Serious Philosophical Questions in Realistic Prose for Adults and Children of Mark Twain - Assignment Example

The way the person sees an event or place changes with time because with the knowledge which comes with experience prevents him from viewing the objects with innocent baby`s eyes. Once being an ordinary man the narrator could enjoy sensitively the beauty of the sunset on the river but since he became an adept in steamboating he started reading rivers like signs: “Now when I have mastered the language of the water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition”. (100) The author supposes that each and every person can share this experience that is why the auditory is broad.

Twain refers to the personal experience of every adult. As an example besides his steamboating, the author mentions probably one of the most evident professions for such issues- doctors. The author thinks how doctors perceive people knowing so much about person`s body: “What does the lovely flush in a beauty`s cheek mean to a doctor but a “break” that ripples above some deadly disease?”. However, this comparison can be applied to every person with broadening consciousness and awareness (96).

On the one hand, the author wants to feel compassion for his lost ability to see the beauty of the most ordinary things. This observation is painful for him and he regrets that the knowledge of steam boiling made him “read” nature instead of “drinking” it. He applies his argument to the doctor`s work: “Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart”. On the other hand, the writer understands that such changes of perception are inevitable for human and he addresses the reader with a rhetorical question: “And doesn`t he (a doctor) sometimes wonder whether he has gained most or lost most by learning this trade?

” (106).