The War Prayer
Mark Twain’s use of optimistic diction in the prose, “The War Prayer,” effectively establishes a cheerful mood in a notoriously dismal time. Twain uses words and phrases with a generally positive connotation throughout this prose to lighten up the mood on such a depressing topic. “It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering... the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion.” (Twain 1) Even though Twain is talking about war, which is usually seen as a lousy thing in society, he masks the sadness by using contradictory phrases such as “exalting excitement,” “toy pistols popping,” and “firecrackers hissing and spluttering.” Exalting excitement initially sets up the scene of the country in a time of celebration of soldiers going to fight for their country. This portrays how Twain is able to create a cheerful mood by using positive words to describe the negative time. He then reinforces this by talking about “toy pistols” and “firecrackers.” Toy pistols aren’t able to hurt anyone; they are made solely for the enjoyment of kids. This continues the pattern of emitting a happy mood because it relates a serious topic of war with kids playing with toys. This adequately pushes the reader to be more cheerful when