"Corn-Pone Opinions" by Mark Twain

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Wikipedia.org

Mark Twain describes in detail his childhood experiences with a “gay and impudent young black man - a slave”(1) named Jerry. He outlines for the reader how this boy was quite fond of “preaching sermon top of his master’s wood pile” (1) with a young Twain as his only audience. He speaks of the boy’s views on where man forms his beliefs, saying that it is easy to determine where a man forms his opinions from, because this is always the source of the man’s corn pone, as well.  

Using the same technique as Lynne Truss in her examination of English punctuation in Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, Twain then expands this specific example to represent his own overarching views on where man forms his opinions from. This lengthy examination of his own views rounds out the remainder of Corn-Pone Opinions. He writes that “Jerry was right, in the main, but...he did not got far enough” (2.) Twain then informs the audience of his expanded views on Jerry’s corn-pone reasoning. He writes on page 2 that a coldly-thought-out and independently reasoned thought was a “most rare thing, if it has indeed ever existed.” 

He uses the examples of a hoop-skirt, and English table-setting habits to establish his belief that man in general operates with a sort of hive mentality, following all the trends of society, doing what the majority does in order to gain acceptance and approval from his fellow man, no matter how daft and unreasoning that fellow man may be. He concludes the essay by writing that man’s tendency to mistake feeling, emotion, and instinctual behavior for thought has led to the creation of a supposedly positive aggregation, called a boon, which represents Public Opinion. This boon is highly regarded, and considered by some to be the “Voice of God” (5.) In this way, Twain expands the views of a black slave living in Missouri in the 19th century to be indicative of a trend that permeates all of human society through all ages.

In so far as credibility is concerned, it is pertinent to know that Mark Twain had a rural childhood, spent on the southern ranges of the North American frontier. He was surrounded in his early years by a culture that propagated slavery and embraced new technology such as the steam engine. He was privy to a unique view of man’s tendency to embrace Public Opinion, Corn-Pone Opinion, if you will, without fail. The culture that he was reared in believed in slavery with little dissent, and was homogenous in it’s cultural, religious and social beliefs. This makes him a credible source to provide commentary on this era, this setting, and its social climate. The context of this essay is simply Mark Twain’s recollection of his childhood friend’s observations on man’s tendency to think collectively, and how he has chosen to embrace and expand these beliefs to vindicate his own. Twain’s purpose in writing Corn-Pone Opinions was primarily to relate his views on society’s collective mindset to the general public. His writing is said to have appealed to men, women, children, and the elderly alike (Zhang). This belief is applicable especially in the case of Corn-Pone Opinions due to the nature and topic of the essay. Given that Mark Twain’s works were mainly published in American newsletters and journals, it would appear that his audience was the American general public. Anything more specific than this betrays the broad appeal of Twain’s writing. 

Interestingly enough, the primary rhetorical strategy employed by Twain in Corn-Pone Opinions is essentially the same technique that appears frequently through the course of Truss’ Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. In the same manner that Truss frequently introduces examples, and then proceeds to analyze and expand them to represent her overarching views on English grammar, Twain introduces the example of Jerry the black slave, a childhood friend of his, and his views on the nature of man’s opinions, and how they originate from the same source as man’s corn pone. From this lone example, Twain expatiates his broader beliefs on the nature of society, before tying them back to the original example at the conclusion of the essay.Twain is extremely successful in accomplishing his purpose. He imparts his message that man typically subscribes to a hive mindset in his famously comedic, light fashion. Maintaining this level of relaxation in his writing makes the high-mindedness of his ideas much more palatable.

Works Cited:

Zhang, Eric. "Mark Twain’s Writings Still Appeal to Broad Audience 100 Years after His Death." Daily Bruin. University of California, Los Angeles, 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 03 Aug. 2014.

"Illumination Rounds" by Michael Herr

Bell 204/205 UH-1 Helicopters in Vietnam. Helis.com

In Illumination Rounds, Michael Herr describes his experience as a war correspondent in-country during the Vietnam War. He does so through in-depth examinations of several brief moments that take place over an indeterminate amount of time. First he accounts his experiences aboard a Chinook transport helicopter, listening to the thunder of artillery shells exploding around the aircraft, watching a young man meet his unfortunate end as a shell penetrates the helicopter, directly striking him. Next he relates his time at the Continental Hotel, observing the men on leave, injured, scarred, permanently damaged by the war. He describes their mistresses as being “the saddest, prettiest girls in Vietnam” (330). In doing so he conveys in an instant why it is that the Vietnam War is recalled with a particular sense of dread by the American public. It was a conflict that not only left deep physical and psychological scars on a generation of young Americans, but a conflict that brought out the worst in America's military. In no war prior to or after Vietnam did American soldiers ever take mistresses from among the local population. In mentioning this ever so briefly, he aptly conveys why the Vietnam War is recalled with such a unique sense of dread. Finally he relates his experience listening to a cassette recording of Jimi Hendrix for the first time, while under fire in a rice paddy, and his experiences smoking marijuana and running cans of beer to surgeons in the province hospital at Can Tho.

Michael Herr is a former war correspondent and the author of a number of works on the Vietnam War. He is perhaps best known for Dispatches, a memoir of his time in Vietnam, from which Illumination Rounds is taken. Dispatches is considered to be “the best written about the Vietnam War” by The New York Times Book Review, and was reviewed as “the best book have ever read on men and war in our time” by novelist John Le Carré. He is also known for his work with Stanley Kubrick and Gustav Hasford on the acclaimed 1987 war drama Full Metal Jacket. He also contributed to the screenplay of Apocalypse Now, another classic American war film (Schultz). In addition to the fact that he is widely regarded as one of the best wartime writers of the modern era, the simple fact that he spent time in Vietnam during the American conflict there makes him a credible source for information on this time period and the event.

Herr enters Vietnam during the height of the American conflict there, and is at first unfamiliar with war on a first-hand basis and overcome by a feeling of simply being an observer, playing a passive role in the events taking place around him. He writes that he doesn’t feel as though the things happening around him (men dying, bullets being fired at him, injured civilians being carried past him) are actually happening to him. Instead he is merely observing them as an outsider. As time passes, however, Herr becomes more comfortable with the notion that he is as much a part of the Vietnam War as any enlisted Marine or Viet Cong soldier. As a result, his perspective and his writing style change over the course of Illumination Rounds.

To convey to the American public, whose perspective on the Vietnam War was often obscured by political bias and extreme movements on the home front, what it was actually like to be a soldier on the front lines of America’s most abhorred conflict.The American public had scarcely been provided with a first-hand, in-country account of the Vietnam War at the time of this essay’s publishing. The use of a first-person narrative helps to better convey the author’s feelings on the conflict he experienced. In addition, Herr’s use of stylistic alterations, such as the misspelling of words to convey a character’s accent, lend a greater sense of depth to the essay, as it allows the reader to experience action in the same way that the author did originally.

Using the aforementioned tactics, Herr is able to efficiently and aptly convey his message and achieve his purpose. In an essay of only a handful of pages, he manages to convey the entirety of what it was like to be an American in Vietnam during the famed conflict there. As an American who was not alive during the Vietnam War, and has only heard second-hand accounts in the form of novels, films, video games, and other forms of modern media about the conflict, Herr’s work allows me to gain some form of insight into the true nature of the Vietnam War, allowing me to experience it in a fashion similar to the way that the author did.

Works Cited

Schultz, Connie. "What It Was Like." Columbia Journalism Review. N.p., 9 Sept. 2010. Web. 03 Aug. 2014.