In this book, Michael Kiskis offers an alternative interpretation of Mark Twain's master narrative: not as realism, local color, or Southwestern humor, but as domestic novels, or more particularly as satires of domestic novels. While authors of domestic melodrama valorized the family and presented noble spouses and/or parents, Twain repeatedly challenged that tradition by depicting characters guilty of domestic violence, sentimental folly, and even infidelity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Each of the protagonists of Clemens' major fictions - Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Jim, Tom Canty, Edward VI, Hank Morgan, Roxy, Valet de Chambre and Tom Driscoll - are shaped by their domestic situation and each, due of a shattered family and the emotional strain caused by that loss, he suffers from a lack of genuine attachment. The author identifies and explores their most basic similarities: the problem of home, the notion of filial relationship, the search for comfort and family. In essence, “Tom Sawyer,” “The Prince and the Pauper,” and “Huckleberry Finn” tell one story: a story that follows a child through a labyrinth of biological and social relationships in search of physical comfort and existential peace and calm. The author notes the absence of the father in many of Clemens's stories and points to the death of John Marshall Clemens, in 1847, as an emotional focal point in Clemens's fiction. Clemens' father was secretive and emotionally distant from his family and this, combined with his early death, which plunged the family into financial crisis, created a void in Sam that became manifest in his fiction. The result of a loveless marriage, the child who became Mark Twain lived in a house over which the specter of violence continually hovered. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay written by Twain so often about children forced to live on the margins, about children who, missing one or both parents, struggle to build a life for themselves in the face of a hostile world. Clemens wrote novels that required readers to consider the plight of his child characters and, therefore, the plight of children facing an antagonistic world. As a father, Clemens couldn't help but wonder what the world would offer his daughters. Clemens' social criticism was fueled by the hope that telling a story could influence readers to act for good and moral purposes.