Twain’s Worl�

Common Core State Standard ELA: Reading Informational Text and Literature (6.1-10 through 12.1-10)

“The Five Boons of Life”

This dark story was published in 1902, and it marks a turning point in Twain’s Love, as sold me I have paid a thousand hours of grief. Out of my heart of
life when many of his works took a much more pessimistic, and even bitter hearts I curse him.”
tone. Now in his late sixties, Twain was into his tragic last decade, which re-
ally began in 1896 with the death of his beloved daughter Susy, who passed Chapter III
away at the age of 24 years.
“Choose again.” It was the fairy speaking.
Although he had restored his finances from bankruptcy during the previ-
“The years have taught you wisdom--surely it must be so. Three gifts re-
ous five years and was able to move his family back from Europe to New
main. Only one of them has any worth--remember it, and choose warily.”
York City, in 1899 they again had to travel to Sweden seeking treatment for
daughter Jean’s worsening epilepsy. This was a further strain on the already The man reflected long, then chose Fame; and the fairy, sighing, went her
fragile family, and may well have contributed to the death of Livy Clemens in way. Years went by and she came again, and stood behind the man where he
1904. sat solitary in the fading day, thinking. And she knew his thought:
“The Five Boons of Life” anticipates the grim theme of “The Death of Jean,” “My name filled the world, and its praises were on every tongue, and it
which he wrote in 1909 after Jean died in her bath after an epileptic seizure. seemed well with me for a little while. How little a while it was! Then came
In that same year he had already begun working on a series of essays that envy; then detraction; then calumny; then hate; then persecution. Then
would eventually be published posthumously in 1962 as Letters from the derision, which is the beginning of the end. And last of all came pity, which
Earth, a cynical mockery of human life and spiritual faith. is the funeral of fame. Oh, the bitterness and misery of renown! Target for
mud in its prime, for contempt and compassion in its decay.”
While Letters was specifically prohibited from publication by Twain until after
his death, “The Five Boons of Life” gave Americans of his day their first clear
glimpse of his pent up fatalism. Chapter IV
“Chose yet again.” It was the fairy’s voice.
Chapter I “Two gifts remain. And do not despair. In the beginning there was but one
In the morning of life came a good that was precious and it is still here.”
fairy with her basket, and said: “Wealth--which is power! How blind I was!” said the man. “Now, at last, life
“Here are gifts. Take one, leave the will be worth the living. I will spend, squander, dazzle. These mockers and
others. And be wary, chose wisely; oh, despisers will crawl in the dirt before me, and I will feed my hungry heart
choose wisely! For only one of them is with their envy. I will have all luxuries, all joys, all enchantments of the
valuable.” spirit, all contentments of the body that man holds dear. I will buy, buy, buy!
Deference, respect, esteem, worship--every pinchbeck grace of life the mar-
The gifts were five: Fame, Love,
ket of a trivial world can furnish forth. I have lost much time, and chosen
Riches, Pleasure, Death. The youth
badly heretofore, but let that pass; I was ignorant then, and could but take
said, eagerly:
for best what seemed so.”
“There is no need to consider”; and he
Three short years went by, and a day came when the man sat shivering in
chose Pleasure.
a mean garret; and he was gaunt and wan and hollow-eyed, and clothed in
He went out into the world and rags; and he was gnawing a dry crust and mumbling: “Curse all the world’s
sought out the pleasures that youth gifts, for mockeries and gilded lies! And miscalled, every one. They are not
delights in. But each in its turn was gifts, but merely lendings. Pleasure, Love, Fame, Riches: they are but tempo-
short-lived and disappointing, vain rary disguises for lasting realities--Pain, Grief, Shame, Poverty.
and empty; and each, departing,
The fairy said true; in all her store there was but one gift which was pre-
mocked him. In the end he said:
cious, only one that was not valueless. How poor and cheap and mean I
“These years I have wasted. If I could
know those others now to be, compared with that inestimable one, that dear
but choose again, I would choose wisely.
and sweet and kindly one, that steeps in dreamless and enduring sleep the
pains that persecute the body, and the shames and griefs that eat the mind
Chapter II and heart. Bring it! I am weary, I would rest.”
The fairy appeared, and said:
“Four of the gifts remain. Choose once more; and oh, remember-- time is fly- Chapter V
ing, and only one of them is precious.” The fairy came, bringing again four of the gifts, but Death was wanting. She
The man considered long, then chose Love; and did not mark the tears that said:
rose in the fairy’s eyes. “I gave it to a mother’s pet, a little child. It was ignorant, but trusted me,
After many, many years the man sat by a coffin, in an empty home. And he asking me to choose for it. You did not ask me to choose.”
communed with himself, saying: “One by one they have gone away and left “Oh, miserable me! What is left for me?”
me; and now she lays here, the dearest and the last. Desolation after desola-
“What not even you have deserved: the wanton insult of Old Age.”
tion has swept over me; for each hour of happiness the treacherous trader,

Images
Maps and Susy Clemens, 1872-1896

Word Power
1. Find out the precise meaning of the words underlined in this reading- 1. Examine the photograph of Mark Twain taken at
can you use each of them correctly in an original sentence? How does his last home in Redding, CT near the end of his life.
knowing the meaning of the words enhance your understanding and Based on your reading of “The Five Boons of Life,” what
appreciation for what Mark Twain wrote in “The Five Boons of Life”? caption would you give this photo to reveal what Twain is
thinking?
2. What does Twain mean by saying in the last line: “What not even 2. Knowing that Twain buried three of his children,
you have deserved: the wanton insult of Old Age”? what did he mean when he quotes the fairy concerning
the “gift” of Death that: “I gave it to a mother’s pet, a
little child. It was ignorant, but trusted me, asking me to
choose for it. You did not ask me to choose”?

Research
Questions Olivia Clemens, 1845-1904
1. Read a good biography of Mark
Twain (Ron Powers wrote a good
one!), and identify periods of his life
that seem to match the consequences
of each choice the narrator makes in
“The Five Boons of Life.”
If you are interested in finding out more about
the museum and its educational programs, go
Jean Clemens, 1880-1909
to www.marktwainhouse.org
Langdon Clemens, 1870-1872