Research Paper on Mark Twain and Fenimore Cooper
After reading Twain's "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," it seems as though Mark Twain's criticisms seemed rather funny in a way. Looking at Twain's details of "Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses" I find an element of truth. It is hard to argue against his charges that Cooper rather lacked in his ability to engage his characters in brief conversation.
In Twain's rule number five of romantic fiction we see that:
“They require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say.” (Mark Twain, Rule 5)
Though Mark Twain violated his own rule while explaining the rule, it is nonetheless a sound requirement. In this area, Cooper seems to have difficulty. He permitted Natty Bumppo to deliver verbose speeches detailing his life philosophy, mastery of the woodcraft art, his favorite pleasures, personal hatreds, biographical history, and accounts of his great hunting successes, when a simple greeting would have been enough. He simply did not know when to say when. That seemed to be his problem. Twain on the other hand has the same problem with his other novels.
Twain's rule number seventeen says to use good grammar. It seems as though that both Mark Twain and Cooper lacked proper use of grammar in some areas. Twain also takes offense at the way Cooper constructs his “situations,” finding them all silly, unrealistic, and boring. Which Twain’s “situations” are not much better than what Cooper has written.
Lets first look at James Fenimore Cooper’s style and ways of novels. Cooper was a man of many contradictions. Since these contradictions embodied some of the major problems and paradoxes of American civilization, and because he had a talent for getting them down on paper, he became one of the chief inventors of American Literature. His creation, Nathaniel Bumppo, the Leatherstocking, became the example for the western hero and the progenitor of many stories.
James Fenimore Cooper made a particularly fortunate combination of fictional materials dealing with the settlement of the American wilderness and the typical pattern of the adventure story. Cooper’s first development of this material in “The Pioneers” had elements of the adventure example, but was essentially a novel of manners with strong melodramatic overtones. Cooper emphasized the influence of chase and pursuit, or conflicts between groups such as pioneers vs. Indians, but in “The Pioneers,” the important action takes place in the settlement, in Judge Temple’s mansion, in the law court, in the prison, and in the area just outside the town where Natty has his cabin. There is relatively little sense of the surrounding wilderness coming up to and endangering the town.
Also, violence does exist in the world of The Pioneers, but it is largely the result of accident, misunderstanding, or natural forces. Oliver Effingham is wounded at the beginning by a misdirected bullet from the gun of Judge Temple, Elizabeth Temple, narrowly escapes death from a panther, a forest fire endangers many of the characters at the climax of the novel. In The Pioneers, both Elizabeth and Oliver Temple are strong and competent characters that are fully in control, except in a few situations of wilderness peril.
In “The Pioneers,” white settlement had its ambiguities, but it also had its great qualities, as represented by the kind public spirit of the Temple Effingham dynasty and the increasing social harmony that rewarded their effort. In this situation, Natty’s rejection of the limitations of civilization seems understandable but not certain.
Cooper may have begun the process by exploring some of the central paradoxes of our culture and by establishing some of the ways in which they could be resolved in literature.
Cooper not only became the founder of this popular tradition, but the influence of his “Leatherstocking” is equally unavoidable in American writers and seems to form some background of Twain’s literature.
Cooper seemed to be torn between traditional ideal of culture cultivated by the European nobility and the new conception of American democracy. In terms of his own career and background, the conflict between his commitment to a traditional social order and the fascination of a new openness and his freedom shaped his life.
So, it is possible to see the Leatherstocking series in two contrary ways. From one angle, it seems to be an affirmation of the generous progress of American civilization, and from another, it is an attack on that same civilization as measured against the natural nobility of a rural hero.
Cooper’s great popular success, as well as his ultimate limitation as a serious writer lay in his refusal to fully explore the dialectic of civilization, and nature that his imagination generated. He became the creator of dialectic of action and a type of hero that in the hands of other writers could serve the purposes of popular escapist desire, resolving in desire of the ideal of peaceful progress toward civilization and the impulse toward lawless freedom and aggressive violence.
Now lets take a look into Mark Twain’s perspective and his ways of literature. The humorous, satirical, sometimes sentimental sketches written by Mark Twain embodied an image of the West far different from Coopers romantic wilderness. The new version of frontier seems more social rather than natural, and it seems of a society particularly different from that of the East, to the point that a new kind of dialectic began to operate. Replacing the opposition of nature and civilization by a cultural dialectic between the East and the West, which is similar to Fredrick Douglas’s “Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglas, An American Slave.” Could it be that it is because he actually experienced the life he written about in “Roughing it?”
Mark Twain’s “Roughing It” sarcastically embodies this tension in its portrayal of the narrator as greenhorn being initiated into the new society of the West. Mark Twain seems very familiar with his subject to make a heroic romanticization of this new society. In “Roughing It,” life has its delights, but it is also profoundly corrupting. As the narrator becomes adjusted to its animalistic brutality, he is bitten by the get rich quick fever; his pursuit of wealth in the mining country drives all other ideas from his mind. Mark Twain seems to portray “Roughing It” as not nature, but a new kind of social order in which the traditional restraints were off and the hierarchy changed everyday as one man’s claim played out and another struck it rich.
“Roughing It” is full of humorous, colorful, and even sometimes terrifying story about western life. Yet, at the same time he seems to feel the excitement, Mark Twain cannot accept this life and its values without reservation.
Though James Fenimore Cooper did have some weaknesses in his literary skills, the stories were great tales. Adventures with America’s most popular fictional character is not a small accomplishment, especially within a series that addressed many social, political, historical, and philosophical issues in a youthful era of nation. Mark Twain likewise possessed weaknesses in his literary skills, yet he too had great tales. Besides the literary crimes committed by both authors, from speech difficulties to silly “situations,” their novels still remain as a history in American society.
