Twain made a very interesting comparison of the Mississippi River and a book. He says that those who are unfamiliar to the realities of the danger of the river are like illiterate people who do not understand the text in a book. He gave many comparisons like punctuation, italics and capitals to describe the river. Also he did not ever mention that the river being described was the Mississippi River, it was only implied in the title of the reading. I found this very smart.
The essay opened my eyes to two things. Firstly, that it helps for us to look at things in this world in different perspectives to make everything more interesting. The other is that things that may have seemed wonderful before may turn out to be not so wonderful when we learn more about it.
This second point is a curious one. It makes me wonder whether trying to fully understand things would be a good thing or a bad thing. Do I want to maintain the mystery in things and risk not uncovering hidden wonders in things? Or would I like to learn everything in depth about a thing and risk finding out things that I might not like about it?
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