Introduction
The Narrator as Literary Device in “Luck ‘ by Mark Twain
Mark Twain uses the narrator as a literary device in his short story ,
“Luck ‘ The author first uses his own voice to give the story an air
of authenticity . He then changes narrators , building on the original
air of authenticity to create a second authentic narrator . By using the
literary device of a first person point of view for both narrators ,
Twain is able to manipulate not only the actions that take place in the
story , but he is also able to manipulate the reader ‘s understanding of ,
and his or her opinion of , the characters and events in the story .
The narrator that an author chooses creates the perspective of the
story . The narrator is rarely synonymous with the author however , it
is not an unheard of occurrence for the two to be identical . Twain is
briefly the narrator of this story , given that he manipulates the
readers ‘ perspective by declaring this story to be a true one and not
“a fancy sketch (Twain page . He increases this authenticity by
signing his initials to the statement , thereby injecting himself into
the action of the story . Because this practice is not a common one in
fictional stories , although it was more common at the time that this
story was written than it is now , Twain ‘s “appearance ‘ in his own
The Term Paper on Literary Work Bartelby Story Narrator
Bartelby The Scrivener By Melville Essay, ResearchBartelby The Scrivener By Melville All literary works are written from a specific standpoint. This standpoint originates from the mind of the author. The author, when creating his literary work, has a specific diagram / plan and vision of what the story is supposed to convey. However, not all readers will interpret the literary work in the way that ...
fictional work gives it a suggestion of being a work of nonfiction .
The first person narrator that Twain chooses to tell the majority of the
story is ostensibly a unnamed clergyman , formerly a “cornet (second
lieutenant ) in the British army under a lieutenant-general the first
narrator gives the pseudonym “Scoresby ‘ Simply by setting the
fiction of the need for a pseudonym for the lieutenant general , Twain
has created the suggestion of literal truth for the story about to
follow . The second narrator , however , is an unreliable one . By stating
that Scoresby ‘s success comes solely from luck , it is clearly apparent
that the clergyman ‘s opinion would differ from that of the lieutenant
general . There is some question as to why these opinions would differ ,
at least from the clergyman ‘s perspective . While it should come as no
surprise that Scoresby would certainly prefer to characterize his
success as deriving from skill , the clergyman could have one of three
reasons for having a different opinion . All of these reasons extend
from his knowledge of how Scoresby came to be a member of the military .
First , it is possible that Scoresby is truly an inept , but lucky , man .
The reader is left to reason for him or herself whether Scoresby could
possibly be that fortunate . Twain relies on the knowledge that many
people have had surprising luck in their lives , or know of people who
have had such luck . By failing to mention names of actual battles and
by failing to provide the “real ‘ name of the lieutenant general in
