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Final Lit Analysis
Final Lit Analysis
Brendan Boyce
Mr. Drozdowski
English 10
5/29/18
Mark Twain, the author of “The War Prayer”, showcases many struggles in his life
through his writing. Twain suffered from depression in his life, and also went through many
tragedies that had huge effects on him. He was exposed to violence and death at a young age,
which may be why he writes about these terrors of war. Instead of looking for the good things,
Twain may only be able to see and worry about the death and destruction that could ensue since
he has seen it his whole life. He even served in the Civil War, though only for two weeks. He did
not like the war and the politics behind all of it, which explains why he left and why he wrote
this story. Twain was never too fond of the war or violence but it did have a great effect on him
and his works of literature. The story may have also been written due to the Spanish-American
War and some effects that Twain had seen from it. The story was written in 1905, five years
before Twain passed. Twain suffered from depression at the end of his life, which may have led
to the darker aspect of the story. This depression was from even more death in his life, and the
deaths of the ones he cared about the most. This adds to even more layers of sadness and “The
War Prayer” has aspects of war, tragedy, and ignorance. In the story “The War Prayer”, Twain
reflects on his depression which he suffered through throughout his life, and this depression was
caused by witnessing death and violence at a young age, going through a war, and later in his life
As a kid, Mark Twain continuously saw violence and death at a young age. One of the
most life changing would be the death of his father. Twain’s father passed away in 1847, leaving
him without a father at only 12 years old. This left his family in economic trouble and he had to
start working at a young age in order to help support his family. “He was fifteen and had been
out of school since he was eleven. He ended the decade as an unemployed steamboat pilot, the
Civil War having closed down commerce between North and South on the great highway of the
Mississippi River.” (Ziff 1). Twain was greatly affected by his family's struggles and the Civil
War. Twain also grew up in a time full of racism, which he never experienced while being white,
but he saw it happen. He once saw a slave being killed by his owner, as awful as that is. Twain
was only 9 years old at the time he saw this, and it must have been scarring to see in person.
Many traumatic events like this can change a person for the rest of their life, which one may
believe happened to Twain. This could have made him how he was when he grew up to be a
writer. He experienced so much as a child that it may have affected him into his adulthood and
writing. These events most likely led to depression and bipolar disease later in Twain’s life, since
many childhood tragedies lead to scarring and effects lasting into their adulthood. Along with
that, Twain served in the Civil War. Although it was only for two weeks before he was quit, it
still had an effect on him. Serving in any way can also have lasting effects on one’s mind. Seeing
the effects of war on society and the reason behind the war was enough to make him decide to
quit and move out west. At first he did not fully understand all of the politics behind the war, and
he joined the Confederate Army since he was living in Mississippi. Twain most likely only went
into the war due to his connections to the south and Mississippi. He was never seen to be a racist
man, since he also married an abolitionist, someone who wants to abolish slavery. But, his
family did own a slave when he was a child. Although he did enroll into the war, one may
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believe that he very much disliked wars and conflicts since he did quit from the military and later
wrote about the troubles that ensue from war. Such as in “The War Prayer” where he writes
about the opposite end of the wars, where instead of being so patriotic for one’s own country to
win, maybe one should think about the effects it will have on the losing side. This could have
came from his experience with death and violence at a young age, and also being apart of and
In the later years of Twain’s life, he suffered heavily from depression. This may
have been caused by the troubles he had as a kid, and also more tragic events that happened later
in his life. Twain married Olivia Langdon, an upper class girl from New York, and the two fell
deeply in love. They settled down in Buffalo, New York and had four children. But, they did not
last. Three out of the four children died at young ages. One was just a toddler when passed, one
was 29, and his favorite child was 24 when she passed. This added to the many close and
personal deaths he experienced throughout his life, and also caused him much pain to see. Also,
the only surviving child was not too close with Twain, and the two became very distant. ““It kills
me to think of the books that Susy would have written, and that I shall never read now,” Twain
told Rogers in the wake of his terrible loss. “This family has lost its prodigy.” “ (Loving 368).
These troubles with his children led to his depression later in life, which he tried to cope with by
writing, reading, and smoking. And even after his children passed, so did his dear wife. All of
this left Twain lost and depressed with nowhere to go. “Possibly i know now what the soldier
feels when a bullet crashes through his heart.in her bath-room there she lay, the fair young
creature, stretched upon the floor and covered with a sheet. And looking so placid, so natural,
and as if asleep. We knew what had happened. She was an epileptic: she had been seized with a
convulsion and could not get out of the tub. There was no help near, and she was drowned”
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(Twain et al. 311). The third child died in 1909. He spent these last years of his life continuing to
write stories and books, such as “The War Prayer”. This most likely all led to a darker view of
the world, which was shown throughout his satiric and dark writing. One would say that these
depressing moments in his life affected the way he could see the world. It may have limited
himself to only seeing a darker side of the world, such as only the darkest and deadly sides of a
war, instead of the patriotic and brighter look on a war. These events shaped the way he saw the
world, mainly into a darker and deeper viewpoint that would not be changed, except only
worsened as he got more depressed. His thought process of the world was affected at this young
age, and tainted the way he could think. This could not be turned back, and of course as he got
older he expressed it in his writing. Twain could not stop these events, it was just a part of life,
Twain’s depression was shown all throughout his writing, especially in “The War
Prayer”. Twain could be represented through the aged man in the story, since he shows them the
bad parts of the war. He shows all of the inside worries and the true death and destruction, which
might be how he sees the world himself. Twain is no longer able to see or think of the brighter
side in any situation, as he cannot even be patriotic anymore without worrying about the dark
death and destruction that happens from war. War can be a terrible thing, and Twain knows that.
