The Invalid's Story

While the first-person narrator states in the first paragraph of “The Invalid’s Story” that the tale is “the actual truth” (Paragraph 1), the story is in fact a tall tale—specifically, an example of the “frontier” humor that the author so frequently employed. Mark Twain scholar John H. Davis notes that the word “invalid” in the title can be read two ways: This is the story of a man who loses his health, and it is also a story that purports to be real but is in fact invalid. The pun on “invalid” allows readers to see that the characters’ interpretation of the story’s events is invalid, whereas Twain’s use of dramatic irony creates both tension and humor. In turn, this highlights the contrast between an absurdly humorous situation and the story’s more serious underlying themes.

Twain’s critique of Christianity in the story comes from his use of symbolism. In the story, the dead body of John B. Hackett supposedly travels toward his father, Deacon Levi Hackett—symbolically a heavenly father, as suggested by his name or title “Deacon”—in Bethlehem, Wisconsin, alluding to the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem, Judea.