Mark Twain & The Gilded Age. His Political Attitude and Battle against Social and Political Injustices (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Discussion and Essays, grade: 3,0, University of Paderborn, language: English, abstract: Mark Twain once said: "What is the chief end of man? - to get rich. In what way? - dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must. Who is God, the one only and true? Money is God. Gold and
greenbacks and stock - father, son and the ghost of same - three persons in one; these are the true and only God, mighty and supreme; and William Tweed is his prophet"1 Mark Twain is a man of honesty and pride who cares about the others and tries to battle corruption and greed and doesn't fear the rich and criticizes and attacks them in every possible way. This essay is going to be about Mark Twain and his political outlook in the time of the Gilded Age connected with his standpoint in
society.

How does he proceed in his battle against corruption, greed and dishonesty? Is he an active or passive man in connection with political matters? Is he a Republican or a Democrat or neither one of both? Is Mark Twain a man of the middle class or the upper class? Who are his enemies and victims? How does he present himself in society? All these questions are going to be answered in this essay.

To give a short overview and certain kind of basic knowledge of the time we are talking about and to understand Mark Twain's mindset and standpoint, this essay includes a short summary of the Gilded Age with its problems and typical characteristics. After that, we move on to the basic questions of the essay. We try to find out, if Mark Twain is a man of middle or upper class and how he deals with the topics he feels disgust against. We take a look into his political action, the way he handles topics like corruption and dishonesty in his literary writings and his battle against Tammany Hall. At the end of this essay we conclude the topics and try to sum up how far or whether the questions are answered.