Twain && Harte ::A Small World Afterall::

I enjoyed both the works by Twain and Harte. I especially liked how both text simply just told a story. Though we did not read this text, I believe it was ironic that on the first page of Huckleberry Finn, Twain places a disclaimer about the picking apart of his text.

I have to admit, I did not catch what the writers were trying to express about the larger nation. I believe this is due to the fact that I simply read the stories and I did not give things a deeper meaning. However, I do believe that it is more than interesting to note that in Harte's text, there were no women in Roaring Camp. One would think that a group of men living and functioning together in a town would not work. But here, Harte shows us a group of men who are able to function just fine. Harte even says in the beginning that "it could not have been a fight for, in 1850 that was not novel enough to have called together the entire settlement" suggesting that these men were very well behaved. Everything in the town was a majority vote and people just dealt with the disagreement, but often times, all agreed.

In a town where women resided, the focus would be on finding out who the father was, but here, amongst the group of men, that didn't matter. Finding good care and making sure the boy was well nourished was the most important thing. I believe that says a lot on how Harte may view the rest of the world.

Twain's piece is a lot harder to analyze. I truly feel like it was just a story. There may be something in the fact that while Smiley was in his own town, no one ever tried to "get over" on him, but once he left, the first man he meets, cheats him. But I could not say for sure. I also believe that Smiley was the reverend that our narrator was looking for because having someone cheat you out of a fair gamble, may lead you to want to teach those around you.