He has experienced war throughout his life, such as the Civil war, which he was apart of, and
also being alive for the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War. He knows the
dangers of war, how deadly and devastating they can be. Even if it is nice and patriotic to cheer
on your soldiers and army, the war causes the destruction of homes, lives, and pain felt
throughout all involved. War causes so many casualties, for either side fighting, that there is
always a darker side to war, even if you win. “O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to
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bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their
patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing
in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire...” (Twain, “The War
Prayer”) The aged man in the story represents all of this, he represents the logical argument of
war. If you wish for your country to succeed and win over all opposition, you also wish for the
slow agonizing death and pain that war brings to a country. You may not realize it, but the
prayers for your own soldiers to come back safely also means you are praying for the opposing
soldiers, who are also sons, dads, brothers, and more, to be killed in a bloody act of violence.
Twain represents this way of thinking, and one may think that he is this old aged man who tries
to show the ignorant society that their actions have consequences in life, and in war. Twain may
have written the aged man in as himself, it would make sense due to his challenged life and
struggles that changed his whole thought process and outlook on life.
“The War Prayer” was a direct result of Twain’s depression and struggles throughout his
life. It was written due to his depressed thoughts, which he used to create this satirical short
story. Throughout his life, Twain has expressed his dark thoughts through his stories and satire.
An example of this is of course in his short story “The War Prayer”. He expresses the ignorance
of a society at war in an exaggerated way through none of the people in the church
acknowledging anything the aged man said. They ignore it all and choose to keep praying for the
success in the war. He also shows his opposing point of view, that of the aged man, which shows
that war is an awful and terrible thing that one has to suffer through. Twain has suffered through
many tragedies in his life and even been in war before, he has seen what death can do and knows
that it is not something to take lightly. His experiences through life are what motivated him to
write this story, since he wants to use it almost as a warning about wars and death. He is showing
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that there are two sides to every story, like one may be praying for their side to win, but that also
means that one is praying for the opposing side to suffer through a brutal and agonizing war that
would destroy their whole country, Twain’s depression led him to not be able to see the good in
praying for one’s side of a war to win, but to only see the death that it brings to the other side.
His suffering and depression in life have limited his view on almost everything, with him no able
to see the good in situations, but only the bad. This story was written only five years before his
death in 1910, and this is when he was most depressed. After having his wife, two of his kids,
and one of his closest friends dead, along with all of the tragedies he faced as a child and going
through wars, Twain was struggling in life. “The story of the seemingly gratuitous depredations
upon his security and happiness is a familiar one—the deaths of family members and friends,
illness and pain, public humiliation and financial despair; likewise the adjectives (none of them
alienated, lonely, petty and trivial, hurt and hurtful.” (Quirk 238). He could not do much except
write this story to help express how he felt about war and death. It is easily to tell that the darker
side of this story was influenced by his depression in his later life, since he was heavily
depressed and this story has dark and depressing elements to it.
Twain suffered greatly throughout the entirety of his life, which led to him becoming
depressed in his later life. This depression helped influence and inspire the short story “The War
Prayer”. Trauma from events as a child, such as his father passing away or watching a slave
being beaten to death, have shaped Twain into the person he was later in life. These events, along
with him serving slightly in the Civil War, and also being alive through other wars, have caused
Twain to become depressed later in life with lots of thoughts and things to consider about
himself. Finally, Twain’s wife and children dying also had huge impacts on him, making him
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even more depressed with no family left to comfort him. He was left alone with his writing and
cigars. The short story, “The War Prayer”, is a direct reflection of all of these events. These
tragedies that Twain went through shaped him into the depressed adult he became, and also
helped him write this story along with many others. The depression that he endured inspired him
to write about the dangers of war and the ignorance of society. Twain’s traumatic childhood,
experience with wars, and death prevalent throughout his life drove him into depression, which
Works Cited
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Quirk, Tom. Mark Twain and Human Nature. University of Missouri, 2007. Mark
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Twain, Mark, et al. Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3 : The Complete and
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ehost-live&custid=s5519304.
Ziff, Larzer. Mark Twain. Oxford University Press, 2004. Lives and Legacies.
EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/
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