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PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Mark Twain: One of America's Best Known and Best Loved WritersBy Shelley Gollust

Broadcast: Sunday, February 19, 2006

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:


Mark Twain

And I'm Bob Doughty1 with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of America's best-known writers, Mark Twain. We also talk about his famous book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in eighteen eighty-four. Since then, the book has been published in at least sixty languages. Some people say it is the best book ever created by an American writer. American students still read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And parents, teachers and literary2 experts still debate the issues discussed in the book.

VOICE TWO:

The writer who became Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in eighteen thirty-five. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri on the Mississippi River. After his father died in eighteen forty-seven, young Samuel went to work as an assistant to a publisher. Ten years later, he became a pilot on a steamboat that sailed on the Mississippi. He heard the riverboat workers call out the words mark twain! That was a measure for the depth of water.

In eighteen sixty-one, the American Civil War put an end to steamboat traffic on the Mississippi. So Clemens traveled west and became a reporter for newspapers in Nevada and California.

VOICE ONE:

Later, he wrote funny stories and called himself Mark Twain. Twain became famous for his story, The Celebrated3 Jumping Frog of Calaveras County in eighteen sixty-five. It tells about a jumping competition among frogs.

Twain also traveled a lot and began writing books about his travels. His stories about a trip to Europe and the Middle East were published in The Innocents Abroad. And his stories about life in the western United States became the book called Roughing It.

In eighteen seventy, he married Olivia Langdon and moved to Hartford, Connecticut. During the eighteen eighties, he wrote books for children, such as The Prince and the Pauper4. It tells about a poor boy who trades identities with a member of England's ruling family. Twain also wrote Life on the Mississippi. This book describes his days as a steamboat pilot and his return to the river twenty years later.

VOICE TWO:

Mark Twain was already a successful writer before he became famous as a public speaker. Over the years, he had invested a lot of money in unsuccessful businesses. In eighteen ninety-three, he found himself deeply in debt. So to earn money, he traveled around the world giving humorous talks. His speeches made people laugh and remember events they had experienced.

However, his later life was not a happy one. Two of his daughters died. His wife died in nineteen-oh-four after a long sickness. Some critics think Mark Twain's later works were more serious because of his sadness. He died of heart failure in nineteen ten.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Mark Twain was the first writer to use the speech of common Americans in his books. He showed that simple American English could be as fine an instrument for great writing as more complex language. Through his books, he captured American experiences as no other writer had.

Many of the stories take place in Hannibal, Missouri. The small wooden house where he lived as a boy still stands there. Next to the house is a wooden fence. It is the kind described in Twain's book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, published in eighteen seventy-six.

In that story, Tom has been told to paint the fence. He does not want to do it. But he acts as if the job is great fun. He tricks other boys into believing this. His trick is so successful that they agree to pay him money to let them finish his work. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is considered one of the best books about an American boy's life in the eighteen hundreds.

VOICE TWO:

Tom Sawyer's good friend is Huckleberry, or Huck, Finn. Mark Twain tells this boy's story in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck is a poor child, without a mother or home. His father drinks too much alcohol and beats him.

Huck's situation has freed him from the restrictions5 of society. He explores in the woods and goes fishing. He stays out all night and does not go to school. He smokes tobacco.

Huck runs away from home. He meets Jim, a black man who has escaped from slavery. They travel together on a raft made of wood down the Mississippi River. Huck describes the trip:

READER:

It was lovely to live on the raft. Other places seem so cramped6 up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty7 free and easy and comfortable on a raft... Sometimes we'd have that whole river to ourselves for the longest time... We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim, he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to make so many.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Mark Twain started writing Huckleberry Finn as a children's story. But it soon became serious. The story tells about the social evil of slavery, seen through the eyes of an innocent child. Huck's ideas about people were formed by the white society in which he lived. So, at first, he does not question slavery. Huck knows that important people believe slavery is natural, the law of God. So, he thinks it is his duty to tell Jim's owners where to find him. Here is part of the story after Huck decides he must do this.

