jouranl 7

Nika Bogoslovsky
1/16/08
Twain

Quote: "It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there wan no sense in what he said."

Summary: This is the very last line in the story after the messenger has prayed for the soldiers and leaves. Everyone thinks he's crazy because they are in denial of the truth he brought forth and don't like what h had to say.

Response: I think the messenger is Twain’s attempt at getting what he believes in out into the public. The messenger brought out the ugly desires of the soldiers and the ugly realities of war in the form of a man of God. All in one, Twain brings forth his beliefs against war and religion. As mentioned in class, the Norton discuses how towards the end of Twain’s life, his finances where failing and his family was falling apart due to various illnesses. The Norton makes it sound like his movement into a darker style of writing was due to these things but, as we learned in class, there were much more situations going on around him that help relate to this switch. The Norton says that he only shared his distastes of politics and military only with his closest friends but I think that’s wrong. He obviously wrote about it to get it out there, it’s just those works weren’t published. The Norton also says he carries these themes in other stories that didn’t get published either. He wouldn’t have written them if he didn’t want them heard. Knowing he was the greatest American author of his time, he would have been heard.