Which to Choose: Mark Twain’s Children’s Short Story, ‘The Five Boons of Life’

Fame can cause envy and detraction. "Fame," 1889, by Luc-Olivier Merson. (Public Domain)

Throughout our lives, we desire many different gifts but rarely desire death. We come to fear our end and so seek what we think are better gifts, rather than face what is the end of all mortals.

Yet, in his short story, “The Five Boons of Life,” Mark Twain focuses on how we should see death, not as the end of our blessings but as a blessing in and of itself. Twain shows that, too often, we choose the wrong gifts for the wrong reasons, avoiding death all the while.

A Fairy Visits

A good fairy visits a youngster, and she carries a basket full of boons, or desirable gifts: Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure, and Death. She tells the youth: “Take one, leave the others. And be wary, choose wisely; ... for only one of them is valuable.”

The boy immediately chooses Pleasure. The fairy sadly grants him this wish and leaves him to learn how much help Pleasure will bring him. The boy soon discovers that this gift is fleeting and he realizes that he wasted his time.

The fairy again visits the youth, who has grown to manhood, and offers him the remaining four gifts. She warns him to choose wisely, for “time is flying, and only one of them is precious.”

After pondering for a good while, he finally chooses Love. With tears in her eyes, the fairy grants him this wish and leaves.

The young man soon finds himself alone, older, and without his loved ones, having lost them to Death. He curses Love and wishes he had not chosen it.

A third time, the good fairy visits the man. She trusts that, through experience, he will choose the right blessing from the remaining three. This time he chooses Fame.

But this gift also proves to be flawed. He discovers that when his name is spoken throughout the land, his reputation is soon followed by “envy; then detraction; then calumny; then hate; then persecution. Then derision, which is the beginning of the end. And last of all comes pity, which is the funeral for fame.” He regrets his choice.

Two Choices Left

Once again, the fairy returns, hoping the man will finally choose correctly. But he still pursues worldly pleasures. With only Death and Wealth left, he exclaims: “Wealth—which is power! How blind I was! [...] Now, at last, life will be worth the living.”

This gift is just as fleeting and painful as the previous gifts. The man is left mocked, deceived, and grieving.

Through his story, Twain shows the true value of Death. It is the gift that lifts us beyond our mortal bounds and frees us from the sorrows and pain of this world.

Twain maps out the consistent folly that has plagued human nature since the beginning. Yet he shows a solution. As recounted by Edward Abbey in “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness,” Twain says: “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”

When we pursue idle gifts, we are not prepared to live or die. But, if we focus on living good, virtuous, helpful lives, we will be prepared and will no longer fear death.

Let us therefore live so that, when we join hands with Death, we leave with the peace that accompanies the end of a well-lived and meaningful life.