Reflective Pieces

In this selection called “Two Ways of Viewing the River” from Samuel Clemens book, Life on the Mississippi, he describes how someone’s view of something can change so drastically from over exposure to it, like in this case a river he steam boated on. Clemens explains how in the first few times of experiencing this river, he only thinks about “the grace, the beauty, and the poetry” he sees. How everything he passes is so filled with colors and beautiful images. But after many times of steam boating down this same river, his views of things change. Now as he passes these once beautiful images, he sees warning signs of things to come. Everything he sees makes him say “that means, and this means...” Clemens states how all “the romance and beauty were gone from the river”. He compares this instance to that of a doctor. Does a doctor not see the beauty in someone, but only the prospect of sickness and disease? Clemens makes a good point and makes us take a look into ourselves, and our view of things.