Roughing It By Mark Twain Essay, Research Paper

Roughing it was written by Mark Twain. This book is a journal of Mark Twain and his brother’s trip to Carson City, Nevada. They went because Mark Twain’s brother had a job as the Secretary of Nevada. This book, journal, started when they were leaving to go to Carson City; and ended when Mark Twain decided to move to New York instead of living in San Francisco or any part of the wild west. In between this time he talked about how they became rich and how they lost it and how they became rich again and lost it. He also talked about their trips to different places and they also talked about Slade and Indians and Mormons, which brings me to my topic. My report is on the Mormons and their history, their part in the book and many other things.

The Mormons have been a group for over 40 years and they have hated “Gentiles” for their whole existence because wherever they go they are hunted or chased by these “Gentiles”. Joseph Smith was the founder of the Book of Mormons and the religion of Mormonism. After being kicked out of everywhere they finally settled in Ohio. There they built a church and they stayed there for a while. While they were there a man by the name of Brigham Young joined them. He did so many things for the Mormons that they said he was one of the Twelve Apostles. Then later he became the president of the Twelve. The people of Ohio then drove the Mormons out of their state and so the Mormons had to settle somewhere else. They were kicked out of many different states until they found safe haven in Illinois. Here Joseph Smith, the president of the Mormon Church, was killed; and a Mormon named Rigdon was made the president of the Mormon Church. Then after a little while Brigham Young came and seized power of the Mormon Church and kicked Rigdon out of his seat as president.

They then moved to Salt Lake City, Utah to escape the Americans, because the Americans did not have control of Utah back then. Then after they settled in Utah the Americans came and conquered the Mexican army and the Americans gained ownership of the West Coast, including Utah. So Utah became part of the U.S.A. and Brigham Young was really upset. He didn’t let the Americans come into his state. When the U.S.A. finally had control of Utah they made Brigham Young the governor of it because they didn’t want any more problems. As the leader of the Mormons Brigham Young added the doctrine of Polygamy, which is when you have more than one wife at a time. He supported this new doctrine by saying that Joseph Smith, the former leader, had a revelation of this doctrine but never put it in practice. After he accomplished everything thing else he wanted more and soon he claimed himself as a god. He believed that when he died he would have his own planet; he and his household would inhabit this new planet and would become the gods or rulers of it. This is only a part of the Mormon history.

Having so many wives and children would lead to many problems. If you give one of your wives something all of your other wives will want that same thing or they will get really upset. For example when Brigham Young gave one of his wives a breast pin all of his other wives heard about it, and they all wanted one or they would say that he didn’t love them any more. So he had to please them and by the end he would have to spend a lot of money just because of one good deed he did for one of his wives. Also if you give your children something you will have to give them all something or your will hear from it from your other children and your wives. Like when a stranger gave one of Brigham Young’s sons a whistle. Then all the kids wanted one too so they asked their dad, and that is when he found out that a stranger gave his son a whistle so he sent a bunch of men out to look for this man but he escaped. So the kids kept asking and then to top it off his wives didn’t believe that a stranger gave the kid a whistle they thought he gave it to him secretly. So he had to by all the kids a whistle so he could have peace in his household again, but with all the kids blowing the whistles it was a noisy, peaceful house.

In conclusion this book was not really a book it was more of a journal than anything else. This book was THE most boring book ever written on the face of this earth it is a miracle that it was ever published and a greater miracle that it is concidered a classic. This book held its reader’s interest as much as you watching paint dry. In most people’s opinion this book should never be made to read unless it was meant to be a very painful punishment. On a scale from one – ten this book deserves a one at max because the only good part was about Slade and it only lasted a couple of chapters. Mark Twain usually wrote some good books like Huckleberry Finn and others, but something happened to him this time he was either really old or he didn’t know enough about writing yet to write at least a decent book. So after being made to read the whole book I still don’t understand it completely. This is also one of those books that you don’t want to hear its name mentioned in your presence or you will become crazy. Surely you will never see me read this book again, or even cast my eyes on this book again.