"Reading the River" by Mark Twain

Considered one of the first truly American authors, Mark Twain brings a unique vision of early America to his writing and his works inform our image of American culture and history. In this excerpt, Twain offers two views of the mighty Mississippi river from two related, but entirely different perspectives.

This essay is available in the public domain. 

Pre-reading Questions

 As you read through the description of the river pay special attention to how Twain describes his two points of view. What changes and how does that change affect Twain’s description?

"Reading the River" by Mark Twain (1883)

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         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 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 o blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a

solitary log came floating, black and conspicuous; 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; 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 life silver; and high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a

flame in the unobstructed 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, enriching 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 altogether to note them.

       Then, if that sunset scene had been repeated, I should have looked upon it without rapture, and should have commented 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 circles 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 without the friendly old landmark?

       No, the romance and the 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?

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Post-Reading Questions for Twain

1) Look back over the first description of the river (in paragraph 1). What image stands out to you? Why? What appeals to you? The colors? The beauty?

2) Now examine the next paragraph where the view of the river changes. Again, what image stands out to you and why? How has the tone changed from the previous point of view?

3) What has changed between Twain’s two descriptions of the river? Why does he now view the same objects so differently? Why has he ceased “noting the glories and the charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the river’s face”?

4) Why does Twain include the part about the doctor? How does a doctor view people differently (according to Twain)? How does Twain now see the river and has he “gained most or lost most by learning his trade”?

Journal Question: Try to think picture a place you visited as a young child and returned to as an adult (a former home, park, or your elementary school). What does it look like today? How has it changed? Certainly, there will be physical changes, but how much of the change lies within you? How do our perspectives change as we age? Do we value the same things? Do we “see” the world differently as we age?