Conner Kreide
Dr. Deborah Reese
Engl 1101
14 September 2013
Advice to Youth
There is nothing new about older generations passing down wisdom
and knowledge to up and coming youth. Much of the time it will be about love,
life choices, higher education or “don’t be stupid and do what I did.” The
great American writer Samuel Clemens, more commonly known as Mark Twain offers
his own view in an essay appropriately titled “Advice to youth.”
Unsurprisingly, the essay reflects Twain’s sense of humor and is best summed up
as “Question authority, and be a kid.”
Written almost as a guidebook, Twain starts off by telling his
audience to always obey their parents when they are watching. Parents think
they know better than you, and it is wise to humor them while in their
presence. Further on authority, he instructs to respect it, especially with strangers.
Basic respect should be given to everyone, though, if someone is to wrong you,
you should wait for your opportunity and hit them with a brick. “Leave dynamite
to the low and unrefined.” (Twain 461).
Lying is a careful art, one that must not be used until the liar
has perfected their skills, Mark warns. “Patience,
diligence, painstaking attention to detail, these are the requirements; these,
in time will make the student perfect; upon eminence.” (Twain 462) He instructs
to be circumspect when it comes to lying. You must be good at it before you
attempt it, otherwise you will get caught and can never again be “in the eyes
of the good and pure, what you were before.”(Twain 462). Twain goes on to
point out the irony behind the largest lie of all: “Truth is mighty and will
prevail.” (462). He uses the example of the man who supposedly invented
anesthesia; there is a monument to him in Boston. The man portrayed in the statue is
not anesthesia’s true inventor, rather he is the man who formulated the clever
lie to give himself the credit. These are the type of lies Mark Twain urges his
readers to work for, “a truth is not hard to kill, and a lie told well is
immortal.” (Twain 462)
Twain encourages the readers to have fun, use their imaginations,
and pretend despite the disapproval of others. He uses the example of kids playing
with unloaded firearms, and describing the outcry of such acts and ridiculous
views in a large drawn out sarcastic manner. He describes the magic behind the
imagination of playing with them, in that no matter what, the child will always
flawlessly hit their target because in their minds they can do anything they
wish with that gun.
The essay ends with Twain asking the reader to heed his words
and to apply them to their life. In the last sentence though, he seems to
contradict himself and ask the reader to completely disregard everything he has
just told them. “You will be surprised and gratified to see how nicely and
sharply it (the reader’s character) resembles everybody else’s.” (463). He
almost appears to be encouraging the reader to never take things such as this
wholeheartedly, and instead blaze their own trail.
I enjoyed the essay; it was quite in character of Mark Twain.
Though it is listed in a book of essays, it is rather a speech or it was at
least originally written as one. It is easy to imagine Twain reading it with
the pauses in the right places, I could start to see his wit and dry humor
leaking through the lines. With the ending statement, the essay takes the form
of less than actual advice and rather something to make you think, smile a
little, and go about your life while pondering it in the back of your head. He
challenges the cliché that had originally been put forth by the “Advice to
youth” sort of genre and rather give off the tone of “have fun and be free”.
Works Cited
Clemens,
Samuel AKA Mark Twain. “Advice to Youth.”
1882. Word by Word. Custom AASU edition. Nancy, Remler. Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2012, p461. Print.
1882. Word by Word. Custom AASU edition. Nancy, Remler. Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2012, p461. Print.