READER:

I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt. And I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking -- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking...

And I see Jim before me all the time; in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind.

VOICE TWO:

Huck comes to understand that Jim is a good man. He finds he cannot carry out his plan to tell Jim's owners where to find him. Instead, he decides to help Jim escape. He decides to do this, even if God punishes him.

Huck's moral search is part of Twain's humor. Huck's heart leads him to do the right thing, even when everything he has been taught tells him it is wrong. Huck's nature is good, but he has no idea of it. Twain tells us more through Huck's voice than Huck himself knows.

VOICE ONE:

It took Mark Twain longer to write The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn than any of his other books. He started writing in eighteen seventy-six, but put the story away after about two years of work. He returned to it in eighteen eighty-three. It was published the next year.

From the beginning, the book was hotly debated. Some early critics praised its realism and honesty. But the leading critics of Twain's time hated it. They objected to the personality of Huck -- a rough, dirty and disobedient boy.

They were insulted by Twain's attacks on the commonly accepted morals and traditions of white society. And they disliked the way Twain used the language of a common, uneducated person to tell the story. No writer had ever done that before.

VOICE TWO:

The debate over Huckleberry Finn re-opened in recent years, but for different reasons. The book uses the racist8 expressions of its time. So some people say reading it is too painful and insulting for black children.

They know that Twain was really attacking racism9. But he attacked indirectly10, and with humor. So they feel young people will not understand what he was attempting to do. A few American schools have banned the book for young children. A few have banned it for all students. Some schools used a version in which all racist words have been removed.

Other people say young people can understand Huckleberry Finn if they study it with a good teacher. They say the book remains11 one of the best denunciations of racism ever written.

VOICE ONE:


Ernest Hemingway

There is no longer any debate about the importance of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in American literature. In nineteen thirty-five, Ernest Hemingway wrote: All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called 'Huckleberry Finn.' There was nothing before. And there has been nothing as good since.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Shelley Gollust. Caty Weaver12 was our producer. Doug Johnson read the part of Huckleberry Finn. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.



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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 doughty Jk5zg     
adj.勇猛的,坚强的
参考例句:
  • Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质:脾气倔强,性格刚强。
  • The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。
2 literary v8uzu     
adj.文学(上)的
参考例句:
  • Literary works of this kind are well received by the masses.这样的文学作品很受群众欢迎。
  • The book was favourably noticed in literary magazines.这本书在文学杂志上得到好评。
3 celebrated iwLzpz     
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的
参考例句:
  • He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
  • The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。
4 pauper iLwxF     
n.贫民,被救济者,穷人
参考例句:
  • You lived like a pauper when you had plenty of money.你有大把钱的时候,也活得像个乞丐。
  • If you work conscientiously you'll only die a pauper.你按部就班地干,做到老也是穷死。
5 restrictions 81e12dac658cfd4c590486dd6f7523cf     
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则)
参考例句:
  • I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
  • a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制
6 cramped 287c2bb79385d19c466ec2df5b5ce970     
a.狭窄的
参考例句:
  • The house was terribly small and cramped, but the agent described it as a bijou residence. 房子十分狭小拥挤,但经纪人却把它说成是小巧别致的住宅。
  • working in cramped conditions 在拥挤的环境里工作
7 mighty YDWxl     
adj.强有力的;巨大的
参考例句:
  • A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
  • The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。
8 racist GSRxZ     
n.种族主义者,种族主义分子
参考例句:
  • a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
  • His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。
9 racism pSIxZ     
n.民族主义;种族歧视(意识)
参考例句:
  • He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
  • Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。
10 indirectly a8UxR     
adv.间接地,不直接了当地
参考例句:
  • I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
  • They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人,他们进行了间接接触。
11 remains 1kMzTy     
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
参考例句:
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
12 weaver LgWwd     
n.织布工;编织者
参考例句:
  • She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快,而且布的质量很好。
  • The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

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