Thursday, November 22, 2012

Mark Twain: Satirical Softcover of Siamese Serfdom



I wanted to discuss the topic I brought to class the other week outlined in my Précis assignment. Mark Twain’s humor and use of sarcasm appeal to my own sense of humor. He uses the sometimes ridiculous happenstances to parody the societal norms of the time. The indirect criticism is a clever and poetic way to attack the institutions that create a paradox. Racism is a self-contradicting social construction that is still alive today.

My Précis assignment focused on the idea that Pudd’nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins were meant to be a single novel, not separated as they were published. This little bit of information is valuable; however the larger issue of race and racism in this country is expounded upon by the author of the academic journal I researched. Being a Spanish major I have been enrolled in many cultural studies and language courses. Some of these courses have made me more culturally sensitive and have revealed the more profound nature of racism. Even though institutional racism is not as apparent or regulated today, it still exists in a significant way. There are many large and small legislative maneuvers that attempt to control minorities within the United States. In the 19th century and even late into the 20th century people of color have been subject to discrimination and segregation. What I appreciate about Mark Twain’s work is that he appropriately creates a satirical work that highlights, in sometimes a not so subtle way, the flaws of the standards have created for themselves and others. He utilizes the two pair of “twins” to develop an argument against the very core of racism. The switching of the twins points out the blatant contradiction of the blood argument. The blood of a person of color is only different because society makes it different. The small community creates the distinction between black and white, when there is no physical, visible difference. Mark Twain continues to satirize the irony in Those Extraordinary Twins with the idea of “killing half”. Society, represented by the court system, elects to execute one twin, but because they are conjoined twins they doom the other to die as well. Those who judge a decision are truly caught between a rock and hard place. Mark Twain uses this fiction as a way to illustrate the impossibility of a solution and relates it back to the inability of society to make a proper decision.

The two novels make a fun read and demonstrate the ridiculous contradiction racism presents.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

The Irony of Love

Irony seems to almost shape the lives people lead. Life is ironic and it is amazing that we don’t learn from our mistakes no matter how frequently irony plays out in our day to day experience. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton paints a lovely example of the irony of love and materialism. Or maybe it is infatuation and greed. Love is more poetic.
There is one passage in particular that stuck with me throughout the novel. Lily Bart is having dinner with several guests including Selden and Mister and Misses Trenor when she attempts to see things the way Lawrence Selden does. She reflects upon all the dinner guests through the eyes of Selden and realized that “they had symbolized what she was gaining, now they stood for what she was giving up. That very afternoon they had seemed full of brilliant qualities; now she saw that they were merely dull in a loud way. Under the glitter of their opportunities she saw the poverty of their achievement” (Wharton 52). Mrs. Bart was determined to achieve materialistic comfort in a loud way with lavish possessions. What she realized in this passage, as brought to light by Selden, is that she would be foregoing so much happiness to gain the illusion of achievement.
            Being obsessed with material gain is one thing, but love is another intensely ironic happenstance of life. Lily Bart is constantly running around between men like a chicken with her head cut off. She manages to bumble through several awkward and flirtatious relationships with men. She is torn between marrying a man for his wealth and marrying Selden due to her true feelings of infatuation. Her indecisiveness and vain desire for wealth are her own undoing. The courting process causes her to not only lose face and friends; it causes her to lose Selden’s trust and eventually the opportunity for love with Selden. Her death seals her fate for never attaining that love. It was often alluded to in the book that fate would take her away from her ambitions. It even took her away from ambitions she never realized she had. She had no idea she could ever marry for love, and by the time she comprehends this possibility it is too late. Her neglect of the opportunity and eventual recognition of its happiness is a fitting example of irony in the context of love.           We can only pity those who have had circumstance prohibit love while futilely crossing our fingers every day that that irony doesn’t take hold in our lives.