Mark Twain's Advice To Youth

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Renowned author, Mark Twain, in his lecture “Advice to Youth” (1882), argues that children have some things they need to learn if they want to build good character. He supports his claim by first relating to the youth, then he logically explains how to make the right decision, and finally he paints a picture with vivid imagery of how immaturity and weapons don’t mix well. Twain’s purpose is to give advice to the youth in order to help them build good character. Twain relates to the youth in order to convince them that what he is saying is true. All children know how it feels when they want to do something on their own, then their parents come along and tell them exactly what to do. That feeling is horrible but Twain states that you can make more by “humoring them” than by “acting on your own judgment.” He relates to the fact that, even though some may not agree, parents can help you to accomplish more than you can by yourself. Twain also claims that respect is an important aspect when trying to build good character. He says that one should be respectful to “superiors, strangers, and sometimes others.” To have good character you must be respectful, and when a person is respectful they gain respect in return.…show more content…
“When you lie”, says Twain, “You want to be very careful.” There are two ways that lying can go: 1) getting away with it, 2) getting caught in it. Once you get caught you “can never again’ be seen by “the good and pure” as you were before. Twain claims that lies ruin lives, and that people lie because they are careless. On the other hand he also states that “a lie told well is immortal.” No matter what happens the truth eventually comes out, and Twain is trying to help people to understand that the “truth is mighty and will
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