Ethyl Surmises: Mark Twain

Mark Twain said, "The lack of money is the root of all evil".
What that Bible verse, which is often misquoted as 'money is the root of all evil', actually says is, 'the love of money is the root of all evil'.
There is a big difference in the two statements.  Money is necessary to be able to live with a reasonable degree of dignity in today's world, but the love of it, and the obtaining of it at any and all cost, is indeed a precursor for evil actions.
Two thousand and ten is a big year for Mark Twain... This year in April he will have been dead one hundred years, and also this is the year he has a new book published.  It is the unabridged autobiography of his life, which he left to those he could trust with the firm instructions it was to be published a hundred years after his death.. His reason; "By then I will be dead and unaware and indifferent and therefore able to speak my whole frank mind".  And speak his mind Twain did, but so often what he said was so cloaked in satire that the persons who were self righteous, pompous, and full of themselves never got his true meaning.
Case in point is his novel 'Huckleberry Finn'.. It has been dubbed the great American novel, and in my humble opinion, it is.  But as well loved as it is today it was not received well by much of the established literary guild of his day.. Many writers who were well known and accepted as the top brass of their generation criticized Twain for his style of writing in the vernacular of the time. But the public, the people in general, loved it.  And the subtlety with which Twain laid bare the hypocrisy and self righteous attitudes of the slave owning hierarchy of his time is not to be matched anywhere in literature, and that includes 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
When my middle son was ten, he and I read Huckleberry Finn together, and I will never forget his reaction to Twain's use of the word 'nigger'.. In our house our sons were never allowed to use that word to refer to anyone they knew.  It was on the same level with a curse word and it just was not acceptable to refer to fellow humans in such a derogatory manner.  When Huckleberry referred to Nigger Jim, my son's mouth flew open in surprise and he asked how the writer could use such a word in a book that would be read to children.  I explained to him Twain was merely writing as people in those days talked, and it was not meant to degrade anyone.
When Huckleberry decides he will not turn Jim in but instead help him escape we are all brought to a defining moment in the narrative, for the boy is sure he is going to Hell for his actions.. It is just wrong to steal and in a sense he is stealing from the Widow Douglas, but he loves Jim and he is going to take that chance.  Twain's condemnation of the ideas and accepted beliefs of his era are brought to the reader's attention in a way no one else in literature has ever done before, or after, for that matter.   It was wrong to hide the property of someone else, but not wrong to keep a fellow human in bondage.  A classic moment in literature!
Another incident when we are brought face to face with the fact that all humans are basically the same is when Jim cuts himself and Huck sees him bleed.. Huck's response, "Why Jim, your blood is red too", is never to be forgotten.
Twain in many ways was the most outspoken civil rights advocate of his day, but that fact was so well cloaked in his literature, many unsuspecting readers never got his point.
Something he talks about in his autobiography is an occasion when he went to his publisher accompanied by his black butler.  Their being seen out in public together caused a minor outrage that resulted in embarrassment for the butler, but Twain took it all in stride.  His comment on the matter, "It seemed justly proper for him to accompany me, for in every way he is my equal, and in many ways my superior". 
Such was the great wisdom of Mark Twain.
In musing over the writings of Mark Twain, Ethyl has thought about some of her post.  Are they phonetically sound, grammatical proper, written in the style of acceptable writings.  Most assuredly not!   But that is not the purpose of my writing.  I wish to tell a story and relate certain happenings as I remember they occurred.
Mark Twain's foremost objective was to tell a story, and if that was good enough for the best American writer who ever wrote a line of prose, well then, I guess it's good enough for Ethyl.  Nuff said!