Nika Bogoslovsky
1/16/08
Twain
Quote: "O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells..."
Summary: Soldiers are getting ready for war and in their preparations, they gather together to pray for their cause and to receive blessings. This man walks in, claiming to be a messenger of God and says that he will make their prayers happen. He then goes on to vocalize their prayers which are hopes of great agony and great deaths for the enemy. After he's done, everyone thinks he's crazy because he didn't make any sense.
Response: I don’t think this short story is an anti-American story, but I do think it’s an anti-patriotic one. Being “The American”, it’s safe to say that Twain knew very much what he was talking about and what he was doing in writing this story. Being part of an American is to be able to stand up for what you believe in, in Twain’s case to disagree with the war. He creates this situation where this supposed messenger from God says the prayers of the soldiers out loud and they end up being horrifying, selfish hopes for the destruction of the enemy. No one, wants to believe that that’s actually what’s going to happen and that is what these boys want because it sounds so awful and inhumane but that’s the reality f war. People want to believe that soldiers are doing the right thing and fighting and protecting their country. Even today we see soldiers as heroes even though they are essentially killing other human beings just like us. I think Twain doesn’t believe in the heroism of soldiers and strongly disagrees with what they and war does. It’s anti-patriotic because it’s not rooting for the soldiers, it’s bringing out their truly ugly desires.
1 comment:
20/20 When asked about patriotism and loyalty, Mark Twain said, ‘My kind of loyalty is loyalty to one’s country and not to one’s institutions or officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing to watch over. Its institutions and clothing can wear out and become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rags, that is a loyalty of unreason.’
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