Advice to Youth

"Advice to Youth" is a satirical essay written by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) in 1882. He was asked to write something to the youth of America. He talks about six things, including obeying parents selectively, respecting superiors, early to bed and early to rise, the matter of lying, handling firearms, and reading good books.

This essay is a classic example of Juvenalian satire. This satirical mode can be seen in Clemen's recurrent employment of sarcasm while addressing the youth with his words of wisdom. Specifically targeted towards any kind of authority, Clemens' "Advice to Youth" may be a response to the recent prohibition of alcohol in Kansas in 1881. This action deeply upset many residents. The youth became especially disgruntled with this change, because it was they, who above else, enjoyed indulging in the fine art of alcohol consumption.

A satire?

Over the years there has been much debate and many broad assertions made on as to what this paramount of Clemens' satirical wit implies. Aforementioned, some critics believe that is simply Clemens' publicly recognizing and placing on a social platform for debate, the youth's reaction towards the prohibition of alcohol.

Mark Twain

Bibliography

Novels	The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Prince and the Pauper Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court The American Claimant Tom Sawyer Abroad Pudd'nhead Wilson Tom Sawyer, Detective Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc A Double Barrelled Detective Story A Horse's Tale The Mysterious Stranger Hellfire Hotchkiss

Short stories	"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" "Cannibalism in the Cars" "General Washington's Negro Body-Servant" "My Late Senatorial Secretaryship" "Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls" "A Literary Nightmare" "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" "The Invalid's Story" "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn" "1601" "The Stolen White Elephant" "Luck" "The Million Pound Bank Note" "Those Extraordinary Twins" "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" "A Dog's Tale" "Extracts from Adam's Diary" "The War Prayer" "Eve's Diary" "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" "My Platonic Sweetheart" "The Private Life of Adam and Eve" "Advice to Little Girls"

Short story collections	Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance Sketches New and Old A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime Punch, Brothers, Punch! and Other Sketches Mark Twain's Library of Humor Merry Tales The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories The Curious Republic of Gondour and Other Whimsical Sketches The Washoe Giant in San Francisco

Plays	Is He Dead? Colonel Sellers Colonel Sellers as a Scientist

Essays	"The Awful German Language" "Advice to Youth" "English As She Is Taught" How to Tell a Story and Other Essays "Concerning the Jews" "A Salutation Speech From the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth" "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" "To My Missionary Critics" "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany" "What Is Man?" "Queen Victoria's Jubilee" "The United States of Lyncherdom" "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" Letters from the Earth

Non-fiction	Territorial Enterprise letters Letters from Hawaii The Innocents Abroad Roughing It Old Times on the Mississippi A Tramp Abroad Life on the Mississippi Following the Equator Is Shakespeare Dead? Autobiography of Mark Twain Mark Twain's Notebook King Leopold's Soliloquy The Private History of a Campaign That Failed Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire The Bible According to Mark Twain Christian Science

Speeches	"Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism" Votes for Women

Places, events, and legacy	Conception Birthplace Historic Site State Park Boyhood Home and Museum Mark Twain Cave Mark Twain in Nevada Territorial Enterprise Sagebrush School Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut Stormfield Publisher, Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs Twain–Ament indemnities controversy Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Mark Twain Tonight! Mark Twain: The Musical In popular culture

Family	Olivia Langdon Clemens (wife) Susy Clemens (daughter) Clara Clemens (daughter) Jean Clemens (daughter) John M. Clemens (father) Orion Clemens (brother)

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