Thoughts Inspired By Mr. Mark Twain...

So, for my English class I've been reading Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer." I found myself laughing after reading the first few pages and it just keeps getting better. However, on some level, Twain's book makes a reader sigh over the loss of such simple days. Days when one's town was the entire world. Days when neighbors really knew each other, and communities were close geographically and socially. These were days when kids could go out and play from morning until evening and their parents barely spared a thought or a worry, knowing that their children would be home safe for supper that night. Tom Sawyer's world represents a time of innocence. Innocence of a type that would benefit the entirety of humanity if we could only possess a small piece of it.

Of course this is a very rosy, idealized view of the world illustrated in "Tom Sawyer." We are talking about Missouri in the 1800's. These are days that many people can look at with a realistic eye and feel grateful that we have moved beyond it. Mark Twain's world was one in which slavery was still commonplace in the South. I think that just about all of us can feel satisfied knowing that that is no longer the case.

In the world of "Tom Sawyer," knowledge was limited to the close community in which one lived, and while this is a charming idea on one level, it's a great disadvantage overall. The innocence represented by the universe that Twain has created is shattered by the fact that his title character is such a mischievous little scamp. Twain was a very brilliant writer. The way that he was able to point out the flaws and inconsistencies of the world around him was truly remarkable.

He's not the only one. In England, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy used their brilliance to address some of the most sensitive issues of the time, trying to make a difference. Whether or not the readers of those words agreed with what the authors had to say, they couldn't really look at the world in the same way again. This is the true power of words.

Words have the power to delight, terrify, and influence an entire population. It is not a power that should be taken lightly by anyone. We, as the human race have a grave responsibility to use our words in ways that are honest, helpful, and informative--even if it means upsetting a few people in the process.