"Two Views of the River"

To me, “Two Views of the River” shows a great deal of similarities to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau. The easiest connection to make between the writers’ writing styles would have to be the fact that most of the short story was written describing a river. This fascination and reverence for the beauty of nature is very similar to Emerson and Thoreau because they were people who held Nature in the highest regards. One of the more in depth connections that can be made is the fact that when Clemens was talking about the river, one little word showed a connection to Emerson and Thoreau’s transcendentalist ideas. The word I am talking about would be “rapture,” which he says twice in the second paragraph (Twain 505). Even though he may not mean the literal rapture, although it is always possible he did, it still makes the reader look at the description of the river in more of a religious light just because of the religious implications the word “rapture” holds. This religious view of nature is very similar to the views of transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau because they saw nature as proof of the existence of a divine power and that true knowledge could only come from studying nature (Quinn 1).

The other important part of this short narrative is the fact that, as the name implies, it is a comparison between how he used to view the river as opposed to how he views it now. When he describes the beauty and splendor of the river, he uses language that conveys love and compassion for the new landscape. When he talks about how he sees the river now, though, he puts it in a way that seems cold and full of distaste. This association with nature as beautiful and the industry on the river as cold and calculated is very similar to Thoreau’s ideas that the society of his time had become obsessed with material wealth and less concerned with the spirit of the individual (Grant 2).

Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of  Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Twain, Mark. "Two Views of the River" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 504-505. Print.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.