A Curious Dream by Mark Twain - 1022 Words

A Curious Dream by Mark Twain The aim of the following paper is to analyze a story by Mark Twain called A Curious Dream. We propose in this paper firstly, to analyze characters, theme and point of view; secondly, the author’s style and thirdly, the author’s beliefs. Firstly, Characters The main participants in the story are: the author and John Baxter Copmanhurst (the skeleton). The author in the story is the narrator presented with the subject pronoun â€Å"I†; he is the one who describes and comments a singular dream he had. At the beginning of the story, the narrator is surprised, horrified and pitying when he is brought face to face with a skeleton but at the end he is interested and filled with sympathy for the dead and gives his†¦show more content†¦For instance, in the story this is proved in the following quotes: â€Å"We are all leaving. We cannot tolerate the treatment we are receiving at the hands of our descendants. They open new cemeteries, but they leave us to our ignominy. They mend the streets, but they never mend anything that is about us or belongs to us†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ,† The community that can stand such graveyards as those we are emigrating from can stand anything a body can say about the neglected and forsaken dead that li e in them†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Point of view The story presents three different points of view which are: the first person point of view. This is pointed out when the author makes use of the subject pronoun â€Å"I† as illustrates as follow: â€Å"Night before last I had a singular dream†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ,†Presently up the street I heard a bony clack-clacking†¦Ã¢â‚¬  , â€Å"I may say I was surprised†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The omniscient point of view; it is used when the narrator know everything about the characters. For instance, â€Å"he had two-thirds of a coffin in his shoulders†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"he put his left foot up on his knee and fell to scratching his anklebone†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and finally the objective point of view in which the narrator reports what the character felt, said or thought. For example: and then rounded to and backed up to me, saying: â€Å"Ease this down for a fellow, will you?†, â€Å"it’s too bad, it’s too bad,† saidShow MoreRelatedLife and Works of Mark Twain Essay1634 Words   |  7 Pagesand Works of Mark Twain Introduction Mark Twain is considered as one of the most renowned authors of his time. He attained worldwide success, very early in his professional career. Twain was mostly known for writing realistic novels, in which the language and the mindset of the people reflected the traditions and values of their environment. As he spent ample time near the Mississippi River, the symbolism of the river and its significance is reflected in his books. Overall, Mark Twain was a celebratedRead MoreThe Five Boons Of Life By Mark Twain1388 Words   |  6 PagesThe Five Boons of Life by Mark Twain tells the story of a man that felt empty inside and was looking for that one thing that could bring him happiness. When he is given the chance to choose one of five gifts (only one of them being of value); fame, love, riches, pleasure, or death he eagerly chose pleasure. Upon receiving the gift and basking in the pleasures of the world, he again found himself empty and wishing he had another chance to choose a diff erent gift. The fairy allows him to chooseRead MoreThe Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald966 Words   |  4 PagesFitzgerald the main characters of the story do their best to accomplish the American Dream. The American Dream first came to be in the early days of American settlement. Mostly poor people were striving to find opportunities and a better life here in America. With poor immigrants coming to the country to find more comfortable and safe life they had no idea what was in store for them for the future. The search of the American dream can be compared to searching for the unknown. When trying to expand and createRead MoreEssay about Moral Development in Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby1880 Words   |  8 Pagesboth pose as pieces of literature that vividly portray moral development through the narrators point of view.      Mark Twain, the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, wants the reader to see and focus on the search for freedom.   As on the other hand, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, author of Great Gatsby, wants you to see the American Dream, which is a freedom as well, a socio-economic freedom. These authors have chosen their narrators well, as we see a significantRead MoreThe Great Gatsby Analysis Essay2075 Words   |  9 Pagesend; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men. (pg 6-7) The diction in this passage is extremely elegant verging on the point of superfluous. It is a long description of Gatsby as someone whom nobody would forget through his extreme sensitivity and dedication. His hope for his dream influenced the dreamy and easy flowing language used in this passage. The toneRead MoreEssay on Critical Analysis of Huckleberry Finn5056 Words   |  21 Pagesinterpretations of Huckleberry Finn, namely, the premise that the text affords a critique of its extraliterary context by inveighing against the inequities of racism. In Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor James M. Cox analyzes why such readings of the novel are problematic. His contention, anomalous with respect to Mark Twain criticism in general, is that the novel mounts an attack against conscience, specifically the conscience of the moral reader. He locates this attack in the last tenRead MoreEssay The Talented P.T. Barnum1519 Words   |  7 PagesBarnum and Bailey Circus, or never eaten Barnum animal crackers? Or which American hasn’t seen Toddlers and Tiaras, of which the concept of beauty and baby pageants was invented by P.T. Barnum himself. The name P.T. Barnum is synonymous with the curious. The New York Sun declared that if it is bold, it is Barnum. If it is big, it is Barnum. As a showman he stands alone. (Fleming, Fenwick) P.T. Barnum is an iconoclast in his own right. An iconoclast is a person who does something others say cannotRead MoreThe Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn4280 Words   |  18 Pagesfree the whole time but I felt that all of their adventures should have paid off for their final goal of getting Jim free. My alternate ending involves Jim being freed in the end and it also involves a better ending for Huck and Tom. Huck and Toms dream from the start of the novel was to have a band of robbers who go on adventures and in my alternate ending the boys travel west to endure many more adventures. So I felt this was a fit way for the novel to come to a close. Analysis Main Character Read MoreAnalysis Of John Milton s Paradise Lost Essay2201 Words   |  9 Pagesbildungsromans, this period is very short, like how Holden Caulfield is only at boarding school for a short time in the beginning of The Catcher in the Rye. In Paradise Lost, the first stage of Eve’s coming-of-age is only a few lines long. Eve is curious about herself and the world around her. She wants to explore, and finds a small pond. She is so new to the world that she doesn’t even recognize her reflection in the pond. She has no previous experience to guide her here: as Milton says, she is ledRead MoreEssay Edgar Allan Poe3220 Words   |  13 Pagesor founding a review of his own. When he reached manhood after a sheltered childhood and adolescence he encountered nothing but failures and denials. So, instead of really living, he took refuge from the physical world in the private world of his dreams – in other words, in the world of his tales – and gra dually identified himself with those phantoms of himself who haunt his stories. As is frequent with artists, nature in his case imitated art. He became the spiritual brother of his doomed heroes