Two Views of the River

Two views of the river is a story Mark Twain wrote as he was beginning to get tired of being a river boat captain. The story behind Two Views of the River is that the main character, a riverboat captain , used to be astounded by the river. The sun rising over water and casting beautiful shadows everywhere, the way a log floated down the river so smoothly and beautifully, and the way the moon reflected from the water like a perfect mirror. Now though, since the captain has been navigating the river for so long he does not see the beauty in it. As said in the story by the captain "This sun means that we are going to have wind tomorrow; that floating log means that the river is rising, small thanks to it; that slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody’s steamboat one of these nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that; those tumbling ‘boils’ show a dissolving bar and a changing channel there; the lines and circles in the slick water over yonder are a warning that that troublesome place is shoaling up dangerously; that silver streak in the shadow of the forest is the ‘break’ from a new snag and he has located himself in the very best place he could have found to fish for steamboats; that tall dead tree, with a single living branch, is not going to last long, and then how is a body ever going to get through this blind place at night without the friendly old landmark?”(Twain). That quote is pretty obvious in what the man is saying. Rather than seeing the beauty in the river he see the practicality in it. In the story the captain compares his dilemma to one a doctor might face asking if " I have pitied doctors from my heart. What does the lovely flush in a beauty’s cheek mean to a doctor but a “break” that ripples above some deadly disease?" (Twain). This a pretty good comparison as what the captain is experiencing is normal with anything that we get exposed to for a long time. We get used to it and stop marveling at it. For example, take air planes, two hundred years ago people most likely could not even conceive the idea of being able to fly. Now on the other hand it is something most people see everyday of their life. Not many people stop to stare at the sky in awe at the magnificent stream the airliner makes behind it. People have gotten sued to the idea and live with it as even though it affects their life every single day they barely even notice. I know I for one have never been on a plane so the fact that they are so massive still baffles and amazes me at the same time. I hope that even if I become a frequent flyer that I still stop to smell the roses as some people say.

"Meet Mark Twain." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 496. Print.

Twain, Mark "Two Views of the River." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 504-505. Print.