Mark Twain: Thematic Response

“To be a patriot, one had to say, and keep on saying, ‘our country, right or wrong,’ and urge on the little war. Have you not perceived that phrase is an insult to the nation? Only when a republic’s life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time” (Geismar vi). Mark Twain was an idealist who used his writings to demonstrate his …

…used by Twain to criticize the English monarchy. Merlin and the monks become the central image of Twain’s third issue, the controlling ignorance of Catholicism as a tradition. Twain’s consistency on these issues is reinforced in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “The £1,000,000 Bank-Note” where he presents similar themes. Twain clearly believed that each of these three issues posed a threat to the American way of life that he so admired.