Mirror of America -- Structural and stylistic analysis
Mark Twain --- Mirror of America
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Structural and stylistic analysis
Part 1: (the first para.)
Introduction
The first paragraph serves as an introduction of the whole text. It provides an general appraisal of Mark Twain, the father of Hack and Tom, the nation's best-loved author, and the good news and bad news.
The author adopted some rhetorical devices to illustrate
the picture, and also some very emphatic adjectives, adverbs, such as eternal, endless, every bit, profound, etc.
The first paragraph is highly conclusive.
Part 2: (Tramp printer...renew our edges)
Section 1. (Tramp printer... the settled United States)
the setting, background knowledge
Section 2. (Young Mark...that invented retreating)
early years of life on the Mississippi and as a Confederate guerrilla
Section 3. (He went west...best-seller.)
On his way to success.
Section 4. (At the age...renew our edges.)
Comment on his best works.
Part 3: (Personal tragedy...forget them forever.)
Personal tragedy and conclusion.
Devices of figuration
Metaphor:
Mark Twain --- Mirror of America
saw clearly ahead a black wall of night...
main artery of transportation in the young nation's heart
the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled United States
All would resurface in his books...that he soaked up...
Steamboat decks teemed...main current of...but its flotsam
When railroads began drying up the demand...
...the epidemic of gold and silver fever...
Twain began digging his way to regional fame...
Mark Twain honed and experimented with his new writing muscles...
...took unholy verbal shots...
Simile:
Most American remember M. T. as the father of...
...a memory that seemed phonographic
Hyperbole:
...cruise through eternal boyhood and ...endless summer of freedom...
The cast of characters... - a cosmos.
Parallelism:
Most Americans remember ... the father of Huck Finn's idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyer's endless summer of freedom and adventure.
Personification:
life dealt him profound personal tragedies...
the river had acquainted him with ...
...to literature's enduring gratitude...
...an entry that will determine his course forever...
the grave world smiles as usual...
Bitterness fed on the man...
America laughed with him.
Personal tragedy haunted his entire life.
Antithesis:
...between what people claim to be and what they really are...
...took unholy verbal shots at the Holy Land...
...a world which will lament them a day and forget them forever
Euphemism:
...men's final release from earthly struggle
Alliteration:
...the slow, sleepy, sluggish-brained sloths stayed at home
...with a dash and daring...
...a recklessness of cost or consequences...
Metonymy:
...his pen would prove mightier than his pickaxe
Synecdoche
Keelboats,...carried the first major commerce
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