Discussion 6 – Two Ways of Seeing a River

Purpose

In Lessons 3, 4, and 5 we investigated some elements that will be important to your rough draft and final paper. This discussion is designed to allow us to recognize how a famous American writer, over 100 years ago, used these elements in a compare and contrast essay. Maybe you will gain some ideas or inspiration from his writing.

Instructions

There are two parts to this discussion.

1. By Friday you will make an initial post to the discussion based on the prompt given below. Note: You will not see the submissions of your classmates until you have posted to the discussion.
2. By Sunday you will reply to one (1) of your classmates’ posts.

Both of these elements are graded. Answer everything in complete sentences.

Part 1: Your Initial Post (due Friday)

In your initial discussion post, answer only one (1) of the following questions, based on Reading 6—Two ways of seeing a river.  Write 4-8 sentences, using one direct quotation from the reading. The direct quotation should be less than 25% of your answer.  Direct quotations are always enclosed in quotation marks.

Do not answer all four of these.  Answer only one.

At the top of your post, indicate whether you answered number 1, 2, 3, or 4.

1. What are the two subjects being compared and at what point in the essay do you first understand what these two subjects are (explain)? (Do not answer by only re-writing the title—that’s not good enough, because it only hints that there are “two ways,” but it doesn’t indicate what these two ways are.)
2. What is the thesis? In other words, what is the central assertion that Twain makes throughout the essay? See the page Writing a Thesis Statement from Lesson 5.
3. Describe one observation that Twain makes which goes beyond the obvious to offer insights which the reader may have never considered before?  See the page Going Beyond the Obvious from Lesson 4. 
4. How does Twain use the concluding paragraph (3) to extend his ideas beyond a summary, to give the reader something more to think about? See the page Writing Conclusions from Lesson 3.

49

3

Two Ways of Seeing a River

■ Mark Twain

Samuel L. Clemens (1835–1910), who wrote
under the pen name of Mark Twain, was born
in Florida, Missouri, and raised in Hannibal,
Missouri. He wrote the novels Tom Sawyer
(1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1882),
Huckleberry Finn (1884), and A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889), as well
as many other works of fiction and nonfiction.
One of America’s most popular writers, Twain
is generally regarded as the most important practitioner of the realis-
tic school of writing, a style that emphasizes observable details.

The following passage is taken from Life on the Mississippi
(1883), Twain’s study of the great river and his account of his
early experiences learning to be a river steamboat pilot. As you
read the passage, notice how Twain makes use of figurative lan-
guage in describing two very different ways of seeing the
Mississippi River.

Reflecting on What You Know

As we age and gain experience, our interpretation of the same
memory — or how we view the same scene — can change. For
example, the way we view our own appearance changes all the
time, and photos from our childhood or teenage years may sur-
prise us in the decades that follow. Perhaps something we found
amusing in our younger days may make us feel uncomfortable or
embarrassed now, or perhaps the house we grew up in later seems
smaller or less appealing than it used to. Write about a memory
that has changed for you over the years. How does your interpre-
tation of it now contrast with how you experienced it earlier?

Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as
familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable
acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost something which

1

C
o
p
y
ri

g
h
t

b
y
A

.F
. B

ra
d
le

y,
N

.Y
./
L
ib

ra
r
y

o
f
C

o
n
g
re

ss

21_ROS_6784_ch19_487_516.indd 49321_ROS_6784_ch19_487_516.indd 493 22/10/14 4:29 PM22/10/14 4:29 PM

Reading 6

494 CHAPTER 19 – COMPARISON AND CONTRAST

could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty,
the poetry, had gone out of the majestic river! I still kept in mind a
certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steamboating was
new to me. A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the
middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a soli-
tary log came floating, black and conspicuous; in one place a long,
slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water; in another the surface was
broken by boiling, tumbling rings that were as many tinted as an opal;1
where the ruddy flush was faintest was a smooth spot that was covered
with graceful circles and radiating lines, ever so delicately traced; the
shore on our left was densely wooded, and the somber shadow that fell
from this forest was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail that
shone like silver; and high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead
tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unob-
structed splendor that was flowing from the sun. There were graceful
curves, reflected images, woody heights, soft distances, and over the
whole scene, far and near, the dissolving lights drifted steadily, enrich-
ing it every passing moment with new marvels of coloring.

I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture. The
world was new to me and I had never seen anything like this at home.
But as I have said, a day came when I began to cease from noting the
glories and the charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight
wrought upon the river’s face; another day came when I ceased alto-
gether to note them. Then, if that sunset scene had been repeated, I
should have looked upon it without rapture and should have com-
mented upon it inwardly after this fashion: “This sun means that we are
going to have wind tomorrow; that floating log means that the river
is rising, small thanks to it; that slanting mark on the water refers to a
bluff reef which is going to kill somebody’s steamboat one of these
nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that; those tumbling ‘boils’
show a dissolving bar and a changing channel there; the lines and cir-
cles in the slick water over yonder are a warning that that troublesome
place is shoaling up dangerously; that silver streak in the shadow of
the forest is the ‘break’ from a new snag and he has located himself in
the very best place he could have found to fish for steamboats; that tall
dead tree, with a single living branch, is not going to last long, and then
how is a body ever going to get through this blind place at night with-
out the friendly old landmark?”

2

1opal: a multicolored, iridescent gemstone.

21_ROS_6784_ch19_487_516.indd 49421_ROS_6784_ch19_487_516.indd 494 22/10/14 4:29 PM22/10/14 4:29 PM

No, the romance and beauty were all gone from the river. All the
value any feature of it had for me now was the amount of usefulness
it could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a steamboat.
Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart. What does the
lovely flush in a beauty’s cheek mean to a doctor but a “break” that
ripples above some deadly disease? Are not all her visible charms
sown thick with what are to him the signs and symbols of hidden
decay? Does he ever see her beauty at all, or doesn’t he simply view
her professionally and comment upon her unwholesome condition all
to himself? And doesn’t he sometimes wonder whether he has gained
most or lost most by learning his trade?

Thinking Critically about This Reading

In the opening paragraph, Twain exclaims, “All the grace, the
beauty, the poetry, had gone out of the majestic river!” What is “the
poetry,” and why was it lost for him.

This reading comes from

Rosa, A. and Eschholz, P. (2015). Models for writers: Short essays for
composition [12th edition] (pp. 493-495). Bedford/St. Martin’s.

3

Twain / Two Ways of Seeing a River 495

21_ROS_6784_ch19_487_516.indd 49521_ROS_6784_ch19_487_516.indd 495 22/10/14 4:29 PM22/10/14 4:29 PM