Research On The Democratic Thought And Its Artistic Expression In Mark Twain's Novels

Mark Twain,as an outstanding representative of American critical realism literature from the late 19 th century to the early 20 th century,has written a lot in his life,including plays,essays,poems and other genres.His works covers the vast area of the United States and all aspects of social life,serving as a mirror to understand the American society.His early works are mainly short stories,combining humor with satire,and the style of writing is light and funny;In the middle period,the novels are mainly novels with spicy and satirical style;His later works shift from the humorous satire to angry disclosure,criticism,even with the mood of pessimism.In contrast to the simple irony of humor,democratic thought and critical spirit run through Mark Twain's life and the whole creation process.The starting point of Mark Twain's democratic thought is his life experience and life experience at the bottom.He sympathizes with the ordinary workers at the bottom who are in hardships and calls for equality of all people regardless of class and race.The state and its government should protect the basic rights of the people.To meet the need,Mark Twain exposed the widespread political hypocrisy,economic fraud,class division,money worship,moral degradation,human degradation and other social problems in the United States without mercies.His critical spirit is exactly a kind of emotional outlet and artistic expression for his failure in pursuit of the true democracy.Mark Twain's humorous essays show his unique artistic personality and the pursuit of democracy and criticism.On the basis of the early humorous jokes,Mark Twain further developed the exaggeration,satire and other techniques,intensified the comparison,symbol and metaphor,which made the disclosure and criticism in his works more and more profound and powerful.His novels are often constructed at the same time of overall criticism.Through the story discourse or narrative skills,a set of Mark Twain style reflection and cognition isestablished.In his novels,people can vaguely feel that the American style democracy has almost collapsed,and the real democracy,freedom and equality seem to be only found in other places.The Foreword Part mainly tells the topic selection based on the analysis of previous researches.With the in-depth research,much attention still need to be paid to his novels.Especially,to explore the rich connotation of the democratic thought and critical spirit in Twain's creation and clarify the relationship between them will help us grasp the important value of Twain's novel creation accurately.The first chapter focuses on Mark Twain's creative process and the formation of democratic thought.While American humorous literature developed and flourished,Mark Twain abandoned the common writers' creative tendency of entertainment and amusement.He stood on the point of sympathy for the common people at the bottom and skillfully combined humor and satire to form his own Concepts of Composition with Democratic core values.With the gradual emergence of the contradictions in American capitalist society,Mark Twain's confidence in American democracy has been shaken;Until the later period,Mark Twain saw the hypocrisy of American democracy more clearly.He exposed and criticized American society sharply,comprehensively and powerfully.The second chapter mainly discussed Twain's critical spirit and artistic expression,with which he exposed the sinister scheme of American democracy system.With the increase of his life experience,Mark Twain began to pay more attention to the deep problems of American society.Through humor,satire,exaggeration and other artistic techniques,he boldly exposed and criticized the essence of American capitalist democracy,focusing on American false democracy,false religious etiquette,and rigid education system.His works are not only full of life philosophy,but also have strong artistic appeal.The third chapter is mainly about the deepening of democratic thought and the expansion of artistic methods.One on hand,the American ruling class carried out the policy of racial discrimination to exploit and oppress the black and Chinese people;On the other hand,they carried out cruel colonial policies and expanded overseas colonies.As a progressive writerwith democratic thoughts,Mark Twain has a deeper understanding of the duality and hypocrisy of American democracy,so his democratic thoughts step into the further development of a mature critical period.He skillfully used contrast,symbol,metaphor and other artistic techniques to expose the evil of racism and colonialism in the United States.The fourth part is mainly about the aesthetic value and social significance of Mark Twain's novels.Mark Twain,as a well-known comedian and humorist often make people think deeply while making people laugh with his pen.Through the humor,we can feel the strong tragic implication,which is the aesthetic value of Mark Twain's works.With his unique observation perspective and humorous satire art,he gave the hypocrisy of American society full disclosure and deep reflection,by which helped readers deepen their understanding of America.Conclusion: Mark Twain's works expose the hypocrisy of American Capitalist Society,reflect the voices of the oppressed people at the bottom of the society,expressing a strong sense of justice and deep human concern.Under his influence,American realism literature flourished than ever before,and "American Literature" was born.