The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories By Mark Twain Read How You Want, (2008) EasyRead Large Print, in 16 Point Font ISBN: 978-1427081940 Genre: Classic Literature, Science Fiction

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - May 23, 2011

Mark Twain (1835-1910) uses this novel to mock the conventional ideas about God: that God is a loving ever-present entity who wants to help people and reward people who do what he wants done and punishes people who disobey him. He sets his parable in Austria hinting that Austria is no different than America. It is a country where the people are asleep and way behind time. They live in an age of belief, rather than science. It is a time when knowledge is kept from the common people. All people need to know is to be "good Christians; to revere the Virgin, the Church, and the Saints above everything." Twain tell us that "knowledge was not good for the common people, and would make them discontented with the lot that God had appointed for them, and God would not endure discontent with his plan."

Some boys – symbolic of the uncultivated immature people – meet a very affable elf-like creature who tells them that he is an angel – which, as we will see, represents God. He tells the boys that his name is Satan, but not "the Satan." "The Satan" is his uncle – suggesting that God is related to evil. The angel explains that "the Satan" was chased out of heaven because he disobeyed God and enticed the woman God created to eat the fruit he forbid her to eat, and then went and ate the fruit himself. This suggests that God is bad-tempered and petulant, fussy about details, not wanting to be crossed even over a somewhat trivial matter.

The angel shows the boys that he can create tiny people to build a toy fortress for them, for fun. They watch, almost mesmerized by the tiny people's activity. Then they and the angel see two tiny men disagreeing and starting a fight. The angle becomes annoyed, reaches down and grabs the two men between his fingers and squashes them. He does this while assuring them that he is an angel and can never do wrong. The families of the two murdered men begin to cry and shout in mourning, and the angel, annoyed at the noise, takes a board and squashes the mourners and the people near them.

Then the angel decides to complicate his building project to add tension and fun. He causes earthquakes and storms that kill most of the people. When the boys look on in horror, the angel says that there is no need to worry, he can always create new people. He explains that they need to understand that people are to him like bricks to them; he uses them as he sees fit, including breaking and crumbling them. Satan explains that the problem with people is that they have a moral sense, they distinguish between right and wrong, and this sense gives them all kinds of problems. They wouldn't have had this problem if Eve had not eaten the fruit.

Satan shows them that he also has the ability to change the destiny of humans such as them. He manipulates the destiny of one of the boys and the boy dies while trying to save a girl who was drowning. He gives a woman a magic cat that can bring her food whenever she needs it; however, people hear about the cat and burn her as a witch. Thus it is clear that the angel – God – is uninterested in the people he creates.

• Otto of the Silver Hand, by Howard Pyle.
  A delightful adventure / fairy tale set in Medieval Germany that follows Otto as he struggles to secure his birth right.
  
  
• We, by Eugene Zamiatin.
  We is the archetype of the modern dystopian novel. It is a story set well into the future, in a world where the state takes care of all the needs of its citizens, and in return the citizens live complacent and productive lives - that is until a group of dissidents begin to disrupt the state's stability.