In Twain's rule number five of romantic fiction we see that:
“They require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say.” (Mark Twain, Rule 5)
Though Mark Twain violated his own rule while explaining the rule, it is nonetheless a sound requirement. In this area, Cooper seems to have difficulty. He permitted Natty Bumppo to deliver verbose speeches detailing his life philosophy, mastery of the woodcraft art, his favorite pleasures, personal hatreds, biographical history, and accounts of his great hunting successes, when a simple greeting would have been enough. He simply did not know when to say when. That seemed to be his problem. Twain on the other hand has the same problem with his other novels.
Twain's rule number seventeen says to use good grammar. It seems as though that both Mark Twain and Cooper lacked proper use of grammar in some areas. Twain also takes offense at the way Cooper constructs his “situations,” finding them all silly, unrealistic, and boring. Which Twain’s “situations” are not much better than what Cooper has written.
Lets first look at James Fenimore Cooper’s style and ways of novels. Cooper was a man of many contradictions. Since these contradictions embodied some of the major problems and paradoxes of American civilization, and because he had a talent for getting them down on paper, he became one of the chief inventors of American Literature. His creation, Nathaniel Bumppo, the Leatherstocking, became the example for the western hero and the progenitor of many stories.
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James Fenimore Cooper made a particularly fortunate combination of fictional materials dealing with the settlement of the American wilderness and the typical pattern of the adventure story. Cooper’s first development of this material in “The Pioneers” had elements of the adventure example, but was essentially a novel of manners with strong melodramatic overtones. Cooper emphasized the influence of chase and pursuit, or conflicts between groups such as pioneers vs. Indians, but in “The Pioneers,” the important action takes place in the settlement, in Judge Temple’s mansion, in the law court, in the prison, and in the area just outside the town where Natty has his cabin. There is relatively little sense of the surrounding wilderness coming up to and endangering the town.
Also, violence does exist in the world of The Pioneers, but it is largely the result of accident, misunderstanding, or natural forces. Oliver Effingham is wounded at the beginning by a misdirected bullet from the gun of Judge Temple, Elizabeth Temple, narrowly escapes death from a panther, a forest fire endangers many of the characters at the climax of the novel. In The Pioneers, both Elizabeth and Oliver Temple are strong and competent characters that are fully in control, except in a few situations of wilderness peril.
In “The Pioneers,” white settlement had its ambiguities, but it also had its great qualities, as represented by the kind public spirit of the Temple Effingham dynasty and the increasing social harmony that rewarded their effort. In this situation, Natty’s rejection of the limitations of civilization seems understandable but not certain.
Cooper may have begun the process by exploring some of the central paradoxes of our culture and by establishing some of the ways in which they could be resolved in literature.
Cooper not only became the founder of this popular tradition, but the influence of his “Leatherstocking” is equally unavoidable in American writers and seems to form some background of Twain’s literature.
Cooper seemed to be torn between traditional ideal of culture cultivated by the European nobility and the new conception of American democracy. In terms of his own career and background, the conflict between his commitment to a traditional social order and the fascination of a new openness and his freedom shaped his life.
So, it is possible to see the Leatherstocking series in two contrary ways. From one angle, it seems to be an affirmation of the generous progress of American civilization, and from another, it is an attack on that same civilization as measured against the natural nobility of a rural hero.
Cooper’s great popular success, as well as his ultimate limitation as a serious writer lay in his refusal to fully explore the dialectic of civilization, and nature that his imagination generated. He became the creator of dialectic of action and a type of hero that in the hands of other writers could serve the purposes of popular escapist desire, resolving in desire of the ideal of peaceful progress toward civilization and the impulse toward lawless freedom and aggressive violence.
Now lets take a look into Mark Twain’s perspective and his ways of literature. The humorous, satirical, sometimes sentimental sketches written by Mark Twain embodied an image of the West far different from Coopers romantic wilderness. The new version of frontier seems more social rather than natural, and it seems of a society particularly different from that of the East, to the point that a new kind of dialectic began to operate. Replacing the opposition of nature and civilization by a cultural dialectic between the East and the West, which is similar to Fredrick Douglas’s “Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglas, An American Slave.” Could it be that it is because he actually experienced the life he written about in “Roughing it?”
Mark Twain’s “Roughing It” sarcastically embodies this tension in its portrayal of the narrator as greenhorn being initiated into the new society of the West. Mark Twain seems very familiar with his subject to make a heroic romanticization of this new society. In “Roughing It,” life has its delights, but it is also profoundly corrupting. As the narrator becomes adjusted to its animalistic brutality, he is bitten by the get rich quick fever; his pursuit of wealth in the mining country drives all other ideas from his mind. Mark Twain seems to portray “Roughing It” as not nature, but a new kind of social order in which the traditional restraints were off and the hierarchy changed everyday as one man’s claim played out and another struck it rich.
“Roughing It” is full of humorous, colorful, and even sometimes terrifying story about western life. Yet, at the same time he seems to feel the excitement, Mark Twain cannot accept this life and its values without reservation.
Though James Fenimore Cooper did have some weaknesses in his literary skills, the stories were great tales. Adventures with America’s most popular fictional character is not a small accomplishment, especially within a series that addressed many social, political, historical, and philosophical issues in a youthful era of nation. Mark Twain likewise possessed weaknesses in his literary skills, yet he too had great tales. Besides the literary crimes committed by both authors, from speech difficulties to silly “situations,” their novels still remain as a history in American society.
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