Journalism In Tennessee Flashcards

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Flashcards: Journalism In Tennessee

What is "Journalism in Tennessee" by Mark Twain about?

Journalism in Tennessee is a wildly exaggerated comic sketch about a mild-mannered Northern journalist who takes a job as associate editor at a Southern newspaper called the Morning Glory and Johnson County War-Whoop. On his first day, he writes a polite, even-tempered column reviewing the local press — which the chief editor promptly rewrites into a barrage of personal insults. The rest of the day escalates into slapstick violence: rival editors burst through the door with pistols, a brick crashes through the window, a hand grenade rolls across the floor, and the narrator is shot, stabbed, scalped, and thrown out a window. By day's end, the battered narrator announces that "Tennesseean journalism is too stirring for me" and resigns, listing his injuries as he goes.

What is the theme of "Journalism in Tennessee"?

The central theme is the gap between journalism's ideals and its practice. The story opens with a lofty epigraph about journalism's "heaven-born mission" to "disseminate truth" and "elevate the tone of public morals" — then immediately demonstrates a newspaper culture based entirely on personal attacks, feuds, and physical violence. Twain satirizes the frontier press tradition where editors routinely insulted their rivals in print and sometimes settled disputes with weapons. A secondary theme is the clash between Northern civility and Southern pugnacity: the narrator's polite, restrained prose style is treated as a form of incompetence, while the chief editor's vicious rewrites — calling competitors "besotted blackguards" and "degraded reptiles" — represent what passes for journalism in this world.

What are the newspaper names in "Journalism in Tennessee"?

The absurd newspaper names are one of the story's finest comic touches. The narrator works at the Morning Glory and Johnson County War-Whoop. Rival papers include the Semi-Weekly Earthquake, the Higginsville Thunderbolt and Battle Cry of Freedom, the Mud Springs Morning Howl, the Daily Hurrah, the Moral Volcano, the War-Whoop, and the Daily Gazette. Each name parodies the grandiose naming conventions of 19th-century frontier newspapers, which genuinely did sport names like the Tombstone Epitaph and the Dodge City Globe. Twain pushes the convention to absurdity — names like "Semi-Weekly Earthquake" and "Moral Volcano" suggest publications that are as volatile and destructive as the editors who run them.

What literary devices does Mark Twain use in "Journalism in Tennessee"?

Twain deploys a concentrated arsenal of comic techniques. Hyperbole is the dominant device — the violence escalates from a single gunshot to brick-throwing, bowie knives, a hand grenade, and finally the narrator being hurled out a third-story window, with each escalation treated as routine. Contrast drives the comedy: the narrator's mild, careful prose is juxtaposed against the chief editor's volcanic rewrites, and the narrator's shock is set against the editor's complete nonchalance about violence. Understatement generates some of the best lines — after being shot at, the editor calmly remarks, "Ah, that is that scoundrel Smith, of the Moral Volcano — he was due yesterday." Catalog technique appears in the narrator's final resignation speech, where he lists his injuries with deadpan precision. The first-person perspective of a bewildered outsider creates dramatic irony, as the reader shares his horror while finding the situation hilarious.

When was "Journalism in Tennessee" written?

Journalism in Tennessee was first published in September 1869 in the Buffalo Express, which Mark Twain was then co-owner and editor of. It was later collected in Sketches, New and Old (1875). The story draws on Twain's extensive firsthand experience with frontier journalism — he had worked as a printer's apprentice, reporter, and editor in Missouri, Nevada, and California throughout the 1850s and 1860s. While the story's violence is comically exaggerated, the combative editorial culture it satirizes was real: editors in the antebellum and Reconstruction South frequently exchanged insults in print and occasionally settled matters with firearms. Twain may also have drawn on his time working in a Nashville print shop in the 1850s.

How does the chief editor rewrite the narrator's column?

The contrast between the narrator's original column and the chief editor's rewrite is the story's comic centerpiece. Where the narrator writes diplomatically that rival editors "evidently labor under a misapprehension," the chief editor transforms this into calling them "besotted blackguards" and "degraded reptiles." A polite note that a colleague has "arrived in the city" becomes a declaration that the man is a "blistering idiot" who "stole his great-grandmother's cat." The narrator's mild observation about street paving becomes a demand that the "pusillanimous Poltroon" responsible be "horsewhipped." The rewrite demonstrates the editorial culture's fundamental principle: restraint is weakness, and the more extravagant the insult, the better the journalism. The editor is genuinely appalled by the narrator's civility: "Thunder and lightning! Do you suppose I am going to speak of those cattle that way?"

What injuries does the narrator suffer in "Journalism in Tennessee"?

The narrator's injuries accumulate throughout the story in a running gag of escalating physical destruction. He is shot through the arm by a rival editor; has his ear nicked by a bullet; is hit in the back by a thrown stool; receives a brick through the window that shatters his elbow; is scalped by a bowie knife; gets caught in a hand grenade explosion; has a finger shot off; and is finally thrown out a window by Colonel Blatherskite Tecumseh. In his resignation letter, the narrator methodically catalogs: "I came South for my health, I will go back on the same errand, and suddenly. Tennesseean journalism is too stirring for me." He then lists each injury with deadpan precision — the calm enumeration of catastrophic violence being perhaps the funniest passage in the entire piece.

Is "Journalism in Tennessee" based on real events?

While the story is wildly exaggerated, it is rooted in the real culture of 19th-century frontier journalism. Newspaper editors in the antebellum and Reconstruction-era South genuinely did trade scathing personal insults in print, and physical violence between editors was not uncommon. Duels, fistfights, and even shootings arising from editorial feuds were documented throughout the period. Mark Twain had firsthand experience with combative journalism during his years as a reporter in Nevada and California, where he was once challenged to a duel (which he avoided) over a satirical article. The Tennessee setting may have been inspired by his time working in a Nashville print shop as a young man in the 1850s. The story takes real editorial conventions — grandiose newspaper names, inflammatory language, personal attacks — and pushes them to their absurd logical conclusion.

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