Boyce 1

Brendan Boyce

Mr. Drozdowski

English 10

5/29/18

Mark Twain and His Twisted Life

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

losing his loved ones.

 Boyce 2

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
 Boyce 3

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

witnessing the Civil War.

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”
 Boyce 4

(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,

but they ended up changing his whole life forever.

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
 Boyce 5

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
 Boyce 6

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

pretty) to describe Twain’s moods—cynical, bitter, angry, suspicious, irrational,depressed,

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
 Boyce 7

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

influenced his writing in the short story “The War Prayer”.

Works Cited

Loving, Jerome. Mark Twain : The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens. University of

California Press, 2010. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/

login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=nlebk&AN=317198&site=e
 Boyce 8

host-live&custid=s5519304.

Quirk, Tom. Mark Twain and Human Nature. University of Missouri, 2007. Mark

Twain and His Circle Series. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/

login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=nlebk&AN=235251&site=e

host-live&custid=s5519304.

Twain, Mark, et al. Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3 : The Complete and

Authoritative Edition. University of California Press, 2013. Autobiography

of Mark Twain. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/

login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=nlebk&AN=1026487&site=

ehost-live&custid=s5519304.

Twain, Mark. “The War Prayer.” The War Prayer, warprayer.org/.

Ziff, Larzer. Mark Twain. Oxford University Press, 2004. Lives and Legacies.

EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/

login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=nlebk&AN=120963&site=e

host-live&custid=s5519304.