Journal #16 Twain

Liana Laskin

English 48B

"Letters from the Earth" and "The War Prayer" by Mark Twain

February 26, 2009

"If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian." (Twain, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain)

Summary:

"Letters from the Earth" starts out with God creating animals and human beings as experiments; he has three archangels, Gabriel, Michael, and Satan, who are his audience. Of course, Satan is banished into space, but decides to go to Earth to see God's creations. He writes a series of letters about how humans and angels differ in every single way. Satan points out that although humans value sex above all other pleasures, they leave it out of their heaven and instead replace it with prayer. In the "Letter to the Earth," the last sections of "Letters," humans are shown to have contradictory prayers (i.e. the prayers the say out loud conflict with the ones that are in their hearts). "The War Prayer" begins with families celebrating their male members going to war, either to come back as heroes or die valiantly in battle. An old man tells the minister leading the prayer to step down and begins his own observation; he begins by telling the stunned audience that he has "come from the Throne-bearing a message from Almighty God!" He disregards the positive message of glory and pointing out how many will die and suffer at the hands of the great soldiers. After going on for a very long time, the stranger finally pauses, and then says that if going to war is still what the people "desire," they should say so right then and there. After he leaves, the people end up believing that the man was merely a "lunatic" with no clue as to what he was going on about.

Response:

I had to read "Letters from the Earth" twice to completely understand the humor in the story (it did not jump out at me as much as “Fennimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” did). The first time through it felt very cynical and was kind of odd, but as soon as I really got what I was reading, it became quite hilarious. I think my appreciation of it had a little to do with the fact that I am an Atheist, especially when I got to “Letter to the Earth.” There are so many religious people (definitely not all) out in the world who pray for good things to happen to them and others, but unfortunately do not are not as caring or giving in their hearts or vise versa (i.e. pray for bad things to happen to others, but silently pray for good things to happen to themselves). I found it funny that Satan was the one doing the commentary on what was happening in Heaven and on Earth, specifically because I would imagine God being the narrator in that instance. Satan narrating makes more sense since the idea of sexual intercourse is brought up (the story is already blasphemous enough without God making this observation). I did not like “The War Prayer” as much because it seemed a little too depressing for my taste (the mood definitely makes the story into something quite ahead of its time). I felt like it did not fit in with the other stories I read because it was so different.