Twain's "To The Person Sitting Term Paper

PAGES
2
WORDS
601
Cite

They are so shrouded in mental and spiritual darkness, say the oppressors that they require outside assistance in the form of religious missionaries and military personnel. Christianity and the armies that propagate it are here to help the "Persons Sitting in Darkness," to save them from themselves. Thus, Twain uses the printed word to demonstrate how American foreign policy is founded on principles of social Darwinism and thinly concealed racism. Throughout "To the Person Sitting in Darkness," Twain concentrates on lambasting the notion that America stands for freedom, liberty, and Civilization. According to Twain, these concepts are "only for Export." Moreover, they are costly. Twain makes sure to bring up the financial motives for American political maneuvers: "The Actual Thing that the Customer Sitting in Darkness buys with his

...

Occasionally Twain uses graphic imagery for emphasis: the Americans sentence "innocent little children to inevitable starvation and lingering death" for "blood money." The ideals that America purports to possess and implement become distorted when applied to its territories.
The author also elucidates the contradictions central to the missionary spirit, stating that Christianity stands for such concepts as "LOVE," and "PROTECTION to the WEAK." In fact, because this letter was penned around Christmastime, Twain can wax especially sarcastic: "By happy luck, we get all these glad tidings on Christmas Eve," he states, "just in time to enable us to celebrate the day with proper gaiety and enthusiasm. Our spirits soar." Such brilliant parody of Christian-American imperialism characterizes Twain's discourse in "To the Person Sitting in Darkness."

Cite this Document:

"Twain's To The Person Sitting" (2004, November 06) Retrieved April 27, 2024, from
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/twain-to-the-person-sitting-57500

"Twain's To The Person Sitting" 06 November 2004. Web.27 April. 2024. <
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/twain-to-the-person-sitting-57500>

"Twain's To The Person Sitting", 06 November 2004, Accessed.27 April. 2024,
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/twain-to-the-person-sitting-57500

Related Documents

The funeral [for Jean] has begun...The scene is the library in the Langdon homestead. Jean's coffin stands where her mother and I stood, forty years ago, and were married; and where Susy's coffin stood thirteen years ago; where her mother's stood five years and a half ago; and where mine will stand after a little time." A little time indeed: Twain died on April 21, 1910. Another health issue: Twain on

Interviews with his parents reveal a disturbing trend. His parents do not seem to want to challenge Christopher in any meaningful way and instead enable his lack of progress. Perhaps out of fear for his tantrums, Christopher's mother makes excuses for her son's behavior. The experiment of homeschooling Christopher has therefore been unproductive because he is not challenged, and therefore is not learning as much as he could be. His

Stephen Crane's novella, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, was written during America's "Gilded Age" which was the era from the end of the Civil War to the turn of the Century. The name was given to the period by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, who poked fun at the period for its rampant corruption. During this essential time of American development, New Yorker's were categorized into two different

Both Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter Hulga are judgmental, but for different reasons. Mrs. Hopewell is middle class and has tenants on her farmland. She only wants "good country people" as tenants. In her estimation, "good country people" are stereotypically poor, "salt of the earth" types with no pretensions about them. They are not educated, but they do not behave in ways Mrs. Hopewell would find embarrassing. For this

American Way of War The history of the American Way of War is a transitional one, as Weigley shows in his landmark work of the same name. The strategy of war went from, under Washington, a small scale, elude and survive set of tactics practiced by what seem today to be relatively "quaint" militias, to -- in the 20th century -- a full-scale operation known as "total war." True, "total war"

Starwood hotel chain expand their business into Kazan market? Kazan is one of the largest cities in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. With a populace of just one, 143, 546 recorded for the year 2010 in the earlier results of the national Census, it ranks as the eighth most populated city in Russia and was branded as the third capital of Russia in 2009. Subsequently, it has also been