Essay Example on Mark Twain portrays a controversial author

Mark Twain portrays a controversial author in almost all of his writings Starting when he was a little kid Twain was exposed to slavery war and most detrimental death At the age of ten he witnessed a slave die at the hands of his overseer and when he was twelve Twain s father a lawyer died of pneumonia His mother then became his sole caretaker she was described as an enthusiastic vivacious woman who filled his head with stories of adventures and peril He later went on to write novels such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur s Court In the tale Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur s Court Mark Twain uses many different characters to show the different sides of various controversial topics such as slavery and magic and superstitions This novel takes place in both America after slaves are freed and Medieval Europe when peasants were treated like slaves bounded by shackle and chain A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur s Court shows the worst of slavery through peasants This book was written after slaves in America were free but told of the hardships and trials they had faced in the past The book does not refer to the slaves as so but rather freemen and although the two names are different both were horrible things that kept people from their freedom 

They were freemen but they could not leave the estates of their lord or their bishop without his permission 13 5 In the chapter Freemen the narrator Hank Morgan compared Demoiselle Alisande la Carteloise better known as Sandy and a group of freemen Sandy was well washed and well fed And she was compared to seemingly freed men who were in rags and astonished to the favor of being offered breakfast Hank Morgan offered the poor peasants breakfast He saw nothing out of the ordinary with eating amongst the public however Sandy his companion was absolutely disgusted with the idea She didn t even wait until the freemen were out of shock to talk down on their behalf Thankfully Hank Morgan was able to end all slavery in Medieval England after a long seven year battle Grant after which he is returned to his time In the early middle ages magic was a widespread phenomenon People of the time feared the unknown and were happier knowing that churches could protect them from the danger that was beyond their understanding Hank faces yet another hardship by knowing he was unable to tell anyone about the future at the risk that he would be killed for using black magic leaving him at the fate of the king s hands and so called wizards of the time Twain used the well known Merlin as an example of magic and the supernatural not being real Vedder Merlin and Hank do not have good relationship due to the reason that Merlin believes he was privileged with powers Hank does not buy in the the act because he is well aware of Merlin s fraudulence 

In this way Hank is a very warm hearted and compassionate character that believes everyone should be treated as equal Throughout the book the society relates to his current time Which really brings out the point that history repeats itself and humanity will never learn from its mistakes Throughout A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur s Court Mark Twain uses a diverse variety of characters to show both sides of a controversy Topics such as slavery the impossible and even something as immense as society as a whole are covered throughout this novel Twain portrays that the world has many viewpoints on everything and sometimes there are no right answers The character Hank is shown as a chivalrous man who strives to do the right thing even in the face of topics that are being argued over 129 years later