The Californian's Tale Analysis & Summary

This is the second short story by Mark Twain that I analyzed. Like the previous story, there are not many characters in this story. Based on what I read here, there is only the narrator who tells the story, Henry the main character, Henry's wife, Tom, and two minor characters, Joe and Charley.. (LitCharts, 2024)

The characters in this story are also not many, Mark only uses the closest people to the main character to be extras. In addition, I did not find any antagonistic roles in this story. All are good, and accept the presence of the narrator when visiting their cottage. Because this supporting role is what makes the main character have a protagonist nature. In addition, at the end of the story Henry's friends always have a party at his house just to save Henry from the pain of his past, and it is a solidarity in life that may be very rare in today's society.

For me, this storyline is a bit confusing, yes, the language used by the author is also quite difficult to understand, different from the previous story. So I need to read The Californian's Tale more often, and also more repetitions of the previous story so that it can be understood more deeply.

The story begins with the narrator who is in Stanislaus (a tributary of the River in California) looking for gold. He walks all day while carrying a hoe and a trumpet but never succeeds. In this story it is mentioned that Stanislaus is a beautiful area because it is forested, cool, and crowded, so the narrator always remembers it as a beautiful area. However, over time the people there began to disappear and the area became a remote land with only a few small houses inhabited.

When he took an evening walk through the area and it was already evening he found a pile of people and immediately felt an incomparable spirit and gratitude. The person was Henry, he was a middle-aged man of forty-five years old. Henry stood in front of the door of a small house that looked neat and decorated with roses, the house was very different from the houses around it. So that it became a pleasure for the sight of the narrator who was sick.

Then after meeting in the yard, Henry took the narrator around his house and asked him to feel like his own home. How surprised the narrator was when he saw the condition of Henry's house which was arranged so neatly, he had been suspicious of the condition of Henry's house, because he thought a small hut like that inside was just a land and also simple items made of wood.

Not long after, a guest named Tom came to ask about Henry's wife, and Henry told him that his wife would return home on Saturday. Tom cried because he hoped his wife would return sooner, their other friend, Joe, visited them too and expressed the same dissatisfaction for not being able to meet her.

When the day comes, which is Saturday. Henry starts to get nervous about his wife coming home, and he keeps asking the narrator if everything will be okay? Charley comes to the house to calm Henry down and tells him to stop worrying about his wife and start finishing the decorations to welcome his wife.

As they finished celebrating, Joe and Tom arrived before the party had even started. The men started drinking, Henry's three friends made sure that he drank too, but he kept looking out at the road, hoping that his wife would return. The men kept making him drink, while he started to feel nauseous from worrying about his wife, and asked them to help him lie down. Almost asleep and starting to mumble, he imagined hearing the sound of horses' hooves, when his friends told him that his wife would be here in 30 minutes.

Henry is sleeping when his friends start to leave, and I think this is the peak or plot twist of this story, you will be surprised when you find out the truth.

The narrator asks Henry's friends to stay because if Henry's wife comes she won't recognize him because he's a stranger. His friends then tell him that his wife has been dead for nineteen years and Henry has been insane since then.

Sure enough my guess about Henry's wife who had passed away, for me this plot was quite easy to guess because it was spread in other stories, or maybe it was just my imagination. And amazingly, they (Henry's friends) always did this every year for nineteen years just to save him from the sadness and pain caused to Henry by his wife's departure. (Friends of Words, 2020)

The setting of this story is in the Stanislaus River area in California. As mentioned in the story, this river has a cool and beautiful atmosphere because the surrounding area of the river is a pristine forest. This can also affect the characters in this story. For example, Henry has good friends like Tom, Joe, and Charley who always hold parties so that Henry does not feel pain because of his past. In addition, because the Stanislaus area is a rather quiet area and also far from big cities, that's why Henry's wife was kidnapped by the Indians and never returned home aka died.

Because this story uses the narrator's point of view, we can feel it directly and as if we are in the story as the narrator. Yes, although it is a bit confusing and quite difficult to understand, with various background research and repeated reading, I can finally feel the vibes. In this story, there is a conflict experienced by Tom's friends who are worried about the condition of his wife who will come home or not, and also their loyalty to always be there at all times to take care of Henry.

So, from this story we can learn that no matter how difficult our life is, never give up for any reason, because the characters in this story only live in remote areas that have not even been touched by many people and live in small houses. They are also described as adventurers, which is they like to get out of their comfort zone to maintain their lives to be better. We must also be enthusiastic in working, because it has been exemplified by the narrator who always looks for gold but always fails.

In conclusion, The Californian's Tale can convey a message to the reader clearly through its tough characters who also have a high social spirit, which is proven by the narrator who never tires of looking for a living (gold), sincere love and affection between husband and wife, and also the very strong solidarity of friendship proven by Henry and his friends. 

The conflicts that arise are also quite related to the social conditions around us, and are easy to resolve. The setting of the place in this story also greatly influences the story, with the lives of people in remote areas near the River, even untouched by many humans, they can survive with all the obstacles that exist.