Mark Twain had a profound impact on American literature through his childhood experiences, travels, and pioneering use of humor and vernacular language in his writing. His observations as a child and young adult on the Mississippi River later influenced famous works like Life on the Mississippi. Travels around the U.S. and abroad provided material for other books. Twain revolutionized literature by using different dialects to characterize people and liberate writing from rigid conventions.

1. Mark Twain’s Effect
on American
Literature
By,
Maegan O’Nei!

2. “I am not an
American. I am
the American.”
•Accomplished outstanding tasks
• Produced exceptional
literature
• One of the greatest authors
who has ever lived

3. Thesis
Mark Twain’s childhood, young adult phase, travels, literature, and
humor are the main contributors to why the world views him as such a
phenomenal writer.

4. Childhood
• Twain spent his days engaging
in a! sorts of mischief and
foolishness
• His observations of his neighbors
had a huge effect on his writing
• Twain le& Hannibal and his
boyhood at an early age

5. Childhood
• Along with the fun and games, came the
hardships
• “A boy's life is not a! comedy; much of the
tragic enters into it. I was always told that I
was a sickly and precarious and tiresome and
uncertain child and lived mainly on
a!opathic medicines during the first seven
years of my life."
• Twain le& school for a printer apprentice
job
• Within a few years, he was traveling as a
'eelance printer

6. Young Adult
Phase
• A&er being a 'eelance printer, he
became a steamboatman apprentice in
New Orleans
• Became a co pilot on the Pennsylvania
and then persuaded his brother to sign on
as a clerk
• Twain got transferred to another boat
• The Pennsylvania boilers blown up,
ki!ing Henry

7. Young Adult Phase
Henry
Clemens
“My poor Henry, my darling, my pride, my glory,
my all, will have finished his blameless career,
and the light of my life will have gone out in utter
darkness...”

8. Young Adult
Phase
• Twain continued to work on
Steamboats but eventua!y
retired
• Led him to write “Life on the
Mississippi” which is a memoir

9. Travels
• Twain traveled to areas of the
U.S. and abroad to other countries.
• A&er his son’s death, Twain went
to England where he planned to
co!ect material for a satire of the
British.
• Some of his writing had been
published i!ega!y by others

10. T
r
a
v
e • Before this, in 1869, Twain rode on board Quaker City a! through Europe
l • He ca!ed this experience his ‘great pleasure excursion’ which inspired The Innocents
Abroad.
• Twain later wrote another book ca!ed, Roughing It
s • “An exhilarating sense of emancipation that almost made us feel that the years we had
spent in the close, hot city, toiling and slaving had been wasted and thrown away.”

11. Literature
• Twain was respected by many for his
writing
• He is the subject of many biographies
and literary analysis’.
• He is held in extremely high esteem by
other writers.
• The best known tribute to Mark
Twain was in Ernest Hemingway’s
Green Hi!s of Africa

12. • “Mark Twain transformed elements of
regional vernacular speech into a medium of Literature
uniquely American literary expression and thus
taught us how to capture that which is
essentia!y American in our folkways and
manners.”
• He liberated american literature with
Huckleberry Finn by cutting it loose 'om any
restrictions of proper grammar and dignified
american speech.
• He was the first to embe!ish characters’
personalities by using different dialects and
accents which made him stand out 'om the rest.

13. Humor
• One of the first things that was
recognized by his fans
• He gave lectures to packed
audiences, and provoked laughter
for years.
• He spoke with a captivating drawl
and an expressionless delivery
• He raised the audience's interest
with his use of pauses

14. Humor
• Portraying his observations in a
hilarious way
• Started to display humor through
writing as we! as lectures.
• Huck Finn was where he introduced
different dialects
• Dialects i!ustrated the characters
more clearly

15. Conclusion
• Mark Twain is viewed as such a phenomenal writer by the world because of his childhood,
young adult phase, travels, humor and literature.
• His childhood experiences and young adult phase influenced many of the books that he wrote
• Twain’s travels also influenced some of the books he wrote and gave him a new perspective on
the world.
• Dry sense of humor made him popular among massive crowds.
• Literature is the main reason that he has been so we! known.