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Mark TwainA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
While the first-person narrator states in the first paragraph of “The Invalid’s Story” that the tale is “the actual truth” (Paragraph 1), the story is in fact a tall tale—specifically, an example of the “frontier” humor that the author so frequently employed. Mark Twain scholar John H. Davis notes that the word “invalid” in the title can be read two ways: This is the story of a man who loses his health, and it is also a story that purports to be real but is in fact invalid. The pun on “invalid” allows readers to see that the characters’ interpretation of the story’s events is invalid, whereas Twain’s use of dramatic irony creates both tension and humor. In turn, this highlights the contrast between an absurdly humorous situation and the story’s more serious underlying themes.
Twain’s critique of Christianity in the story comes from his use of symbolism. In the story, the dead body of John B. Hackett supposedly travels toward his father, Deacon Levi Hackett—symbolically a heavenly father, as suggested by his name or title “Deacon”—in Bethlehem, Wisconsin, alluding to the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem, Judea.
By Mark Twain
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Mark Twain
A True Story
A True Story
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Letters from the Earth
Letters from the Earth
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Life on the Mississippi
Life on the Mississippi
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Roughing It
Roughing It
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
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The Autobiography of Mark Twain
The Autobiography of Mark Twain
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The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
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The Gilded Age
The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
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The Innocents Abroad
The Innocents Abroad
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The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
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The Mysterious Stranger
The Mysterious Stranger
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The Prince and the Pauper
The Prince and the Pauper
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Pudd'nhead Wilson
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
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The War Prayer
The War Prayer
Mark Twain