Samuel Langhorne Clemens (pen name Mark Twain) was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. In 1839 the Clemens family moved to Hannibal, Missouri” (Chew). This “location was well suited for steamboat landings”(Rasmussen 188) because it was on the Mississippi. Twain was a steamboat pilot for several years, and by the time he started to write "Old Times," he had been away from the river for over ten years. It is then understandable to think that Twain …showed first 75 words of 1734 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1734 total…writing. His main objective is clear. One of the central messages of "Old Times" is that, in life there are two worlds. There is the world of inexperience (or innocence), and experience. Each of them wants the qualities that the other possesses. In other words, we may always wish for something, and then when it comes true, it is not what we expected at all. This is Mark Twain’s, “Old Times on the Mississippi.”