The gist of Mark Twain's A Day in the Husband's Spending Book

One page in Husband's Expenditure List is a short story written by Mark Twain, a famous American writer, with four intriguing features.

First, the text tells and the plot is complete. Since short stories are novels, they must follow the requirements of the plot of the novel. This article starts with the fact that "husband" spent money to recruit a young female typist. Soon, the "husband" became interested in typists and his feelings developed rapidly. First, I took the initiative to give her an advance salary a week in advance, and then I bought flowers for him. I paid great attention to it, and then it developed into a dinner with young typists. However, there is no impenetrable wall in the world, and the "husband's" extramarital affair was finally known by the "wife", so an emotional "war" broke out within the family, and even the old "mother-in-law" joined in to help her daughter crusade against the "son-in-law" who did not devote herself to feelings. The embattled husband had to make gifts for his wife and mother-in-law-buy them clothes to calm the family crisis. At the end of the story, the "husband" hired a middle-aged female typist. Simple words are derived into a story in the reader's mind, with a complete beginning, development, climax and ending.

Second, the theme is profound. Although a page in Husband's Expenditure Bill is a simple bill, it reflects the social situation and human feelings under the influence of money in capitalist society. The "peach storm" of the husband's family is just a common farce in western society, but it reveals the influence of money everywhere. Money can make a young woman be seduced by a married man and fall in love: money can also relieve the angry "wife" and "mother-in-law" to help fight. With indifferent and expressionless words, the author mercilessly exposed the true face of the morbid life enslaved by money under the veil of warmth in capitalist society.

Third, the imagination is broad. The article lists seven expenses, but does not specifically record each item, leaving readers with a broad imagination. As usual, in western society, it is the "wife" who knows that the "husband" will only accompany the young typist to have dinner, and will not be furious, but the "wife" is furious and turned upside down, and even the "mother-in-law" comes to criticize. Why does the "madam" make a scene, and why does the "mother-in-law" demand sin? The reason is, of course, that the behavior of "husband" is not limited to eating. In this case, to clean up the mess, the husband can only bow his head, humbly apologize, and use his usual tricks to deal with women to buy clothes for his wife and mother-in-law and beg for forgiveness.

Between "having dinner with her" and "buying clothes for my wife", as well as other items in the bill, there is a broad space for readers to imagine. These imagination spaces enhance readers' participation in reading and make readers feel the pleasure of secondary creation in reading.

Fourth, skillfully use nursing techniques. In the article "Dinner with her", she is used to replace and take care of the female typist in the previous article, which reveals that the relationship between husband and young female typist has reached a new height. Because of this concern, the amount of information contained between two names has increased, which makes readers think. The sentences echoed at the beginning and end of this article are almost the same, but the difference lies in the middle age that seems to be inadvertently pointed out at the end of the article, which reminds people of the helplessness of the husband under the pressure of his wife and mother-in-law, taking into account the development and climax of the beginning and plot. This kind of intention makes the whole article natural, and almost no traces of artificial axes can be seen, reaching the highest level of art.

Mark Twain, a famous American writer and speaker.

Mark Twain created a large number of works in his life, involving novels, plays, essays, poems and other aspects. In content, his works criticize unreasonable phenomena or ugliness of human nature, and express the writer's strong sense of justice and care for ordinary people as a compositor and sailor. Stylistically, both experts and ordinary readers believe that humor and satire are his writing characteristics.