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MARK TWAIN'S 'THE STORY OF THE GOOD LITTLE BOY'
The objective of this study is to examine the author's statement about this theme and why it is so important to the story. This study will then trace the theme's development in the story.
Mark Twain, the pseudonym for Samuel Clemons writer of the work entitled "The Story of a Good Little Boy" is a widely acclaimed writer. In his work "The Story of a Good Little Boy," the primary character, a boy named Jacob Blivens, is in reality a very good little boy. (Twain "Good Little Boy," paraphrased) Jacob quickly comes to the realization that the good boys do not always get acknowledged for being good. The premise of Twain's story is that "that people who do good things are not always appreciated and rewarded." (Harrell, p. 1) This is very true in today's world and must have been the same in the world of Mark Twain.
Striving for Perfection
According to Harrell (2011) many of the action of Jacob were such that were done in a self-righteous nature and "contributed to his ambition of having his life in what he called "a Sunday school book." (Twain "A Good Little Boy," 604) Jacob Blivens was doing what is right, but all for the wrong reasons." (p. 2) Jacob is described as a "submissive child who always obeyed his parents, never lied, and never played hooky, even if it was for the wrong reasons that he did those things (Kolb 660)." (Cited in Harrell, 2011, p. 2) In fact, Jacob focused on doing good things all of the time. One example in the story is that he adopted a marbles on Sunday, he wouldn't rob birds' nests, he wouldn't give hot pennies to organ-grinders' monkeys; he didn't seem to take any interest in any kind of rational amusement." (Twain, p. 1) When Jacob read stories about good little boys he would want to travel to "gaze on him" even if the travel required "thousands of miles." (Twain, p.1) however, when Jacob read these stories he would turn to the last chapter to see what happened to the good little boy and he found that the good little boy always died in the last chapter of the story.
Jacob strove in many ways to be good, for instance he tried to assist a blind man but only received a whack with the blind man's cane for his trouble. He attempted once to warn some boys who were sailing on Sunday of their error…
References
Twain, M. (nd) The Story of the Good Little Boy. Retrieved from: http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/tomsawye/mtgoodboy.html
Harrell, R. (2011) Mark Twain's "The Story of a Good Little Boy" 12 Apr 2011. Retrieved from: www.washburn.edu/sobu/broach/goodboy.html
Clemens, Samuel, Mark Twain's Autobiography. Vol. 1. Ed. Albert Paine. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1924. Print.
Clemens, Samuel, Mark Twain's Autobiography. Vol. 2. Ed. Albert Paine. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1924. Print.
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