Twain’s Misanthropic, Essay Example

Twain’s Misanthropic “Advice to Youth”

Although most people remember Mark Twain for his classic novels Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, his works include a far greater range than the casual reader might assume. Although Twain’s concern with justice and social commentary pervades much of his writing from all eras of his life, the manner in which he addressed these issues and his general outlook on humankind changed for the worse as he aged. In his speech “Advice to Youth,” Twain indulges his misanthropic sense of humor while still providing to his audience some useful insights into human nature.

Twain’s early works of fiction, arising from his journalistic career, display his concern for presenting the lives of average people in a truthful way. Twain faced criticism because he used colloquial or “lower class” language rather than having his characters speak properly, regardless of their social station or geographic location. This insistence on the use of the real instead of an idealized, cleaned-up version of reality foreshadows Twain’s future interest in the issues of social justice current during his life, as well as his familiarity with the foibles of human nature, which later became great fodder for his humor and deprecation.

Twain’s early work generally upheld the social structure. For example, when he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876, he focused primarily on creating an exciting story of a slightly naughty, but ultimately good-natured boy and the troubles into which he gets himself. Tom Sawyer is a suitable hero for the bourgeois reader; he has a rebellious streak, but he never truly defies the social norms. In fact, most of the drama in the novel arises from his attempts to repair the damage caused by his and Huck’s deviations. He even serves as a civilizing force for Huck, who clearly stands outside society due to his economic and family situation. When Huck threatens to leave the Widow Douglas and her rules, Tom bargains him into accepting a pretend kind of rebellion—joining his robber band—in exchange for relinquishing his more dangerous, real rejection of society’s controls.

By 1885, when The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published, Twain had become more openly critical of mainstream society. He especially took exception to the hypocrisy he observed. In this novel, Huck remains outside society throughout the story, yet his moral sensibility repeatedly appears to be superior to those who consider him “uncivilized.” For example, society has taught him that it is a crime to help Jim escape, but he instinctively recognizes Jim’s humanity and defies his misleading conscience. Twain also depicts numerous examples of immoral behavior by people who are supposed by society to be good. For example, the doctor who treats Tom’s wound after Jim’s escape from the Phelps’s gives every indication of being a kind person and has enough sensibility to admire Jim’s loyalty in staying with Tom, yet he chooses to betray Jim.

Coming as it does, between Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Twain’s speech, Advice to Youth, fittingly displays Twain’s growing distaste for the hypocrisy and inanity of every-day social values. Although the speech is quite short, Twain manages to attack with humor several of the most egregious examples. The context in which he gave the speech adds to its effect. The people who invited Twain to address a group of children must have been rather surprised when he defied convention to deliver a subversive message. At first reading, Twain appears merely preoccupied with the silliness of traditional rules. He exposes the truth behind the behavior expected of children and reframes conventional advice in a way that is pragmatic, if less than idealistic. That children should obey their parents, for example, is a dictate that has been defied as much as it has been asserted. Twain merely points out that children may find it more expedient to appear compliant than to rebel openly. He takes the same approach in dealing with lying. Setting aside the moral arguments against it, he points out the practical dangers and encourages children to keep their own welfare in mind rather than being guided by abstract rules.

In other instances, he uses exaggeration to point out fallacies in common behavioral norms. For example, in discussing disagreements between people, he first implies that even children have parity in social interactions by undermining the assumption that almost everyone is a child’s superior. He then facetiously encourages his audience to use only mild violence in dealing with those who offend them. By suggesting something so outrageous, he draws attention to the fact that the very people who expect to be obeyed by their inferiors defy their own rules by behaving in vengeful and petty ways. This method of taking things to their extremes to point out the underlying silliness also explains his paragraph on guns. The issue is not guns, but the tendency of adults to exaggerate dangers. By stretching the traditional cautions about guns to the point of absurdity, Twain undermines the impulse to accept such warnings without thought.

This tactic also applies to his brief but scathing treatment of the conflation of early rising with good character. Although his argument is semantic, it serves to point out that there is no inherent virtue in getting up or retiring at a certain time. What one does with one’s waking hours is surely more important that when those hours occur.

Although it is tempting to read this speech as an unremitting satire, doing so would be a mistake. Twain tries to provoke his audience to think about the rules they follow. A person who consciously decides on a course of action displays more virtue than one who blindly follows the dictates of others. Many of Twain’s arguments ultimately support the virtue he appears to attack. For example, in his discussion of lying, Twain accurately points out that the liar takes the risk of alienating the very people on whom he depends. Even though Twain treats lying as a skill to be developed, his final assertion that he has never learned it himself undermines any favorable impression of lying. An attentive reader will notice that the power of Twain’s speech comes from the fact that he is telling the truth.

His apparent glorification of falsehood also serves to point out that most people do not think about what they are told. By removing the illusion of holiness from the idea of Truth, Twain not only encourages his audience to make thoughtful decisions about their own words, he challenges them to take a second look at what they are told. As he points out, the less assailable the Truth presented, the more likely it is to collapse under scrutiny. Whether the example is the identity of the inventor of anesthesia or the claim that our president is part of a global anti-American conspiracy, the need to question what one is told remains. The same emphasis on critical thinking pervades Twain’s discussions of guns and books. In the first, his argument is not that guns are safe, but rather than children ought to think very carefully about the things they are told.  In the second, he uses a bit of humorous self-aggrandizement—equating his own book with two revered religious tomes—to point out the limitations of the canon of socially acceptable, reputedly edifying reading (an apt point for an author whose works are still threatened by censorship more than a century later).

Twain’s speech uses humor not as a blind contradiction of all social values, but to highlight the paradoxes and hypocrisy inherent in the system. His is not a reactionary revolt, but a call to thoughtful consideration and independent decision-making. That he addresses this message to youths should not be surprising since they are the ones most likely to challenge entrenched values and practices. Adults have too much invested in the status quo to buck the system, but the nature of youth encourages questions and experimentation, so Twain’s audience would be ripe for his message. That he used satire to convey it only makes it more palatable and more effective.

References

Anon. (n.d.). “Critique of Advice to Youth, by Mark Twain.”

Parker, K. (2010, Oct. 12).“Twain, Satire, and Solid Advice.” (Author’s previous essay.)

Twain, M (1882).  “Advice to Youth.”  In J.M. Weiss and H.S. Weiss (Eds.) The Signet Book of American Essays (282 -291).