27 pages • 54 minutes read
Mark TwainA True Story
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1874A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Aunt Rachel
Content Warning: This section references racism and enslavement.
Aunt Rachel is the protagonist of “A True Story,” most of which unfolds in the first person from her point of view. However, the short story opens with Misto C’s perspective on her. He mentions that she sits “respectfully” below the level of Misto C and his family and that she is “of mighty frame and stature” (591); he also describes her as a “cheerful, hearty soul” (591). With the exception of the physical description, this direct characterization proves to be inaccurate; Aunt Rachel is neither docile nor carefree, and Misto C’s perceptions of her as such reveal his own racial biases.
Aunt Rachel is the primary vehicle for the story’s exploration of Black Women Defying Racism and Sexism, and through her narration of her life story, a more rounded picture of her emerges. Aunt Rachel is a caring mother, as shown by her threatening to kill the enslavers who want to sell her young son Henry. Her reflections on her mother suggest she was a loving and dutiful daughter; certainly, she looks up to her mother, channeling her strength by using her favorite phrase and hands-on-hips stance to command attention and respect. However, she is also a dutiful servant who takes pride in her work, as shown by her excitement about cooking for the Union soldiers who take over the Confederate general’s home. This element of her characterization is ambiguous, potentially reflecting gratitude towards people she views as her liberators; alternatively, she may simply take a pragmatic view of the options available to her. Her seeming contentment with serving others, if not as an enslaved person, may also be an appeal to the era’s racist stereotypes. Her appellation as “Aunt,” though a historical reality, is also deeply intertwined with racism. “Aunt” and “Uncle” were titles given to older enslaved people in lieu of the more respectful “Mrs.” or “Mr.”
When reunited with her son Henry, Aunt Rachel thanks God for the occurrence, suggesting she is religious. Aunt Rachel is also a natural and dramatic storyteller. As she reaches her narrative’s climax, she uses visual cues to help paint the scene, citing Misto C’s foot as reference for the oven and his face as a stand-in for her own son.
Misto C
Mark Twain offers little direct characterization of Misto C. Misto C is a man of status, owning a farmhouse with a servant. His implicit assurance of his own authority and judgment emerges through his first-person narration and his descriptions of Aunt Rachel. In talking about her, Misto C’s tone is thoughtful and curious; he is not willfully prejudiced against her, but he has never questioned his assumptions. His question is what drives the narrative, eliciting Aunt Rachel’s story and sparking his own minor character arc that develops The Possibility of Human Connection. When Aunt Rachel asks Misto C if he is “earnest” about wanting to know her story, Misto C is taken aback. The response, coupled with her speech and mannerisms in the moment, forces him to consider his bias in assuming that Aunt Rachel has not had any trouble. This ability to recognize his own misconceptions implies that Misto C has room to grow, aligning him with the readers whose attitudes towards Black Americans Twain hopes to change.
Misto C is largely absent after Aunt Rachel takes over the narration, but when Aunt Rachel describes her own family, she likens it to Misto C’s own family. She says that her husband was loving and kind, “as kind as [Misto C] is to [his] own wife” (591). She also says the same thing about his treatment of his children. While this could be flattery on the part of a servant, it would be out of step with the generally confessional tone of the narrative. The framing of Misto C as a loving husband and father in any case plays an important narrative role by eliciting the readers’ sympathy. That Misto C is basically a decent, considerate man encourages readers to examine their own misconceptions; like Misto C, they may be “good” people who nevertheless harbor prejudices.
Henry
Aunt Rachel has a husband and seven children, yet the only named family member is Henry. Henry first appears in an anecdote about Aunt Rachel’s mother patching him up when he tore his wrists and hurt his head, leaving scars that would help Aunt Rachel identify him 13 years later. Henry is described as “always so good” by his mother when he promises her that he’ll buy her freedom (592); he is only a little boy at the time, but he is devoted to his mother’s well-being and already trying to take on the traditionally male role of protector. However, Henry and his mother are separated while he is still a child, and Henry grows up to escape slavery and become a barber in the North. When the war starts, Henry shows his bravery, conviction, and loyalty by joining the army to find his mother. He succeeds, but when Aunt Rachel repeats the phrase that Henry knows so well, Henry takes the night to compose himself before revealing himself to his mother. Thirteen years in the making, this moment means the world to Henry and Aunt Rachel, and Henry needs the time to think over and cherish it.
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By Mark Twain
