The Figurative Language in Two Views of The Mississippi by Mark Twain

In the following essay I am going to analyze the figurative language used by Mark Twain in his “Two Views of the Mississippi”.

Mark Twain was many things in his life. A writer, a miner, a newspaper shop’s apprentice – but also a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi. After being trained to navigate the Mississippi river, it soon lost its charms, and its once beautiful features didn’t seem so captivating anymore. Twain no longer focused on the river’s wonders, but rather, its dangers, as he saw each wandering branch or “floating log” as a potential threat to his boat, its cargo, and its passengers.

In his writing, Twain brings to memory a scene of when he had witnessed a majestic sunset during his time as a fledgling steamboat pilot. Using imagery, he described the reflections of the sunlight, and the delicate waves on the water, going on to describe how after becoming a pilot, he would perceive the sunset as an indicator of incoming winds, and the ripples of the water as a dissolving sand bar. The river’s beauty was now reduced to obstacles he needed to overcome.

The main idea that Twain is trying to address in this excerpt is that learning is a matter of both loss and gain. Understanding how something functions also allows for better understanding on how you can manipulate it, or even how it can manipulate you. This new knowledge erases the mysticality of the thing before you knew exactly what it was. It’s no longer mysterious and intriguing, it’s technical and concise. It’s human instinct to place things we don’t understand in a shroud of magic. It’s fundamentally how most traditions and cultures were started. For example:

“Gee, this big rock is making loud and scary noises! Maybe we should toss a human sacrifice or two in there?”

Obviously, I address cultures who had yet to understand natural phenomena around them, such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, and had therefore chalked them up to something along the lines of “the gods are angry, lets appease them!”. What we now know today as natural disasters, others viewed as something far more mystical and astonishing.

Mark Twain starts off his piece with the description of the Mississippi river. Twain uses epithets to describe it, such as “graceful curves, reflected images, woody heights, soft distances; and over the whole scene, far and near, the dissolving lights drifted steadily, enriching it every passing moment with new marvels of coloring”. With the vivid imagery written in, the readers can bring to life the beauty of the Mississippi river, the abundance of epithets aiding in the interest of the piece. In this line, it seems as though Mark Twain is like any other casual observer of the scenery, unaffected by what he actually knows at the time- of all the potential dangers beneath the mesmerising landscape.

By the same stroke, Twain also uses simile to emphasize that the view of the Mississippi River is one that is particularly well-known to him, with the line, “Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet”. Twain’s use of the comparison of familiarity with the river to the alphabet is purposeful, as it leads the reader to the understanding that though he had memorized the landscape like the back of his hand, in the end it was only the surface that he had scratched with his comprehension of the river.

Shortly after this line, Twain uses repetition with, “But I had lost something, too. I had lost something…”. By emphasizing that he has lost something and repeating the phrase once again, Mark Twain makes it clear to the reader that what he has “lost” must have been of enough importance to warrant being repeated. In summation, his “loss” was that of the innocence of knowing only the beauty of the river, and not its ugliness. How strange it is that after just describing how vividly he had come to know the Mississippi, that he should then go on to say he knew very little of it, in truth.

Mark Twain then goes on to discuss the duplicitous nature of the river, which has two faces to it: the surface, and what's beneath it. To signify this, he incorporates the abundant use of metaphors and imagery to indicate how the river changes, even personifying the river’s features with descriptions of its color (blood):

“A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a solitary log came floating black and conspicuous; in one place a long, slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water”.

The effective use of metaphors, imagery, and personification within these lines paints a vivid image in the reader’s mind of the splendor of the river from the average person’s point of view.

An interesting note can be made about the passage at the beginning of the second paragraph: “I drank it in, in a speechless rapture”. By using metaphor to describe his admiration of the river, Twain is also including a purposeful comparison to the act of drinking itself. Imagine someone drunk on their favorite kind of alcohol (or any alcohol, really). Being inebriated dulls the senses, and skews the vision of what's really happening around you. By relating the intoxication of the river’s beauty to that of actual intoxication, Twain is bringing to the reader’s attention that not all is as it seems, and though the river’s splendor is certainly captivating, it is not the full picture. A floating log could wreck the boat that sails along it, the stream could drown one who falls into it, etc.

It can be argued that allegory is the most important figurative language used by Mark Twain in Two Views of the Mississippi because it is used to illustrate broader concepts based on his description of the Mississippi river. Firstly, he describes the river in great detail, emphasizing its power and beauty. This superficial view is something any passerby would notice. Instead, Mark Twain would like the readers to look beyond the surface, and guides them along to this understanding through the use of figurative devices such as metaphor, personification, and similes, as well as his own personal tale of how he, too, once saw the river for nothing more than its grandeur, but now knows better.

Towards the end of the piece, Twain compares the river’s duplicity and ambidextrousness to people- doctors, in specific. With the line:

“the lovely flush in a beauty’s cheek mean to a doctor but a ʺbreakʺ that ripples above some deadly disease”.

Mark Twain is essentially noting that what most people may view as beautiful, such as blush on a woman, may actually be something far more dangerous, such as a disease, something that can only be detected by those with the experience- who know to look out for it. A passenger on a steamboat sees the beautiful sunset, while the steamboat’s captain may see an incoming storm.

Then comes the barrage of rhetorical questions.

“Are not all her visible charms sown think with what are to him the signs and symbols of hidden decay? Does he ever see her beauty at all, or doesn’t he simply view her professionally, and comment upon her unwholesome condition all to himself? And doesn’t he sometimes wonder whether he has gained most or lost most by learning his trade?”.

The last line in particular sticks out, as it brings to question, essentially: “is ignorance bliss?”. Would someone have been better off remaining oblivious to the dangers of the world, so that they would enjoy its pleasantries? Or does knowing the dangers provide a stronger sense of security, in that you know what you may need to face? The answer to a question like that is entirely based on one’s opinion, but seeking that answer for oneself is likely the type of thought process Twain was trying to stir up in his readers. To address questions that we may like to avoid, and answers we may like to keep to ourselves.

Two Views of the Mississippi by Mark Twain forces readers to come to grips with the reality of knowledge. It teaches us to think critically, to look beyond superficial appearances and into what’s under the surface for the truth. For Mark Twain, the river in this piece represents both itself, and life. A shimmering facade that often hides less pleasant things within it. He guides the readers to look beyond this surface and not only acknowledge the truth beneath it, but to accept it as well. Because if you ignore that floating log in the stream, you may just end up with a sinking steamboat.