"Disgraceful Persecution of a Boy" and "The Sandwich Islands"

"Disgraceful Persecution of a Boy"

This essay painted a sad picture of the social norms in San Francisco in Mark Twain's day. The essay argues that it is "disgraceful" to punish a boy for stoning a "chinaman" because everything about his society has led him to believe that it is right to do so. The boy in question actually has good intentions ("good" intentions meaning that he wishes to comply with the cultural norms of his society) and did not consider violent harassment against a Chinese man to be be a crime against humanity. This essay puts in perspective the extent to which the "white man" dehumanized the Chinese immigrate workers in California. However, it also voices Twain's critical attitude toward qualifying someone's "goodness" by noting his or her style of dress, how often he or she attends Sunday school, and to what extent he or she works at Bible study. In almost all of the pieces we have read for class, Twain seems at odds with his Christian faith and its manifestations in society. He continues to critique the closed-mindedness that so often accompanies Christians, though he often infuses his stories with elements of his own Christian spirituality. This story juxtaposes a socialized sense of Christian behavior and righteousness (i.e. stoning the Chinese man is right and good in the eyes of society and God) with a true sense of justice, which condemns violence against humanity (and humanity includes all peoples).

"The Sandwich Islands"

In this essay, Mark Twain begins to describe the islands with his observations, but shifts his observations to geography, then turns to culture and morality, next to bureaucracy, and ends with describing a rather unproductive economy. He describes the islands as a set of attributes as if it were at auction. He even includes descriptions of the "heathens" as being part of the package. Though the people are part of his description, they are not given any agency. The only characters that are given any description specifically are the "white men" that have assumed roles of power in running the island.

The essay ends by exposing Twain's description as the viewpoint of neo-colonialism. He is so overtly stating the vision of the islands and the native people as existing to be exploited that he mocks the neo-colonialist standing. He brings up the argument of annexing Hawaii into the United States. He says, "By annexing we would get all those 50,000 natives cheap as dirt, with their morals and other diseases thrown in." He has just implied that the native sense of morality is like a disease even though he previously stated that the natives have already been "Christianized." Though in his description, he has highlighted many wonderful and beautiful aspects of Hawaiian culture, this last part of the essay condemns all those native elements by presupposing the imposition of Americanism upon the islands through annexation. It is a bleak view of the forceful commercialization of Hawaii by the United States.