Talk:The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

LibriVox has two audio versions of "Hadleyburg" Asat (talk) 15:40, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Language Techniques
Symbols

In "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg", Mark Twain uses a variety of language techniques that, put together, contribute to the theme. Twain uses the stranger to symbolize two things: society and Satan. The stranger represents society in that he decides that since the town offended him, he's going to corrupt it. The connection here is that these days, society is extremely corruptive. In the media, you see things that are clearly geared towards kids when they shouldn't be. There are commercials and songs that talk about drugs and sex and little kids hear and see these things that they may or may not have previously known about, but now it has been brought to their attention. Being kids, they'll naturally have questions that parents won't want to answer. The bottom line is that the stranger, like society, is corruptive to everyone. The stranger also represents Satan. When people think of Satan, they think think evil. This stranger can be thought of as evil. One person who's intent on corrupting a town just because he believes he's been offended? That is evil.

Allusions

The allusions in "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" are mostly biblical. Twain uses the words "fallen man" which could be seen as an allusion to Satan. Twain's use of references to Baptists, biblical scriptures, and God indicate that at least most of the citizens of Hadleyburg are Christians. Twain uses the words and actions of the people of Hadleyburg to allude to the famous biblical story of Adam and Eve. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaylah0330 (talk • contribs) 06:57, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Personification

"The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form"(Google Definition). Personification is mostly used in times to emphasize and exaggerate to give whatever is being said a stronger meaning. " 'First an angry cloud began to settle darkly upon the face of the citizens' " ( "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg", Twain, Zhao 30). Which indicates that the truth is coming in the form of a cloud.

Imagery

"A visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work"(Google Definition). Imagery is pretty straight foward, it's mostly just a description of a character or anything else, sometimes giving a clue of their personality. There are rarely any signs of imagery in this story so I had to work with just one form of imagery. " 'I reckon he was the best-hated man among us, except for the Reverend Burgess' " ( "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg", Twain, Zhao 16). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaylah0330 (talk • contribs) 08:52, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Contribution to Theme

Mark Twain uses biblical allusions throughout the story. We can infer from some of these allusions that at least most of the citizens of Hadleyburg are Christians. For Christians, honesty is super super important. When people have a guilty conscience, usually when the guilt becomes too much to handle, they end up telling the truth. Mark Twain's emphasis on honesty through his use of language contributes to the overall theme of the story. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaylah0330 (talk • contribs) 17:01, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Simile "No two of the envelopes were alike,and no two of the subscriptions were in the same hand, but the letters inside were just like each other in every detail but one." (25)

"There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus..." (32)

Metaphor "The house had gotten itself all ready to burst into the proper tornado of applause. . . ." (28)

"The house submerged him in tides of approving applause" (32)

"an angry cloud began to settle darkly upon the faces of the citizenship" (30) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:E000:5C40:2B01:113E:32A3:C2DD:AC66 (talk) 19:08, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Paradox

"A statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory" (Google Definition). "...wincing when a name resembling his own was pronounced, and waiting in miserable suspense for the time to come when it would be his humiliating privilege to rise with Mary and finish his plea,..." (The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, Mark Twain, Zhao 35). Mark Twain shows the difference between a clear and guilty conscience within the characters by using paradox. The quote being when the Richards are exposed of their lie and how they felt, revealing to the reader things aren't as they seem. Giving us an idea how good or bad the characters are.

Repetition

"The action of repeating something that has already been said or written" (Google Definition). " 'You are far from being a bad man-' Signiture, 'Robert J. Titmarsh' 'You are far from being a bad man-' Signiture, 'Eliphalet Weeks' 'You are far from being a bad man-' Signature, 'Oscar B. Wilder' " (The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, Mark Twain, Zhao 35). A phrase constantly repeated throughout the story.

Oberlin Interpretation NOR
Starting about halfway through, this section starts to read like an essay rather than a summary of other sources' arguments. Uncited judgements are made about how "any reasonable reader" would interpret Jim's comments, about Shelley Fishkin "rightly" reads the chapter in a particular way, and about the mental state of Twain's Oberlin audience. "Perhaps"es and question marks abound. The only citation other than Fishkin is from a crowdsourced study-notes website. Et cetera.

I'm not up on this topic enough to fix it myself, unfortunately. 2620:0:1000:FD35:904A:1B6E:AF72:27C9 (talk) 00:59, 12 September 2017 (UTC)


 * Yes, too much speculation and stretched out essay. I slimmed down some of that. Hopefully others will do more.  The reference just above here to NOR is a reference to this policy: NOR.  -- econterms (talk) 16:29, 14 March 2018 (UTC)