for the more formal lan? guage associated with those traditions. His achievement creating timeless art in the vernacular, helped advance American ethnical in? dependence and diversity.4 Conclusion Mark Twain is a remarkable representative of American realis?tic literature in the 19th century, he is the first writer who had the literary creation Americanization and had the lite rary language nationalize. With hard work, he finished lots of literature works in his life. In his works of literature, he laughed at, satirized and criti? cized the power of money, the hypocritical morality, corrupted poli? tics, etc. It is full of Mark Twains humor, he criticized and satirized the social hideousness venomously. Mark Twain detailed the social hid? eousness with his particular humor. It is full of relaxation, optimism and humorous style.Running for Governor is an outstanding representative of Twains political satirical novel in 19th century. Twain fabricated an unreal independent partisan I (not the author) who eventually had to abandon the campaign for New York governor because of abuse, rumors and ad hominem attacks from the opponents through ex? aggerated, humorous satire, to profoundly reveal the dirty inside of free election, rip the U. S. two-party system, and expose a capi? talist freedom of speech, thus humorously satirizing the hypocrisy of the bourgeoi s democracy. 3 Overseas English ? ? ? ? To sum up, fundamentally, Twain is a great humorist. He once said, there are several kinds of stories, but only one differentthe humorous. So to be humorous in his writing I venture to say is his lifelong pursuit. It is also undeniable that Twain is the only giant who had brought both local colorism and humor to the world fame. Meanwhile he once claimed that he was a well(p) writer and was ac? tively concerned with moral ideas in many ways.However, when he found the darkness, corruption, injustice and the personal tragic en?counters he had to withstand in particular, he became firstly serious and then bitter ironic. It follows therefore that we should take these elements into consideration when analyzing Twains writing charac? teristics as well as himself. In short, both the changing social reality and the unpredictable personal tragedies directly and eventually re? sulted in his humorous satire.In Mark Twains autobiography, he had summed up the experi? ence from his humorous novelsIt is impossible to humor for the hu? mor. Humor is just a flavor and snapshots.I have always told people that why I can persist for 30 years. Thus we can see that Mark Twain had the humor and satire as his writing features, as the basis of writing his humorous novels. 4 Notes 1 Wang Qun. Guide to Mark TwainM. WuhanWuhan University Press,200764. 2 Sun Xun. Mark Twain and The adventures of Huckleberry FinnM. BeijingChina Juvenile and Childrens Books Publishing House, 2001140. 3 Wang Qun. Guide to Mark TwainM. WuhanWuhan University Press,200765. 4 Ibid. ,90-100 References 1 Deng Xuxin.An Induction to Literature of EnglishM. Wuhan Wuhan University Press,2002. 2 Wu Weiren. History and Anthology of American LiteratureM. Beijing unconnected Language Teaching and Research Press,1990. 3 Song Yuankang. A study Guide to American LiteratureM. Kun? mingYunnan University Press,2007. 4 . M ,2007. 5 . J. ,2001(2)52-55. 6 . J. ,2002(6)25-27. 7 . J. ?,2003(6)79-81. 207