Roughing It · Chapter
XV explained
The narrator recounts a night spent in Salt Lake City among Gentiles, listening to thrilling and gruesome tales of violence against non-Mormons, including stories about Burton, Bill Hickman, and Porter Rockwell.
What happens
The narrator recounts a night spent in Salt Lake City among Gentiles, listening to thrilling and gruesome tales of violence against non-Mormons, including stories about Burton, Bill Hickman, and Porter Rockwell. The conversation then turns to polygamy, with a Gentile named Johnson offering a highly embellished and comedic account of Brigham Young's domestic life, including the chaos of managing dozens of wives and children, the demand for breastpins, and the absurdities of a large plural marriage household.
Themes in this chapter
Humor and Exaggeration
Johnson's account of Brigham Young's domestic life is a prime example of Twain's use of tall-tale humor and hyperbole to satirize polygamy.
Violence and Desperadoism
The opening tales of assassinations and killings by Destroying Angels highlight the violent reputation of Mormon enforcers in the region.
The Absurdity of Pretension
The absurdity of Brigham Young's situation—managing dozens of wives and children—is used to mock the pretensions of polygamous authority.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
The narrator is the listener and observer, recounting the evening's tales and Johnson's stories.
- Brigham Young
Brigham Young is the central figure in Johnson's stories, depicted as overwhelmed by his many wives and children.
- Baldy Johnson
Johnson is the Gentile who tells the exaggerated and humorous stories about Brigham Young's household.
Key passages
“It is a luscious country for thrilling evening stories about assassinations of intractable Gentiles.”
The region is rich with exciting tales of killing non-Mormons who resist.
Sets the tone for the violent stories that follow.
“And how the pert young thing of eleven will chance to be the favorite wife and her own venerable grandmother have to rank away down toward D 4 in their mutual husband’s esteem, and have to sleep in the kitchen, as like as not.”
A young girl of eleven might become the favorite wife while her grandmother is treated as lowly and made to sleep in the kitchen.
Highlights the absurd and degrading hierarchy within polygamous families.
“I thought I would know the little cub again but I don’t.”
I thought I would recognize that child again, but I can't.
Brigham Young's humorous inability to identify his own child among many.
“Ten or eleven wives is all you need—never go over it.”
You only need ten or eleven wives—never have more than that.
The punchline of Johnson's story, satirizing the excesses of polygamy.