미국적 딜레마의 한 모습 - Mark Twain의 The Mysterious Stranger-

Abstract

Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger, one of his latest works, has been thought to be a very confused novel, containing many contradictory elements in both its form and content. Though it is realistic in its tone and narrative one of its main characters is a supernatural being like ’Satan’. It mixes moralism with determinism, idealism with materialism. The aim of this paper is to read this novel as a unity, in which the literary devices and strategies are used to make an effective representation of the American dilemma, coexistence and struggle of Kthe contrary ideas. This pessimistic novel by Mark Twain succesfully reflects the difficulties of American mind tom between idealism and materialism, which seem to be aggravated by the growing industrialism in its contemporary society.