Blog 11

“Two Views of a River” by Mark Twain refers to Mark Twain’s life when he was living on the Mississippi River. He talks about how he felt about the river when he first lived there. He talks about how his view of the river has changed over time. He says that he used to think that the river was beautiful when he first started living there. He talks about how he remembers a time when he was on the river and there was a beautiful sunset. “I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture. The world was new to me, and I had never seen anything like this at home.” (Twain).  When Twain saw this beautiful sunset, he was amazed at it and he could not believe it. As his life carried on living on the river, however, he realizes that his initial awe for the river starts to fade away after living there for a while. He describes how he just becomes accustomed to everything and he gets used to the way the river is. “I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river!” (Twain). Twain says that he had memorized every feature of the river and eventually, it stopped impressing him. The river itself had not changed, but his view of the river had. I understand what Mark Twain is saying when he says that he stops noticing the beauty of the river. He was working on the river and he began to focus so much on his job and his work on the river and he stopped thinking about how beautiful the river is. It’s like when you want something so badly and then when you get it, it turns out that it is not what you really wanted. Twain wanted to work on the river and it turns out when he got what he wanted he realized that he actually lost something very great.

“Two Views of a River” reminds me of Thoreau’s writing. Thoreau writes a lot about nature and this story by Mark Twain includes a lot of references to nature as he describes the river and the surrounding land.

Bibliography

Twain, Mark. "Two Ways of Seeing a River, by Mark Twain." About.com Grammar & Composition. Web. 05 Mar. 2012.