"A Presidential Candidate"

“A Presidential Candidate” by Mark Twain is a satire about a man wanting to run for President. Instead of having people digging up his past, he decides to put everything he has done in his life out in the open for everyone to know. He wants to go into the election with an open record but he definitely has had an interesting past and admits to many corrupt deeds such as killing his grandfather and burying his dead aunt under his grapevine. He is open and honest about his past and feels that if he is open about the worst parts of his record and if people do not like him, he will not let it bother him.

Mark Twain uses a sarcastic tone and different literary devices such as diction in “A Presidential Candidate”. His choice of words and attention to detail sets the sarcastic tone and it is inferred that is mocking a presidential candidate. Twain uses words like “heartless brutality” and “inhumane” to describe the candidate. Twain also uses irony in this satire when describing his past.

Twain was a very popular and well known writer who was known for his humorist writing. He was said to be friends to presidents and I wonder what his friends would have said about this satire published in the New York Evening Post in 1879. I also wonder if he is mocking or making fun of a real presidential candidate.

The word that struck me to be the most important was “heartless brutality”. I think it hits hard on how a presidential acts. No matter how polite or nice a candidate seems, all they want deep down is to win. They will do anything it takes in order to do so despite their positive personality or the way you perceive a candidate to be. Most candidates do not act with their heart and make the right decisions but only make decisions that will benefit them in an election.

It is also ironic how Mark Twain says he is a “safe man” but he admits to killing his grandfather. I would not consider that safe. Although times were different in 1879, killing is never considered moral or safe. Any presidential candidate in present times would never even make it as far as any election if they have ever committed a crime as harsh as murder or even a crime at all. The acceptance of such crimes was a lot different in the 1800s then today.

I think it is honorable that the presidential candidate owned up to his past and was honest about what he did. He knew that people would try to dig up his past and find anything they could to use it against him. It is better to be honest than to have others twist your words and stories into something that is blown out of proportion or not true. Although this candidate was not the best person, he did not try to hide it and lie to people about how great of a person he was.

Mark Twain’s “A Presidential Candidate” is a foreshadowing of future presidential candidates. Many presidential candidates have tried to hide or cover up their pasts in order to win an election. Even though they did their best to cover up their past, it almost always was discovered by opponents and was used against them. It is very hard for a presidential candidate to keep their private lives private without someone digging it up.

It is very comical and controversial how Mark Twain clearly states that he is a coward, inhumane, and not a fan of poor people which is mainly what presidential candidates strive to be to win an election. He is the perfect example of a horrible candidate. I think it would be very interesting to see the results of that election and how many people decided to follow Twain as a presidential candidate. I would also love to see if anyone running for an election in present time would ever attempt to write something like this for the press.

In 2008, another satirist, Stephen Colbert announced that he wanted to run for president. I think Mark Twain’s “A Presidential Candidate” can be compared to Colbert’s campaign. Many people did not take his candidacy serious and did not want to support. Although he never actually ran for president, I think it is relatable to Twain’s “A Presidential Candidate” because Colbert put everything out in the open and did not care if people did not like him. Both Colbert and Twain used satire and humor when talking about running for president.

To tie everything together, Mark Twain’s “A Presidential Candidate” mocks running for president and tells people everything that he has done in his past. He is open and honest about his past and all the bad things he has done because he said that he would rather tell people than have people dig it up. I think it could be compared to present elections because a candidate will dig and find anything that can to sabotage their opposing candidate. Is it better to be honest or should you try to hide your past as much as possible??