Journal #10 Mark Twain: That Controversial Topic!

QUOTE:

“O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain” (Twain 323).


SUMMARY:

This section of “The War Prayer” is one of the most outright violent parts in this text. It’s probably one of the main sections that led to it being unsuitable for publication at the time.


RESPONSE:

While I read this work, I imagined the most passive-aggressive speaker reciting it as a speech. I think Twain is exposing how ridiculous it is for people to go to war “in the name of God,” and is throwing this idea back up in everyone’s face. At first I thought Twain was just merely suggesting his idea, but after our discussion in class, I see how bold Twain was with his choice of words. The word that stood out to me the most was from our class discussion though, and that was hypocrisy. It pointed out to me that Twain is basically accusing “Crusaders” (or even just basic religious people) of viewing war as a double standard. It reminds me of when we read Abraham Lincoln last quarter because he addresses the issue of how not everyone can be “right,” and yet they are all praying to the “same” god.

I think that it was too controversial to publish this text at the time, not only because it was written during the Philippine-American War, but also because some people probably realized that there was some truth to what Twain wrote. However, Twain takes back everything he says at the end. The last sentence, which reads, “the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said” (Twain 324); seems to be Twain’s disclaimer. He can blame everything he has written on the “crazy” man, who is just a character in a story. Maybe it’s more obvious that this isn’t just a fictional story though, so any publisher would know that any “war literature” would be too touchy.