Review of Twain's Piece Two Views of the Mississippi

There always are two sides to everything: two sides of a story, two objectionable views on certain arguable subjects, and opposites are always two sides of one specific aspect (i.e. black and white are both colors). On the other hand, there are sides that are not completely adverse, like the two ideas in Mark Twain's "Two Views of the Mississippi". In this piece, Twain states two colorful views depicting the thoughts that arose before he became a crew worker on a steamboat and afterward. It is clear, shown by the grace of the first part of the text, that his view of the water before he began working is more pleasant and imaginative than the side after he was mad to look farther into the river. In other words, his new job had him take on a new perspective that was not as savory; he was made to more or less research each wave and tide for his work, and he definitely showed a bit of anguish in having to do so.

One could truly wonder if the need for Twain to work on this steamboat was as magnificent as the view of the Mississippi river. "I still keep in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steam boating was new to me," he states. (Twain 350.) Then, he begins to describe it more in detail:

"A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood....in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a solitary log came floating black and conspicuous....and high above the forest wall a clean‐stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun."

His magnificent recollection of the wonderful and rich color from only the sun and the surrounding trees alone would be enough to hinder leaving behind. He also mentions the ripples of the water, the swells and the declines, and states, "...in another the surface was broken by boiling, tumbling rings..." (Twain 350.) He goes on to use as equal of imaginative speech. One can picture him standing on the bank just as he recalls: "I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture." The view must have been breathtaking, a safe haven far and different from anything he had ever seen at home.

Unfortunately, the time came when Twain begins to lose sight of the beauty of it all. Furthermore, it was not even as if the tumbling rings, or the burning sunset, or the lonesome log, or one-leafed tree dissipated. All the elements that had made the river senselessly glorious were exactly where they had been before! "A day came when I began to cease from noting the glories and the charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the riverʹs face; another day came when I ceased altogether to note them." (Twain 350.) No longer could he look at these things the same way as before.

His thought processes now veered another direction. When he saw the sunset, it did not cut the river into various hues and leave him awestruck. Instead, he states "we are going to have wind tomorrow". And at the occasion where he saw that log floating into oblivion by its lonesome self, he does not think it may have a mind of its own. He states, "that floating log means that the river is rising." Perhaps that mark in the wave pattern: "that slanting mark...refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody's steamboat one of these nights". (Twain 351.) These statements differ greatly from the ones that Twain made before he started working with the water. They statements are excruciatingly bland.

It is crystal clear that Twain has lost something that he once loved; the romance and beauty had truly gone away. Secondly, in addition to not seeing the beauty, he could only use what he saw to steer and protect his steamboat. Twain also admits this and goes on to claim, "No, the romance and beauty were all gone from the river. All the value any feature of it had for me now was the amount of usefulness it could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a steamboat."(Twain 351.) The first view was flattering but it must be said the the more practical view is the latter. There are sides that are not completely adverse. Twain obviously loved what he saw previously, but he also did not seem to entirely hate what he envisioned afterward.

Now he knows the secrets of the river and must use those secrets and apply them to his work. But what a vision to have forfeited! And as if he could not agree more he declared his pity towards other men in his predicament, men who have lost the love of the environment to the need to provide for themselves and their own: "Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart. What does the lovely flush in a beauty's cheek mean to a doctor but a ʺbreakʺ that ripples above some deadly disease? Are not all her visible charms sown think with what are to him the signs and symbols of hidden decay?" (Twain 351.) There are two sides to every story, and here in his writing they are what is 'pleasant' and pleasing to the eye and then what is 'practical' and needed to protect Twain's steamboat, his job, and most importantly, himself.

Knight, Laura D. and Franklin, James W. "And Your Point?: Reading, Thinking, Composing" IV ed. pg 350-51