Mark Twain (real name-Samuel Clemens) is a writer and journalist, a well-known

public figure in America. A Democrat and humanist who defended the rights of all
people, regardless of skin color, in the XIX century.Twain published his first
humorous story in 1865. It brought him success and was even named the best
humorous story created in America by an American writer. In 1867, Twain
published the book "Innocents Abroad", in fact, they were notes about the journey.
The book was a success. Mark Twain became very popular.After 1870, Twain took
up writing. Also at this time, he began teaching at a number of universities in the
United States and England. Twain was an excellent speaker, and his lectures were
immensely popular.

In his later works, the author spoke out against racism and imperialism, criticized
current American senators, and spoke negatively about presidents. By the way, his
novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was banned several times, because
they believed that the words and expressions used by the authors were not literary,
and many scenes were too naturalistic.

"An Encounter with an Interviewer" (1875) is a parody on the American press.

Within the limited space of this story we can see the technical devices so
characteristic of Twain's comic works—exaggerations, mock-seriousness at the
funniest moments ,in the genre of realism.

The story begins with,the young man from the newspaper «Daily
Thunderstorm»(He was connected with the Daily Thunderstorm...The Daily
Thunderstorm is a jocular name given by Twain to the I newspaper the young man
represented. The name of the paper is already its characterization. It contains a hint
at the kind of easy sensational stuff that filled its pages. It's an allegory) tried to
interview the narrator in the first person. The narrator doesn't know how to spell
the word "interview" to look in the dictionary and understand what it means. Here
the author used repeated questions("Hoping it's no harm, I've come to interview
you." "Come to what?"   "How do you spell it?" "Spell what?".To express extreme
surprise or disbelief part of the speaker's remark is re-addressed to him with the
unbelievable section turned into the appropriate interrogative. This interrogative
takes a heavy stress and a quickly rising intonation.)

The interviewer realizes that the narrator is not as smart as he expected. The
narrator replies that this point is often made. The narrator says that his memory is
irregular.The author uses the device of exaggeration “That is to say, it is an
irregular memory,—singularly irregular. Sometimes it goes in a gallop, and then,
again it will be as much as a fortnight passing a given point.” Then first the
narrator says that he was born in 1836 and is only nineteen, not more.Also he
claims that the most remarkable man he ever met was Aaron Burr. The interviewer
is very surprised and said that he would never have met him if he was really
nineteen years old. he narrator claims he met Aaron Burr at his funeral, where he
asked him to make less noise. Again the interviewer wonders about the
discrepancy. The interviewer is interested in the exact date of birth of the
narrator.He replied that he was born on Monday, October,31,1693. The interviewer
is surprised and claims that then the narrator is 180 years old. The narrator cannot
recall whether he has a brother or a sister, and the interviewer points at a picture on
the wall. The narrator recalls he had a brother whose life or death is a great
mystery. They were twins and when babies, there were mixed in a bathtub and one
of them was drowned. Nobody knows which of the twins it was, but one boy had a
peculiar mark on his hand so that they could be distinguished. Then the narrator
explains why he thinks Aaron Burr remarkable. The climax of the story is that
when the funeral ceremony was over, Aaron said he wanted to take another look at
the landscape, so he got up and went with the driver. At the end, the young
interviewer leaves. The narrator regrets this, he was a pleasant company.
There are also many elliptical sentences in the story (and much obliged to you...
How old are you? Nineteen.) and hyperbole  "I would give whole worlds to know".

In this story mark Twain makes fun of the interview because he believes that
interviewers are polite and gentle. This is the worst way to get at what is hidden in
a person. Meeting an interviewer is not encouraging, but rather discouraging,
because you are afraid of him.