Mark Twain and the West: Money, manhood, and persona in the early writings

My dissertation examines Mark Twain's use of nineteenth-century conceptions of the West to construct his early persona. Variously described as the land of opportunity, a place of degeneracy, an escape from an effeminate civilization, and a violent male arena, the West represented both an asset and a liability to Twain. Manipulating readers' expectations and prejudices about the region, he engages the contemporary American debate over manhood, class, and progress in an effort to change as well as join mainstream society.;Chapter 1 focuses on Clemens' private letters from 1852 through 1867. The letters reveal his understanding of regional stereotypes, his association of money with manhood, and his fluctuating attitude toward the West. Clemens' personal opinions both reflect and refute popular perspectives concerning the East and West, while also highlighting the disparity between his private ambition and public pose. Chapter 2 investigates Twain's self-portrayal in the Nevada and California newspapers (1861-65) as a dissolute westerner who drinks excessively, condones violence, and identifies himself with the American Indians. These early publications exhibit the rough beginnings of a persona that won Western fame but Eastern notoriety.;In subsequent works, Twain modified and extended the Western elements of his persona to gain marketability in the East. In Chapter 3, I trace his use of old and new tropes of Western freedom and manhood in Roughing It (1872). Twain created himself as an original Western outlaw who utilized language (rather than guns) to challenge the status quo and enforce social justice. Chapter 4 carries the examination of region and persona into Life on the Mississippi (1883). Commemorating past riverboat pilots and his own experience on the Mississippi, Twain demonstrated that anti-social behavior and violent language assisted male financial success.;Throughout the dissertation, I try to come to terms with the paradoxes of Mark Twain's persona and writings. By reading his Western letters and publications within an historical context that includes contemporary literature, biographies, histories, newspaper editorials, and travel narratives, I investigate the role of regional stereotypes, class constructions, gender definitions, and race prejudices on Twain's developing art.