Is he living or is he dead

I enjoyed reading this story from the first lines because Mark Twain wanted to reveal a secret of some people. The action took place in the Reviera in 1892. The story changes from Mark’s point of view to Smith. The story was told from Mr. Smith. Mark used “Smith” as a fake name to hide the men’s real identity. In this story four starving artists were trying desperately to think of a way to make living when nobody bought their pictures. The narrator is one of these artists. He listed two other artists (Claude Fiere and Carl Boulanger) who were in this predicament. They all could hardly make two ends meet. They often lived on cabbage; they believed that only dead painters got all the fame, so if one of them was to die, everyone would want their paintings. Putting their head together, they decided to achieve fame and make money by “making” Millet the artist who would “die”. This thought became the inspiration for their deception. They all painted a lot of pictures, sketches as students of famous Millet who had his own cipher. The other 3 gave out that Millet was dying when they tried to sell his paintings. They prepared the public to the sad end. It took them about 6 weeks to glorify him in newspaper and then made a great funeral and carried the coffin together. Their trickery worked. They all became respected and rich. Millet didn’t really die; he changed his name and vanished. He became T. Magnon, a rich silk manufacturer from Lyons.

Mr. Smith draws Twain attention to the man who is coming out of the hotel. The title of the story is symbolic. I think it is a question to the readers. Millet, having become famous as an artist, is dead. Being alive, he has turned into another man. He looks sad and dreamy. I think that he never keeps in touch with his former friends. He is engaged in another activity, far from art. I sympathize with all the characters in this story.