A Book Report on the Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

Submitted by: Shania Chier A. Andrade Gr. 7-Lavoisier

Submitted to: Mrs. L. Alcayde

Short biography of Mark twain

He was born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. Samuel L. Clemens wrote under the pen name Mark Twain. He went on to pen several novels, including two major classics of American literature, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was also a riverboat pilot, journalist, lecturer, entrepreneur and inventor. Twain died on April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut.

Profundity scale technique

A. Physical Level

The Prince and the Pauper is a story about two boys in 16th century England who were born on the same day and look identical, but are not related to each other. One named Edward Tudor is a prince, and the other named Tom Canty, is a pauper. Tom sneaked in the palace garden and meets the prince. They changed clothes with each other and the guards discover them and throw out the prince, since they are identical. Nobody believes them when they try to tell the truth. Soon after, the old king dies and the prince will inherit the throne. The evil earl of Hertford attempts to murder the prince to gain power himself.

B. Mental/ intellectual level

The pauper exchanged clothes with the prince because he wants to know what it feels like to be a prince, to be rich and famous and to be loved by people. The prince exchanged clothes with the pauper because he wants to know what it feels like to be free.

C. moral/ethical level
It is wrong for the prince and the pauper to exchange with each other because they need to learn how to love their selves.

They shouldnt exchange even though they want to have what the other has. Even though it is fun to exchange and experience what each other do, they still shouldnt exchange because they would regret it because thats not how they grew up. All they know is the positive things.

d. Psychological/ emotional level

The prince felt anger, regret and sadness because he thought that Tom was enjoying his life as a prince. He felt regret because John Canty and the grandmother of Tom beat him and he didnt know before that being Tom was hard because he gets beaten by his father and grandmother.

E. universal/philosophical level

Theme
Twain's satiric expose of the concept that "clothes make the man": when the two lads exchange clothes, the prince immediately becomes the pauper and is thus treated like a pauper and, likewise, the pauper is treated like a prince merely because he is dressed in royal robes.

Lesson Learned
We can learn that we don't need to be choosy on what we have. We must be happy on what we are or what we have in life.

Universality of the story

I learned that we need to accept what we have. We should not be ashamed of what we have. We should not be ashamed of ourselves because this is us we dont need to change ourselves to be accepted. Just be our true selves. We also need to learn how to love our self.