"The War Prayer" and "To the Person Sitting in Darkness"

Among many other controversial views, Mark Twain is well known for holding very strong views against Western imperialism. He often expressed his contempt for such practices through satire, a tactic of which he was a master. Two of Twain's more notable works condemning imperialism are "The War Prayer" and "To the Person Sitting in Darkness." "The War Prayer" details a church service wherein the attendees pray for success in battle. As the prayer progresses, the speaker describes increasingly violent and grotesque things, all the while keeping a cheerful and pious tone. The work leads the reader to ponder the implications of asking a holy, benevolent God for aid in war. "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" is an essay that sarcastically censures America's involvement in China and the Philippines, the Boer War, and imperialism in general. The piece refers to foreign invasion as a Game, and names certain political figures such as William McKinley and Joseph Chamberlain as masters of the Game. Twain describes war crimes and atrocities in a flippant, matter-of-fact tone that leads one to reflect on how terrible our actions in less developed countries actually were.

--Wald der  Faul