Two Views of a River

At first, I didn't really understand this story because I wasn't really paying much attention, but when I took a second look, I noticed what Mark Twain was trying to show.  I knew the story was about a river and riverboats and had a lot of explanation of the nature around the river, but I didn't understand the overall meaning until the very end (Twain 504).  What Mark Twain was trying to get across was the point that we always grow out of the things we once loved (Twain).  When we would get a toy as a child, we would be super excited the day we got it and play with it the entire day, but after a week it would make its way to the bottom of our toy box and fade out of our lives forever.  That's because we didn't enjoy the toy anymore; it wasn't fun to play with because we could compare it to the day we got it and the excitement could not be matched.  I think this is what Mark Twain was trying to get across in his story.  In the story, the man had gotten a job as a riverboat captain or pilot as they said and he loved the job, but after all of the years of doing the same thing over and over, the man got bored and didn't enjoy the job anymore (Twain).  He started to realize the scenery wasn't as beautiful as he once thought, as it was dead now, and all of the possible dangers that could erupt as being a riverboat captain.  Its just like us eating our favorite foods, if we eat too much we soon get sick of it and don't want it anymore and then we realize all of the unhealthy things about it.

Emerson and Thoreau writings relate to this of Mark Twain by the scene which this story took place.  A lot of Mark Twain's writings took place outdoors as did this one which is a lot like what Thoreau did with his writings.  Thoreau loved nature and the outdoors as did Mark Twain.   Twain made sure to use detailed descriptions of the scenery to give the reader the effect of being there during the time when the story took place.

Huff, Randall. "'Two Rivers'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 1 March 2012

Twain, Mark. "Two Views of the River." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 504-505. Print.