MARK TWAIN-THE JESTER-5

 

  

Mark Twain's irony grew out of his pity-and his scorn.He had developed pity for the helplessness of the weak & downtrodden and scorn for the ruthlessness & ego of the strong .Twain was of the opinion that -men were born,they compelled one another to suffer & eventually they died.Although he loved human beings as harassed individuals,he detested them as a harassing pack of wolves.

As a young journalist with a clear eye ,  conscience and a caustic pen,he was obliged to flee from San Francisco because he criticized the dishonesty of its business  and the corruption of its politics.He came East,where his vision grew ever clearer and his pen more biting and sarcastic.

Twain had said " If you pick a starving dog and make him prosperous,he will not bite you".He was preoccupied with this idea for the greater part of his life.A few days before his death he wrote in that characteristic style of his own " When you reach the gate of Heaven,leave your dog outside.Heaven goes by favour.If it went by merit,you would stay out and the dog would go in".

Twain declared man as an animal but not a brute.As per him,man had till then reached up to the moral level of the brute.( This was written more than 100 years ago!).  A brute kills out of hunger.A man kills out of spite.No self-respecting animal ,observed Twain,would choose to live with humans if he could help it.

His indictment against the human race is not merely abstract.Time & again,even in his most playful books,he cites concrete instances of man's inhumanity to man.He holds up to ridicule every phase of oppression,of corruption,of exploitation,of bribery,of hypocrisy,of coercion,of hatred and of greed

(Next: Twain-An Appeaser or a Coward !)