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Class: Freshman english

Subject: English

Title: Analysis of "My Uncle's Farm" by Mark Twain

In this essay, Mark Twain describes life on the farm that belonged to his

uncle, John A. Quarles. Twain spent three or four months on the farm a year

during his childhood, and he has many fond memories of it.

Twain first gives technical details of the farm: it was five hundred acres

or so and in Missouri near the town of Florida. It had fifteen or twenty

slaves on it. He then tells of the kitchen, and in particular, the food,

describing all sorts of southern foods he had while there. He says that the

food there was prepared very well, and that northerners could never make

southern food the right way; nor could Europeans. Europeans were always

ridiculing so-called "American" customs and ideas, calling their food

unwholesome, even thought they knew nothing about them. According to Twain,

it is better to eat fine foods that may be unwholesome and enjoy oneself

rather than to eat healthy and deprive oneself all one's life. He often

tasted the "forbidden fruit" when he and his cousins would swim in the brook

and wading pools on the farm that were forbidden to them by his uncle.

Twain then talks about his experiences with the slaves on the farm, and how

they impacted on him and his whole attitude towards slavery and Blacks. He

talks sentimentally about an old black woman named Aunt Hannah, who,

according to young Twain and his cousins, was over 1000 years old and had

talked with Moses. She was religious and superstitious, and prayed a lot and

was afraid of witches. Twain speaks fondly of all the slaves on the farm;

saying that he used to play with the black children, and they were treated as

almost equals. One particular slave who stood out was "Uncle Dan'l," a

middle-aged slave who was the smartest in the slave quarters, and had the

finest character. Twain used him in creating the Jim character in Huck Finn.

He remembers Uncle Dan'l as one of the nicest people he ever knew.

Twain then goes on to talk about his feelings towards slavery. He sees

nothing wrong with it; as in his time not many people, even the slaves (for

fear of the severest of punishments) ever spoke of aversions to slavery. In

his community, it was something morally and ethically O.K. He never saw any

slave mistreated in Hannibal (the town in Missouri in which he lived,) and

especially not on the farm. One incident he recalls is that there was a young

slave boy named Sandy who would always sing out loud, to no end. When young

Mark asked his mother about it, she said that it was good that he sang,

because it means that he has forgotten all the bad things that has happened

to him; that he will never see his mother or his family. She told him not to

stop him from singing, so he will not remember. This stuck in Twain's head

throughout his life.

Twain then goes on to describe some of the Tom Sawyer-like mischief he used

to get into. He used to take snakes and garters and plant them in his Aunt

Patsy's work basket. His Aunt Patsy as well as his mother were afraid of

snakes, as well as bats, an animal which Twain is quite fond of. To Twain,

the bat is no less friendly than any bird, and he enjoyed playing with them

and speaks highly of them. There was a cave full of them outside of town, and

young Mark frequented it. Many stories surrounded the cave: more than one

victim had gotten lost in there for weeks at a time, and there was a legend

that a famous St. Louis surgeon put the corpse of his daughter in there

preserved in alcohol.

Twain begins part two of the essay describing the swings that he and the

other children used to swing on-and not infrequently off of, breaking many a

limb. Twain never had an accident falling off, but the other children had

many. He then tells of the interesting and friendly medicinal system in the

south: each family paid $25 a year to cover all doctor visits and medicines,

which was almost always caster oil. The grandmother usually took care of sick

children; calling the doctor only when it was serious. One doctor Twain knew

of was a black with no medical training, who was the only person who knew the

cure to a rare deadly child disease. He and he alone knew the ingredients to

the cure, and was called upon to cure the disease. Mrs. Utterback was the

local "dentist," who cured toothaches by screaming "believe" while touching

the tooth, and miraculously the ache as gone. Dr. Meredith was the local

physician who Twain recalls fondly, who saved his life many times.

Twain then relates a very serious story, how when he was a child, until he

was seven, he was a sickly child who lived on medicines to survive. Later,

when his mother was eighty-eight, he asked her about it. When he asked her if

she felt uneasy about him when he was little, she said, "yes, the whole

time." Twain asks, "afraid I wouldn't live?" to which she replies, "No-afraid

you would."

Twain then shifts from the serious tone back to his humorous-anecdotal tone,

describing the schoolhouse, which he and the children attended once or twice

a week in the summer. He relates that when he was seven years old, he was

humiliated when it became known that he was already seven years old and still

couldn't chew tobacco. He kept trying to learn how, but failed, and felt very

hurt because of it.

From this point until the end of the essay, Twain relates, in a content,

sentimental, reminiscent tone all the pleasures of lining on his uncle's

farm, and any farm in general. He enumerates all the experiences he gained

from living on a farm, how he knows nature intimately from being one with it.

He lists for several paragraphs all the things he knows and remembers

from those months on his uncle's farm.

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