by Mark Twain (1883)
1 Nevertheless, I still would have the desire to be a steamboat man on the
Mississippi River. 2 But these were only daydreams. 3 Then one of our boys went
away. 4 He was not heard of for a long time. 5 At last, he turned up as apprentice
engineer or ‘striker’ on a steamboat. 6 This thing shook the bottom out of all my
Sunday-school teachings. 7 That boy had been notoriously worldly, and I was just
the reverse. 8 He was exalted to this eminence, and I left in obscurity and misery.
9 Whenever his boat was laid up, he would come home and swell around the town
in his blackest and greasiest clothes, so that nobody could not help but remember
that he was a steamboat man. 10 He used all sorts of steamboat technicalities in
his talk as if he were so used to them that he forgot common people could not
understand them.
11 This fellow had money, too, and hair oil. 12 He carried a silver watch and a
showy brass chain. 13 He wore a leather belt and used no suspenders. 14 If ever a
youth was cordially admired and hated by his comrades and me, this one was.
15 When his boat blew up at last it diffused a tranquil contentment among us such
as we had not known for months. 16 But then I saw him the next week, alive, and
renowned. He appeared in church all battered up and bandaged, a shining hero,
stared at and wondered over by everybody. 17 It seemed to us that the partiality of
Providence for an undeserving reptile had reached a point where it was open to
criticism. 18 Wondering about it didn’t help, so I just made plans to travel to St.
Louis on a steamboat and try to get on as a cub pilot.
2.
Choose the correct answer.
The author’s tone gives the mood of _______.
gloom
skepticism
hope
1 answer
The author's tone gives the mood of skepticism.
Throughout the passage, there is a sense of irony and disbelief regarding the success of the boy who became a steamboat man, especially in contrast to the narrator's own feelings of obscurity and misery. This skepticism is further emphasized by comments on the boy's materialism and the narrator's questioning of Providence's favor towards him.
