Two Views of the River

This is a chapter from Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi." In this chapter it seems that Twain has been on the river for quite some time. You can tell that he is on a long journey. He begins to know things about the river and notice small details about it such as the shape of it in certain areas and the way the water is flowing in certain spots. He describes these details in two different ways. He describes it in a way as if he has never seen it before and it is unusual to him. He sees at as the most beautiful thing and he gets lost in the poetry and beauty. Later on he goes to describe the same scene but he knows why the things are the way they are. He knows why the river is running how it is. He notices a tree dying on the side of the river that he know will not make it much longer. He sees a reef which he knows will eventually destroy someone's boat. "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." (Twain) He doesn't find the river or scenery to be beautiful anymore because he knows it's secretes. It is nothing new to him and does not find it special in any way. I believe this expresses some similarities with Thoreau. In Thoreau's "Walden" he ditched his life to live with nature. He goes into deep detail about his surroundings. "Thoreau was a botanist-naturalist who was interested in recording and understanding every aspect of nature for its own sake." (Wayne) In "Two Views of the River" Twain begins to understand all of the nature around him like Thoreau believed in. Thoreau went and lived in nature and this is what Twain is seeming to do as well. It seems that Twain has been on the Mississippi for quite sometime and was spending a lot of time observing his surroundings. This is exactly what Thoreau was doing. They were just living in nature in different areas, Thoreau in the woods and Twain on the river.

Wayne, Tiffany K. "Walden." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc

Twain, Mark. "Two Views of the River." About.com. Web. 29 Feb. 2012.